Days are long, months are short

Hey fam,

Believe it or not, March is (pretty much) over.

In an effort to establish these daily good news roundups as more of a "show", I went back to check how many episodes I've made in season 3 (which I'm considered the content made in 2025). Happy to report we're already through 59 episodes of the good news walk show! And even better, almost every episode has multiple stories and community wins from all of you in it.

We're spreading so many stories of progress, providing inspiration, supporting each other, and planting the seeds for action... and we're doing it together.

This week we cover families getting free rooftop solar installations, the largest cosmic map ever made of billions of galaxies, the transformation of Paris away from cars, a real-life hero saving pink river dolphins, and so much more.

Have an amazing weekend and end to your March!

Friday, March 21

👑 Justice has come to the blobfish which was declared the world’s ugliest fish a decade ago but had a major comeback to just win New Zealand’s ‘Fish of the Year’, a contest from the Mountain to Sea conservation organization raising awareness and support for protecting marine ecosystems (Lianne Kolirin|CNN, Koh Ewe|BBC)

🌞 150 income-qualified families are getting free solar installed on their roofs which will save them an estimated $500 a year on electricity bills thanks to the Solar for All program by the DC Sustainable Energy Utility aimed at helping 100,000 low-income households lower energy bills by 50% (DCSEU)

🦎 For the past 13 years, the endangered and slimy Jefferson salamander has been safely migrating across a road near Toronto Canada that shuts down in March, letting these little critters with blue flecks move from their underground forest home to breeding ponds for mating and laying eggs without having to worry about deadly traffic (Sydney Page|Washpo)

🪴 Milo (from our community) started a balcony garden with fresh produce and flowers for bees.

Monday, March 24

🛰️ Billions of galaxies are being captured in the largest cosmic atlas ever made to try and understand dark matter and dark energy which can be measured but not seen, with the Euclid Space Telescope just releasing its first batch of observations containing an almost unbelievable 26 million individual galaxies, really reminding us of our place in the universe (ESA)

🔥 A little closer to home, the first satellite in a constellation of 50 specifically designed to detect wildfires has entered Earth’s orbit, launched by nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance to detect fires as small as 25 square meters with high resolution updates to help firefighters make the best possible decisions (Abhimanyu Ghoshal|New Atlas)

🦈 Endangered Caribbean reef sharks are not only photogenic but also making a great comeback in Belize thanks to a collaboration between fishers, scientists, and nonprofits agreeing together on a no-fish zone and a ban of gill nets, which has more than tripled populations of these misunderstood animals (Marco Lopez|Mongabay)

👕 Megan (from our community) has been volunteering with their local thrift shop to help clothe unhoused individuals.

Tuesday, March 25

🇫🇷 Paris is completely transforming away from an era of car dominance into an era of walkable greenery as they just voted to close 500 additional streets and 10% of the city’s parking spots and replace them with plants and bike paths, as the city and citizens recognize all the benefits that car-free travel has (Feargus O'Sullivan|Bloomberg)

🚯 Over 420,000 bags of litter have been pledged to be collected in this year’s Great British Spring Clean going until April 6th, with individuals and organizations stepping up to clean their communities, schools, and neighborhoods in what’s considered the nation’s biggest mass-action environmental campaign (Keep Britain Tidy)

🌻 The Wooly Devil sunflower was just discovered by a volunteer in the desert of Big Bend National Park which is tiny, pale, and covered in thousands of hairs that likely protect it from being eaten, adding another specimen to the most diverse family of flowering plants (Meghan Bartels|Scientific American)

🪡 Chloé Clawthorn from our community is sewing a quilt from their old memorable clothes.

Wednesday, March 26

🐬 Fernando Trujillo dedicated his entire life to protecting pink river dolphins, moving to a small Colombian town at 19 to learn from Indigenous communities and doing so much to monitor their health and reduce illegal gold mining and mercury pollution that he’s considered a dolphin that became a human to protect other dolphins (Teresa Tomassoni|Inside Climate News)

🌳 This magnificent 300-year-old beech tree, which has a hole that visitors toss peanuts into for good luck, has been voted Europe’s Tree of the Year, a contest that unites cultures, languages, and political views over a shared wonder for remarkable and unique trees with stories that remind us how amazing Earth is (Maddie Molloy|BBC)

⚡️ New Zealand is now predicted to reach a 100% renewably-powered electricity grid in the next 15 years, led by hydropower which makes up about 60% of their electricity alongside the expansion of wind, geothermal, and solar, showing this energy transition is possible when the political will exists (Davi Waterworth|Cleantechnica)

🌱 beckylongberg (from our community) has been guerrilla planting native pollinator seeds all over their neighborhood.

Thursday, March 27

🧊 An area of the Arctic never before seen by humanity was just explored for eight days, after an iceberg the size of Chicago broke away revealing an otherworldly ecosystem of giant phantom jellies with arms up to 33 feet long, huge sponges likely hundreds of years old, a new isopod yet to be classified, helmet jellyfish, and much more, further proving why we need to protect ice sheets (Schmidt Ocean Institute)

🐝 Elizabeth Hilborn has become one of the only bee veterinarians in the US, visiting hives that are having problems, diagnosing, and prescribing things like antibiotics to help keep our pollinators happy and healthy (Elizabeth Hilborn|The Guardian)

🌳 The UK just announced plans to create their first new national forest in 30 years called the Western Forest which will revitalize existing woodlands while planting an additional 20 million trees, benefitting an estimated 2.5 million people and countless wildlife (Cristen Hemingway Jaynes|Ecowatch)

📚 Ahnamè (from our community) is creating a neighborhood ingredients library to share food and reduce waste.

Bonus!

🐭 Mice appear to try and give CPR to their unconscious friends to save them...?!

🎖️ The first-ever female president of the International Olympic Committee was elected.

🍳 A slightly older story, but it's come up in several conversations this week: this genius new induction stove plugs into a normal wall outlet and has a built-in battery!

🌸 We're back to cherry blossom season.

This newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. 900,000+ people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com.