Start your week with the world’s happiest news, from forests and housing to water, wildlife and clean energy.
China’s vast tree-planting campaign is showing faster growth than expected. Since 1978, the country has planted 66 billion trees, with another 34 billion planned by 2050, as part of its “Great Green Wall” aimed at slowing the spread of the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts.
A new study found planted forests like the Great Green Wall increased their leaf area 66 percent faster than natural forests. Even when researchers compared forests of similar ages, planted ones still grew 4.6 percent faster. The research also found growth levels out when trees reach about 30 to 40 years old, with noticeable declines after age 40.
In the Brazilian Amazon, forest fires fell to a record low in 2025 after peaking in 2024. Satellite data showed 3.1 million hectares burned last year, the lowest total since records began in 1985. The drop happened alongside a decrease in deforestation, though experts warned that a possible “El Niño” this summer could disrupt that progress.
New York City has broken ground on a major affordable housing push using more than 100 city-owned sites. The project is expected to create 50,000 new affordable homes, eight months after Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed executive orders that included the Land Inventory Fast Track, described as a “multi-agency effort to identify city-controlled land that is suitable for housing.”
The city also launched the LIFT Tracker, a public map showing real-time progress on housing projects and available land across the city. Mamdani said New Yorkers are “priced out of their homes.”
In Colorado, Elizabeth Black and Chris Brown have grown more than 12,000 tree and shrub seedlings in their backyard since 2007 and given them away for free to anyone willing to plant them. They took inspiration from the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” and its message: “Plant trees — lots and lots of trees.”
Chris Hawkins, Colorado Urban Conservation Manager for The Nature Conservancy, said the effect of their work is hard to measure.
Leonardo DiCaprio has announced the Phoenix Species Project, a conservation effort aimed at recovering 100 species facing imminent extinction. The project includes mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish, invertebrates and plants, and is funded in partnership with the Bezos Earth Fund.
DiCaprio said the goal is also to protect the “anchors” of forests, wetlands and oceans.
India has sharply expanded access to tap water in rural areas. Since August 2019, the government has worked to bring reliable potable water to all 193.6 million rural households. At the start, about 32.3 million households had tap water connections. Since then, about 124.3 million more have been connected, bringing coverage to 80 percent.
New York City is also trying a different kind of climate fix in Queens, where two “sunken” basketball courts beside the New York City Housing Authority’s South Jamaica Houses can store stormwater during flash floods. The Water Square courts can each hold up to 330,000 gallons of water, about half the volume of an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The courts can also be used for events such as movie nights or farmer’s markets.
Germany hit a solar milestone in July 2026, feeding a record 12 billion kilowatt-hours of solar electricity into the public power grid in a single month. An analysis said actual solar generation was higher because on-site use is not included in grid figures. Average midday solar output topped 40,000 megawatts.
In Spokane, local bootmaker JK Boots turned its headquarters into a relief area for firefighters battling wildfires that have burned more than 10,400 acres since August 1. The company also started giving away work boots for free, replacing damaged pairs. So far, it has donated more than $25,000 worth of products.
Animal welfare also saw a notable shift in the UK. Today, 75 percent of eggs produced there come from free-range chickens, after decades in which most eggs came from hens kept in small wire cages.
Other developments this week included Belgium approving a plan to end dolphin captivity nationwide by 2037 at the latest, Nepal’s tiger population rising to 429, and Denmark reporting that electric vehicles accounted for 97 percent of new car registrations in July.
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