PROGRESS
California will offer electrification cash instead of some gas-line replacements.
A pipe budget can become a heat pump.
SOURCECalifornia Legislature / AB 2313
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ALL THE SLOP
Every serving. No expiration date. Page 2 of 5.
PROGRESS
Hungary is reusing fish-farm water on drought-hit land.
Post-harvest pond water is getting a second job on farms and wetlands.
SOURCEReuters
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PROGRESS
Teenagers are unplastifying 400+ schools.
A school challenge has engaged 3,500+ young people in 23 countries to redesign everyday plastic use.
SOURCEUnplastify / Reasons to Be Cheerful
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PROGRESS
Old buildings made room for 21,934 homes.
Nine hundred thirty-nine completed rehabilitations turned underused historic buildings back into homes, businesses, workplaces and community spaces while supporting an estimated 163,000 jobs.
SOURCENational Park Service
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NATURE
Togo’s cotton yields rose from 570 kg to over a tonne per hectare.
The national average rose above one tonne per hectare in 2025–26; some farmer-field-school groups reached 1.4 to 2 tonnes while cutting pest treatments.
SOURCEBird Story Agency via AllAfrica
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PROGRESS
Australian homes installed 276,011 batteries in six months.
Battery installations jumped 52% from the previous half-year while households added a record 1,894 MW of rooftop solar.
SOURCERenewEconomy / Clean Energy Council
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ANIMALS
Georgia counted a record 4,292 loggerhead nests.
The 2026 count was the highest in Georgia’s statewide record. The long-run nesting trend has risen about 4% a year since the early 1990s.
SOURCEThe Current / Georgia DNR
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ANIMALS
Eight orangutans were moved from fire-threatened forest to a protected home.
Three mother-and-young pairs and two adolescent males passed health checks before being released into a protected 23,000-hectare forest.
SOURCEANTARA News / YIARI
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PROGRESS
Texas’ grid had a boring summer.
Demand broke records. The emergency alerts did not arrive. Since 2023, Texas added 19.5 GW of solar and 16 GW of battery storage.
SOURCEU.S. Energy Information Administration / ERCOT
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PROGRESS
Hot rock is now feeding a commercial power grid.
The first 33-megawatt block is earning revenue under a power-purchase agreement. Two more blocks are due to complete the 100-megawatt first phase.
SOURCEFervo Energy
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PROGRESS
10 NYC food carts just went quiet.
A six-month pilot will replace gasoline generators with batteries, cutting fumes and noise while gathering real-world data for thousands of street vendors.
SOURCENYC Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice
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PROGRESS
California legalized plug-in balcony solar.
SB 868 treats certified portable solar more like a household appliance: utilities may require a simple online registration, but not prior approval.
SOURCECalifornia Legislative Information — SB 868
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NATURE
$18 million will help ranchers keep great plains grassland intact.
The fund starts with $9 million from Walmart Foundation and $9 million in aligned investment from McDonald’s USA and suppliers.
SOURCENational Fish and Wildlife Foundation
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ANIMALS
Thailand counted 210 wild tigers.
The national estimate is up from 148–189 in 2022. A monitored tigress has raised three litters—nine cubs—and one daughter is already breeding.
SOURCEWorld Wildlife Fund
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NATURE
Of 285 large UK rewilding projects, one was hit by fire this year.
The advocacy-group analysis also found burned areas from 2016–2026 were concentrated in acid grassland, heather, bog and other simplified landscapes rather than restored habitat.
SOURCERewilding Britain
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PROGRESS
Australia’s high court made coal planners account for overseas emissions.
The 3–2 ruling invalidated an expansion approval after the planning commission focused on only 2% of projected emissions and did not consider conditions for the other 98%.
SOURCEHigh Court of Australia
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ANIMALS
Two Great Indian Bustards are back in the wild.
Two captive-bred males are now walking free in the Thar Desert. The release is a test, not a declaration of recovery.
SOURCEPress Information Bureau of India / Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
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ANIMALS
One of North America’s tiniest mammals just got a third new population.
More than 500 pocket mice have been released over 20 years. North San Mateo is now the third reintroduced population.
SOURCESan Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
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NATURE
Healthy reef sounds drew more coral and fish larvae.
Underwater playback helped young corals and fish find experimental reef structures in field trials off Oʻahu.
SOURCEScripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego / Communications Biology / Scientific Reports
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ANIMALS
A new framework makes moving endangered species less of a guess.
More than 250 practitioners and community members helped shape a decision process for high-stakes conservation moves.
SOURCEConservation Science and Practice / University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa / U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
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NATURE
40,000 native sedges started repairing a Yosemite meadow.
Three years in, the soil is improving. Full recovery may still take 25 to 50 years.
SOURCEColorado State University / JGR Biogeosciences
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NATURE
Conservation’s best outliers share three things.
Local knowledge. Shared decisions. Management that learns.
SOURCEUniversity of Sydney / Nature Ecology & Evolution
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ANIMALS
They released 11,000 giant insects. Now the population is increasing.
Fourth- and fifth-generation wētāpunga are now breeding without help on two islands.
SOURCENew Zealand Journal of Zoology / Department of Conservation / Auckland Zoo
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ANIMALS
Two of the world’s rarest rhinos are pregnant.
Ratu and Delilah are both due in May 2027.
SOURCEInternational Rhino Foundation / Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia
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