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Welcome to the week.
We have another new podcast episode for you this week, this time with Ferris Jabr, author of Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life.
It’s a fascinating conversation (and book!) about shifting our understanding of Earth, and our relationship to it. Listen here!
Ok, news time.
This week:
⚡Clean energy megaprojects
🤰Heat protections for pregnant workers
🍖Lab-grown meat for pet food
💻Internet shut downs
And more
Stay cool,
— Willow
This is science for people who give a shit.
Every week, we help {{active_subscriber_count}}+ humans understand and unfuck the rapidly changing world around us. It feels great, and we’d love for you to join us.
🙋♀️ Vote!
Do you support much stricter sugar regulations in the US?
Last week, we asked: How often do you consider sustainability when purchasing clothing?
You said:
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Always (33%)
“It's very hard to do this, but I at least always try to buy used or at least from a company that claims sustainability.”
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Sometimes (38%)
“I generally prefer thrifting, and given a choice will opt for natural fibers, but I don’t invest time in checking providers as I assume the supply chain is hopeless ”
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Rarely (16%)
“While I do buy mass produced clothing, I do try to avoid poorly made items as I want something that will last for years. I don’t buy clothing that often and tend to keep and wear what I do have. I don’t want something that will fall apart after a few wears. ”
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Never (13%)
“I never thought about it. I am usually shopping for an outfit for an event. That is what’s on my mind.”
New Shit Giver Dave wants to help solve “cancer and food waste“.
Let’s do it!
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⚡️ Climate change:
Gas prices and utility incentives are to blame for rising power bills in the US — not clean energy
The explosion of clean energy capacity is partly due to the rise of “clean energy megaprojects”, meaning clean energy projects are many times bigger than they were a few years ago from solar to wind to battery storage
American investment funds are indirectly invested in the Russian gas industry
🌎 Much of the funding for climate research stays in the Global North, despite the Global South facing more severe impacts, including on mental health
To scale climate solutions, a new model of collaboration may be necessary between climate tech founders and capital providers, perhaps following a similar approach as the biotech industry
🦠 Health & Bio:
🌎 The R21 vaccine is nearly as cost-effective as bed nets as an intervention for malaria, further justifying the need to accelerate funding and distribution
New regulations for heat safety could take years to be implemented, but if you’re pregnant, you’re already protected under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act
Vaccinated people are at a much lower risk of developing long Covid than unvaccinated people (in case you needed a reminder to keep up with your vaccinations)
Especially due to the myriad of long-term health effects associated with long COVID, which can affect people of all ages and backgrounds, even if they had a mild initial infection
Climate change, low wages, and high food prices are causing food insecurity to rise among farmworkers
💦 Food & Water:
At this point you’ve heard of PFAs, and now we’re moving down the alphabet to another “forever chemical”, TFA, which is in drinking water, rainwater, and groundwater
Genetic research on kelp could help save kelp forests, and the kelp farming industry
🌍 Britain has given the go-ahead to use lab-grown meat in pet food
The federal government is the biggest buyer of consumer goods in the world, and they’ve just announced a plan to phase out single-use plastics
Microplastics and other chemicals are shed from tires, and can eventually make their way into crops (and onto our plates)
👩💻 Beep Boop:
Major AI companies used subtitles from thousands of YouTube videos to train AI models, without the creators knowledge or consent
Big Tech is teaming up to join the Coalition for Secure AI as a means to share information on making AI safer
🌏 Bangladesh has shut down the internet as a means to control escalating conflict with student protesters
Generative AI is here to stay, but has likely been over-hyped and has over-promised on what it can actually deliver
Explicitly accounting for race in statistical models could be a way to eliminate proxy discrimination
🌎 = Global news
It’s time we all get on the same page 👇
Last week’s most popular Action Step was finding jobs in water protection with this list from the Water Footprint Calculator.
Donate to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, which provides funding for cutting-edge cancer research and travel for families with sick kids.
Volunteer to join the WISDOM study to help advance breast cancer research (you can enroll even if you haven’t had breast cancer).
🌎 Get educated about creating better models for global health by taking the Reimagining Global Health course from Dr. Madhukar Pai (the slides are now available to everyone!)
Be heard about taking action to mitigate climate-related health threats for Indigenous communities and ask your representative to support the Tribal Climate Health Assurance Act.
🌏 Invest in regenerating Earth’s natural capital with ReGen.
🌎 = Global Action Step
Together With Bookshop
Want to read what the people working on the frontlines of the future are reading?
Every week, I ask our podcast guest, "What’s a book you’ve read this year that’s opened your mind to a topic you haven’t considered before, or that’s changed your thinking in some way?"
And every week, we add their picks to a list on Bookshop, where every purchase on the site financially supports independent bookstores.
Want an ad-free experience? Become a Member!
How did our planet come to life? Is it alive? And where are we as part of that?
Those are today's big questions and my guest is Ferris Jabr.
His new book, Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life, is one of the most compelling, beautiful, timely, and important reads I've ever got to underline throughout.
Ferris is a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and Scientific American. He has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper's, National Geographic, Wired, Outside, Lapham's Quarterly, McSweeney's, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other wonderful publications.
I've been on a bit of a bender lately. I'm getting older. I've got kids that are getting older quickly. Work continues. Everything keeps changing and staying the same. I'm trying to contextualize for myself, for this work, for you all, and for my kids, time and place and presence and relationships.
How much time do we each have here? Do we as a species have here? Who do we spend it with? How do we spend it? How precious is it to each of us? Does it become more so, less so? How should we use our time and experience, and how can we help?
📖 Prefer to read? Get the transcript here
▶ Or watch the full episode on YouTube
One step closer to fast-charging, high-capacity, inexpensive batteries
🤝 Thanks for reading. Here’s how we can help you directly:
☎️ Work with Quinn 1:1 (slots are extremely limited) - book time to talk climate strategy, investing, or anything else.
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