Should whales be considered people?

Hey fam,

This week, I teamed up with GoFundMe for an exciting collaboration where I got to highlight three projects from members of our community that are making the planet better!

Sheina is removing toxic pesticides from college campuses. Kylee is helping kids get access to vital medical equipment. And Olga is building and deploying air sensors in cities & forests.

All the money raised will go directly to them, so join me in helping them continue their great work!

(This was a paid partnership for social media, but as always, I wanted to include it here for y'all, and I created the fundraisers independently. If you want to learn more, watch the video explainer!)

In other good news: today we're covering the 8th nation to be fully powered by renewables, a "Global Minerals Trust" proposal, 3 high school kids inventing a better prosthetic for their friend, and much more...

Friday, June 6

🌊 542 dams were removed in Europe to let the water flow naturally once again last year per a new report, reconnecting and restoring rivers by tearing down literal barriers on waterways which are obsolete to bring ecosystems back to their former glory (Ajit Niranjan|The Guardian)

⚡️ Vatican City is now the 8th country to be completely powered by renewable energy thanks to a big agrivolatics project combining solar panels and agriculture, which is the smallest country in the world but grows the list of nations leading the way on the future of electricity (Carolyn Fortuna|Cleantechnica)

🪫 A new injection that brings used lithium-ion batteries back to life was developed by a team of researchers in an attempt to reduce e-waste, working with an AI model to try out different electrochemical reactions until finding a salt solution that can increase battery life by an additional 10,000 uses (You Xiaoying|Scientific American)

🗑️ Kayla (from our community) has been picking up at least 2 pieces of trash every time they go for a run.

Tuesday, June 10

🤝 A team of UN scientists just proposed a truly world-changing “Global Minerals Trust” transforming essential minerals from commodities to exploit and compete over into shared planetary assets, swapping injustice for a new era of global cooperation, accountability, and progress (Bobby Bascomb|Mongabay)

🌎 In a world-first, the entire continent of South America has zero new coal power plants planned, with every previously proposed plant cancelled as the cost of renewables continues to drop, making the economic and health advantages impossible to ignore (Michael Barnard|Cleantechnica)

🏞️ The 4th National Park City is now officially Breda in the Netherlands, with the idea being it’s a city within a natural park through a grassroots movement to be healthier and wilder with green spaces making up 60% of the city as they join London, Adelaide, and Chattanooga, with another 9 on the way (National Park City Foundation)

🏫 csh_jean (from our community) put out bins for college kids to donate the things they don’t want as they move out instead of tossing it away.

Wednesday, June 11

🦿 3 High Schoolers invented a better prosthetic leg for their friend Aiden after he was struggling with his current model, adding the ability to control it through brain signals with 98.67% accuracy and improving natural movement, which won a $50,000 science fair prize to help even more people like their friend (Kamrin Baker|GoodGoodGood)

🌊 20 more countries just ratified the High Seas Treaty to protect international oceans, as the UN Ocean Conference is underway in France to reach the 60 nations needed for the agreement to enter force, with just 9 left to get there (France24)

🧬 A team of scientists are aiming to identify all the unknown mysterious life in the world by pulling airborne DNA left behind like hair, skin, and saliva, known as environmental or eDNA, and trapping it in filters which can help detect species that are harder to find (Ari Daniel|NPR)

🧑‍🌾 solepaints (from our community) started an amazing Little Free Gardener’s Library with seeds, tools, pots, and books to share plants and knowledge with their neighbors

Thursday, June 12

👸 The Princess of an Island nation called Tonga who just called for the recognition of whales as legal persons, not just resources for humans but instead sentient beings who can defend their rights to life, migration, and a healthy and protected habitat in court via a human guardian (Katie Surma|Inside Climate News)

🐝 A new agrivolatic farm started up in Virginia which is using the same land to generate clean power for over 10,000 homes, while producing 400 pounds of honey from 500,000 bees, and has lambs grazing on the grass to cut mowing needs down by about half (Paige Bennett|Ecowatch)

🚫 The UK proposed an expansion on banning a harmful fishing practice called ocean bottom trawling which drags giant nets along the ocean floor, bulldozing everything in its way without regard to all the biodiversity living there, with the 18,000 square mile extension hopefully just the beginning of a wider ban (Esme Stallard|BBC)

🐢 David Gunn (from our community) has been cleaning a stream to keep their local turtles safe.

What else?

🌲 Rare trees have been kept safe inside Chinese temples for thousands of years.

🤣 Photographers: enter the comedy wildlife photo awards! (and everyone else, stay tuned... these are always amazing).

🇮🇳 A new report shows 170 million people have been lifted out of extreme poverty in India over the past decade.

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.