Even rats can break world records

Hey fam,

Happy Friday! I hope it's sunny & warm where you are in the world, and you get some time outside this weekend. It's not quite warm enough for my liking over here in Brooklyn, but I'm hoping the upcoming week brings on the Spring vibes!

In this week's edition, we're covering a plan to put solar panels on top of canals, 866 new marine species, a big climate lawsuit win, a world record-breaking rat, and a lot more...

Friday, April 4

✈️ For the first time, a fully electric airplane flew from New York to California and back again, during a six-week testing tour across 22 states through a varieties of conditions from blizzarding snow to extreme heat, with the Beta Technology CX300 validating the possibility of electric air travel (Jack Daleo|Flying)

^ note: several people online questioned if electric air travel is better if it uses batteries that require mining. This is a common misconception that's worth correcting; Fossil fuels require far more mining than any form of clean energy, batteries included. Even the "worst" clean energy mining needs are far less than the "best" fossil fuel mining.

🌞 California is moving forward with a plan to put solar panels over existing human-made canals after a successful test and study showed that this can generate clean energy without needing more land, reduce water evaporation, and power about 2 million homes (Anne Fischer|PV Magazine)

🛤️ Paris’s abandoned railway called La Petite Ceinture is being re-greened and open to the public, adding gardens, nature trails, and rewilding along 4.5 miles of the track with another 2.5 miles set to open by next year, transforming into a sanctuary for wildlife and walkers (Hugh Tucker|The Guardian)

✋ aloergosum (from our community) is trying out a “no buy” year for new jewelry and clothes.

Monday, April 7

A new Guitar Shark, Pigmy Pipehorse, and Sea Star are 3 of the 866 new marine species just discovered in the largest-ever global mission searching for unknown marine life.

800 scientists came together to launch the collaboration called The Nippon Foundation / Nekton Ocean Census, launching 10 expeditions around the world so far, working together to find species as fast as possible since the identification process for new discoveries can take nearly 14 years.

Every new species that’s found deepens our understanding of marine ecosystems, pulling back the curtain on how life on Earth interacts so we can better protect it.

And with only about 10% of ocean life currently documented, there are millions of marine species that are a complete mystery to us, leaving so much to be learned.

Other new finds include a new octocoral found in the Maldives, a gastropod which has venomous harpoons used to catch prey which also can be repurposed for pain relief drugs, a squat lobster which has such cool coloring, and so much more.

And best of all, another 10 missions are launching this year, sure to continue finding many amazing new creatures and demystify the deep sea, so I’ll keep my eye out for more.

Tuesday, April 8

🧑‍⚖️ After a decade-long trial, a jury just ordered Big Oil giant Chevron to pay $744.6 million for damages it caused to Louisiana's wetlands by drilling wells and dumping wastewater without following the state’s law that requires sites be restored to their original condition, forcing a clean up of its mess and setting promising precedent for many more accountability lawsuits currently in motion (Jack Brook|AP)

🚉 The world’s first 3D-printed train station was assembled in Japan in just 6 hours with a handful of workers, thanks to the parts being printed a week prior from a special type of mortar and the team putting it together so fast that they didn’t even need to adjust any train times, in yet another win for 3D printing (Kiuko Notoya|NYT)

🗑️ Landlords and buildings in New York City that don’t compost are now officially getting fined in the next stage of the city’s composting law, which simply requires the separation of food and yard waste from everything else on trash day (Julian Nazario|NBC)

🫛 mallyk13 (from our community) is plating a ton of seeds to share plants and food with their family, friends, and neighbors.

Wednesday, April 9

🐀 A giant African pouched rat named Ronin just broke the world record for the most landmines detected by a rat, which is actually certified by Guinness at 124 explosives, thanks to the HeroRAT program by the nonprofit APOPO which trained Ronin and other rats to sniff out buried landmines and save tens of thousands of lives (APOPO, Guinness World Records)

⚡️ 40.9% of global electricity was generated by clean energy sources last year according to a new report that shows hydropower is the leading clean energy source while solar power continues to be the world’s fastest-growing source for the past 20 years, so shout out to our waterways and sun (Ember)

🦌 At least 28 new wildlife crossings have been built in Colorado since 2015 after studies showed they reduce collisions between large animals and vehicles by over 80%, with all sorts of animals using these bridges and tunnels while the state is saving money in the long run by avoiding repairs costs (Catrin Einhorn|NYT)

💒 _charlito19_ (from our community) recently got married and donated all the leftover food to their local fire station.

Thursday, April 10

🗺️ An open-source map is showing over 1.6 million edible plants in cities and towns around the world, with Falling Fruit expanding from a little experiment by two friends into a global database today, transforming how people see the world around them and aiming to shift city design while reducing food waste (Natasha Khullar Relph|Reasons to be Cheerful)

✌️ Finland just closed their last utility-scale coal power plant ahead of the country’s coal ban set for 2029, replacing the dirty and expensive energy source with nuclear and renewables to lower costs and clean up the air, marking the end of the coal era for the nation (Paige Bennett|Ecowatch)

🙅 A proposal to open up Indigenous territories in Brazil to mining has been removed by the Supreme Federal Court following big backlash for violating constitutional rights for Indigenous Peoples, marking a win amidst other land rights controversies that are being fought (Karla Mendes|Mongabay)

🕷️ aratastico (from our community) just did their first fieldwork as an aspiring ecologist full of birds and tiny spiders and shrubs.

Bonus!

🛸 They fermented miso in space.

🐦 5 ways for birds to avoid building collisions.

🌞 US developers have backup inventory of enough solar panels to power an estimated 8.6 million homes.

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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.