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This Week
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⚡️ Climate change:
🌎 Medical experts are warning that heat measures at the World Cup fall short of protecting athletes and fans from dangerous heat conditions that climate change has doubled the likelihood of since 1994. (Mongabay)
Everlane’s sale to fast fashion giant Shein proves that sustainable fashion brands can’t fix a coal-powered, chemical intensive industry without the regulations that make everyone play by the same rules. (HEATMAP)
A Minnesota utility just won approval to deploy 200 megawatts of distributed batteries across rooftops and parking lots, which could make electricity cheaper and more reliable for everyone. (Volts)
Renters in Washington and Oregon are fighting for the legal right to air conditioning as extreme heat becomes more dangerous in a region designed for a cooler climate. (HEATMAP)
🦠 Health & Bio:
Abortion bans are making miscarriage care worse, with a new national study finding patients in ban states less likely to receive the most effective treatment because the drugs are identical to those used in abortions. (The 19th)
The US is largely absent from the Ebola outbreak spreading through the DRC and Uganda, thanks to the dismantling of USAID funding, labs, and response teams that would normally contain it. (The Guardian)
Cancer immunotherapy has exploded into eight distinct treatment classes with over 2500 (!) drugs in development, and researchers are testing vaccines that could prevent cancer entirely in high-risk patients. (Ground Truths)
Scientists studying GLP-1 drugs are finding unexpected changes in brain connectivity and reward systems, raising questions about what tens of millions of people are altering in their brains. (The Washington Post)
📣 What You Can Do: Be Heard about reversing cuts to global health programs — the same infrastructure that would be stopping Ebola right now (go). Meanwhile, support 🌏 Action Against Hunger to address the global health funding gap and help deliver nutrition and treatment to children facing malnutrition in dozens of countries (go).
💦 Food & Water:
The EPA is rolling back Biden-era limits on four types of PFAS in drinking water despite acknowledging the health costs. (The New York Times)
Rising CO2 levels are stripping essential nutrients like iron, zinc, and protein from staple crops, and the harm is falling hardest on Black communities that already face higher rates of nutrient deficiency. (Capital B)
An investigation tracking Starbucks cups labeled “widely recyclable” found that not one ended up at a recycling facility, with cups travelling hundreds of miles to landfills and incinerators instead. (Beyond Plastics)
🌎 Climate disruption and the Iran war combined have devastated 85-90% of India’s Alphonso mango crop. (Reuters)
👩💻 Beep Boop:
Data centers can raise air temperatures in surrounding neighborhoods by up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit, compounding urban heat island effects in cities already vulnerable to extreme heat. (Gizmodo)
The release of Claude Code and OpenClaw agent have launched what developers are calling the biggest transformation in computing history, giving technically proficient users the ability to run hundreds of AI agents simultaneously. (WIRED)
A new law requiring platforms to remove deepfakes within 48 hours took effect last week, but experts warn it could enable government censorship more than it protects victims. (The Verge)
🌏 Africa’s four biggest tech economies want to own their AI future but remain almost entirely dependent on US companies for infrastructure, funding, and expertise. (Rest of World)
AI is already deeply embedded in US military targeting systems, and experts say we’ve crossed into autonomous warfare while pretending we haven’t. (The Verge)
📣 What You Can Do: Tell your reps to protect your right to state-level AI regulation, because Trump’s executive order blocking states from regulating AI hands that power over to Silicon Valley (go). And if you want to understand what surveillance tech is already in your community, the EFF’s Atlas of Surveillance is the place to start (go).
Last week’s most popular Action Step was signing up for leadership training with The Climate Reality Project.
👉 NEW: Find every action recommended in It’s Called Science. right here.
🌎 = Global news/action steps
Dune's fearsome sandworms as seen in the 2024 film. Dune: Part 2.
What trippy worm ooze can teach us about saving nature
When Frank Herbert penned the sprawling space opera Dune, he was thinking a lot about ecology. He was also experimenting with psilocybin, the natural psychedelic found in "magic mushrooms." It's no wonder, then, that Herbert dreamt up a galactic Imperium that depends on the trip-inducing ooze of a fearsome predator—the giant sandworms of Arrakis—for interstellar travel.
The Forest’s Trading Floor
Writer Tasmin Lockwood explores the intricate underground network that’s been quietly organizing forests for millions of years — mycorrhizal fungi. They organize around watersheds, share resources across species, and build resilient communities through cooperation, not competition.
Have they been giving us the blueprint for bioregional organizing — an alternative way to set up our communities outside of extractive economic systems — this whole time?
🙋♀️ Vote!
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