Is love in the air?
Happy Valentine's Day, fam!
You already know I love you all, and no matter how you spend this day, I hope you at least get to eat some chocolate :).
But first, let's kick things off with 25 amazing stories from this week.
From someone starting a homeless sanctuary on their own property to a 3D printed mushroom battery, otters & turtles bouncing back, beer sludge getting a new purpose, and an ancient philosophy scroll on the verge of being read after 2000 years, we have a lot of progress to cover today...
Friday, February 7 (watch here)
🌊 Hundreds of small dams are being removed in the Northeastern US to restore flowing rivers, the diversity of aquatic species within them, and surrounding habitats, as most of these dams were created to power mills that no longer exist so removals are increasing despite a complicated approval process (Lela Nargi|Yale e360)
🍄 Researchers in Switzerland 3D printed a battery made from fungi which combines two types of mushrooms to create an organic electricity-generating cell that decomposes when its power generating days are over, potentially reducing e-waste (Rupendra Brahambhatt|Interesting Engineering)
🦦 The world’s smallest otter has been seen in Nepal for the first time in 185 years, with the last confirmed local sighting of the Asian small-clawed otter in 1839, as conservationists work to add protections into their action plan for these animals now that they’re confirmed (Abhaya Raj Joshi|Mongabay)
🐈 And today’s community win comes from ladyamber1720 who rescued a stray cat from the freezing cold and plans to one day open a shelter.
Monday, February 10 (watch here)
🏫 Empty public schools that have closed down are getting repurposed into thriving “opportunity hubs” that provide space for dozens of nonprofits providing after school programming, job training, and healthcare services for tens of thousands of people, using these vacant spaces to uplift local communities (Kamrin Baker|GoodGoodGood)
🐸 An emergency conservation mission to save a frog species from a national park in Chile was successful, since the frogs that were first discovered by Darwin in 1834 were threatened by a fast-moving fungus, yet dozens survived the trip to a zoo in London and already gave birth to 33 healthy froglets (Ian Sample|The Guardian)
🚌 Four years after Kansas City became the largest US city to offer free public transportation, data shows that community health has improved, access to jobs has increased, and financial stress has decreased for low-income residents, making the case for expansion to other areas (Elizabeth Hewitt|Reasons to be Cheerful)
🌱 And today’s community win comes from Shannon who built their own greenhouse out of salvage yard windows to grow veggies.
Tuesday, February 11 (watch here)
🐢 A 100-year-old hero named Diego is largely responsible for the survival of the Española Giant Tortoise species which had just 15 remaining in the wild in the 1960s yet Diego fathered about 900 babies, helping bring the population to over 3,000 and is now living out his remaining days in happy retirement (The Happy Broadcast, Galápagos Conservancy)
🌱 A new study says that the pledges from 115 countries to restore 1.5 billion acres of land would cost only about a quarter of one percent of global annual GDP over the next decade and has big financial returns, essentially meaning that nature restoration is very possible and beneficial once we can gain the collective political will (Liz Kimbrough|Mongabay)
🌞 To add one gigawatt of solar power to the world, which is enough to power about 200,000 US homes, it took a full year in 2004, but 20 years later it takes just about a day, showing the incredible acceleration of this clean power source largely thanks to how cheap it’s become (Charlie Giattino|Our World in Data)
🍲 And today’s community win comes from bradymalone06 who handed out soup to people experiencing homelessness in their area.
Wednesday, February 12 (watch here)
👮 For the first time, an ad agency was officially reported for breaking international business guidelines since WPP has hundreds of contracts promoting the world’s worst polluters (that I’ve protested before) which should force advertisers to be more accountable with their client choices. (Badvertising)
🦜 Over 20,000 animals were rescued in a massive wildlife trafficking crackdown called Operation Thunder which was a coordinated effort by 138 countries to dismantle crime networks and save threatened and protected species including birds, turtles, big cats, and pangolins which will be transferred to conservation facilities (Mongabay)
🍻 Leftover sludge from the beer brewing process called spent grain is getting repurposed into a variety of uses from fabrics to baked goods, helping turn this waste product into something useful for society as global beer consumption increases (Josh Sims|BBC)
👖 And today’s community win comes from kittiekat.42 who cleaned out their closet and brought all sorts of things to a local shelter.
Thursday, February 13 (watch here)
📜 An ancient papyrus philosophy scroll charred in the Mount Vesuvius eruption in the year 79 AD was too fragile to ever be opened, but is now bafflingly close to being read thanks to powerful x-ray imaging and digital mapping, with experts confident they’ll soon be able to read it, proving that anything really is possible (Rebecca Morelle|BBC)
🐸 A road in England is closing for 6 weeks so thousands of amphibians can safely cross into their ancestral breeding grounds, with help from local volunteer patrols in an event that’s taken place every since since 2003 to help their populations remain stable (Road Minchin|Independent)
🇫🇷 Paris's river clean up looks like it's working. When they started cleaning up the River Seine ahead of the Olympics after centuries of pollution, there was some… unique backlash (💩), but signs are positive with better purification helping fish species increase from just 3 to nearly 40 today, protecting people from unsafe bacteria, and boosting biodiversity (Peter Yeung|Reasons to be Cheerful)
🏡 And today’s community win comes from Josiah Ingalls who turned his own property in Austin, Texas into an open-source homeless shelter after a public camping ban went into effect, providing a safe space for his community and guiding others to open their own shelters, and is now fighting to raise funds to keep it going.
^As I'm writing this newsletter, their website is currently disconnected. I've reached out to let them know, but in case it's still down when you're reading this, check out their Facebook page instead.
Bonus!
⚡️ California is proving that renewables are reliable.
🦡 A badger looking at graffiti won London's Natural History Museum photograph of the year out of 60,000 images.
🏈 The first super bowl ad to focus on climate action aired last weekend.
🎶 This missile was turned into a musical instrument.
💗 And since it's Valentine's Day, check out these 10 unique animal mating rituals.
Spread this breath of fresh air🪴
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Support good news & independent publishingThis newsletter was written by Jacob Simon. 800,000+ people are in our community across Instagram, TikTok, Threads, YouTube, and Bluesky. You can say hi on LinkedIn, or by emailing jacob@jacobsimonsays.com.
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