Logo
Newsletters
Newsletters

It's Called Science

News for people who give a shit. Free.

WCID Weekly

What's hot, what's new. Free.

Basic Shit

Explainers from the frontlines of the future. Free.

fire-simple

Seriously?

Quinn's essays. Members only

fire-simple

The Good Shit

The stuff we use and love. Members only.

fire-simple

Life Finds A Way

The original diversity initiative. Members only.

fire-simple

The Science of Fiction

A Technical Guide to the Future. Members only.

fire-simple

Not Important

Quinn's favorite books, music, food, and more. Members only.

Podcasts
Podcasts

The Most Important Question

What can I do?

Not Right Now

A show about parenting through all this.

Become A Member.

Get ad-free pods and bonus episodes.

What Can I Do?
Shop
Team
Sponsors
Sign in
fire-simple
Join

It's Called Science.

🌍 Green Waves For Big Boats

Jul 15, 2024

•

10 min read

Willow Beck
By Willow Beck

Free Edition

Welcome to the week.

Here’s some news that may not have made it to the forefront of your newsfeeds this week for obvious reasons, but is important nonetheless, especially if you live on planet Earth.

This week:

  • ☀ A solar-powered titanium factory

  • 💉Funding for Gavi

  • 💧Desalination costs

  • 🤖AI hype

  • And more

Stay cool out there,

— 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.

Subscribe For Free

🙋‍♀️ Vote!

How often do you consider sustainability when purchasing clothing?

  • Always
  • Sometimes
  • Rarely
  • Never

Login or Subscribe to participate

Last week, we asked: How do you research your supplements before buying them?

You said:

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Examine.com (23%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Labdoor (5%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Consumer Reports (17%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Something else (31%)

“I only buy supplements from established brands after digging into the quality sections of their websites and never, ever buy unfamiliar brands on Amazon because independent testing has shown them to rarely contain what they claim.”

“I am a research nerd so I just go to PubMed and look for articles, then go ingredient by ingredient.”

“I check two or three sources looking for the mechanism of action, bioavailability, metabolism, and pharmacokinetics. NIH and Mayo clinic are common resources.”

“I check at least two sources: Consumer Reports (not surprising) and ConsumerLab. com. ConsumerLab checks and ranks supplements, far more extensively and frequently than CR, although I’d never ignore CR. ”

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ I don't (24%)

New Shit Giver Chase wants to help solve “the safety of the air, soil, and water quality we encounter daily. I also want a positive outlook on my future, which right now I'm struggling with.”

We really try to be future-positive here, even when the bad guys just won’t stop. The good news is the solutions to better air, soil, and water are out there, we just need collective, continued action to make sure they are sustainably implemented, for everyone.


🤝 Become A Member

We’re 100% independent and proudly supported by readers like you.

Members get a 30 day free trial to:

  • Ad-free everything

  • Vibe Check: Our news homepage, curated daily just for you. Never doomscroll again, thx

  • Essays: The frameworks, models, history, and pop culture I use to understand what’s happening now and next

  • Half Baked: Weekly briefs to help you think and act on specific, timely issues as they happen

  • Not Important: My favorite books, art, movies, music, apps, and more that have nothing to do with the jet stream slowing down

  • Lifetime thanks for directly supporting our work

Start 30 day free trial

⚡️ Climate change:

  • 🌎 Solar capacity (which has historically been underestimated), is expected to quadruple globally (mostly in China) over the next decade, and growth in energy storage is expected to pop off too

  • Over 2 million oil and gas wells in the US are sitting unplugged, and with available cleanup funds to cap them falling billions of dollars short, regulators have been attempting to work with industry to get them to clean up after themselves…and instead they are hindering reform efforts state by state

  • Extreme heat is keeping helicopters on the ground, and preventing them from getting people to a hospital in a medical emergency

  • An industrial plant making titanium products in West Virginia will be primarily be powered by a solar microgrid

  • FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is already stretched thin this year (it could run out of funds by mid-August without additional support), putting more of the disaster relief burden on state and local governments

🦠 Health & Bio:

  • 🌍 By providing more funding to Gavi (who is looking to raise $9 billion to cover its budget from 2026-2030), rich countries can prevent hundreds of thousands of kids from dying from malaria (in addition to other routine vaccines for polio, measles, and rubella)

  • Medicare Advantage insurers have been adding diagnoses to patients records (often without the knowledge of patients or their doctors) to receive higher Medicare payments (truly, what the fuck?)

  • 🌏 One way to reduce the antimicrobial resistance crisis? Some economists say the answer could be taxing more profitable antibiotics to discourage over-prescribing

  • People infected during pregnancy may be more likely to develop Long Covid compared to the overall population

  • Under- or uninsured pregnant people in North Carolina can receive quality prenatal care through the Adopt-A-Mom program, which is intended to reduce infant mortality rates and disparities in maternal health. We love to see it

💦 Food & Water:

  • 🌎 While water scarcity is a growing concern worldwide, the desalination industry is growing, and is indeed becoming cheaper and more efficient

  • 🌎 Agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa is complex — the total output has increased but that’s mostly due to an increase in inputs rather than improved efficiency

  • Lawmakers continue to be at odds over the Farm Bill, divided over spending on aid to help hungry families or guarantee minimum crop prices for farmers

  • Meat industry funded research at public universities often prioritizes technological fixes and improved public perception over addressing fundamental issues, like the industries contributions to climate change

  • 🌎 Brazil is regulating access to its vast biodiversity and attempting to ensure fair compensation for Indigenous communities that contribute traditional knowledge to the development of new products by agricultural industry

👩‍💻 Beep Boop:

  • Goldman Sachs is questioning whether AI has been overhyped, and if the large amount of spending on AI infrastructure will pay off

  • Big Tech companies certainly remain optimistic about it, although building effective applications is taking a lot of work

  • Are you an AT&T customer? A recent security breach compromised phone records of “nearly all” customers including phone numbers, calling and text records, and location-related data

  • 🌎 The US-China tech rivalry has impacts across private companies and other nations, like in Microsoft’s investment in the UAE’s AI firm G42, which has deep connections to China

  • 🌏 The Chinese government is allowing Tesla to bring in its full self-driving feature, and is allowing cities to build smart road infrastructure

🌎 = Global news

Boatloads of work (sorry not sorry) but someone’s gotta do it.

🎧 Listen now 👇

How are we going to decarbonize shipping?

David Wooley and Ed Carr, lead authors of recent papers outlining policy and technology options for reducing emissions in the shipping industry, discuss the fuels (and batteries?) that could power ships of the future, the policies needed to move forward, and California's pivotal role.

www.volts.wtf/p/how-are-we-going-to-decarbonize-shipping

Last week’s most popular Action Step was asking Congress to support the Algorithmic Accountability Act.

  • 🌍 Donate to Regeneration International to advocate for regenerative farming practices (and better soil) worldwide.

  • Volunteer with Mom’s Clean Air Force to protect everyone from air pollution.

  • 🌏 Get educated about how you can work in water conversation. Find your skillset in this list of resources, and get to work.

  • Be heard about accelerating the deployment of clean energy by asking Congress to further permitting reform.

  • Invest with a bank allocating capital to climate solutions with ATMOS.

🌎 = 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.

Get their picks here

Want an ad-free experience? Become a Member!

Without any ANTestesia! (I’m on fire today)

Videos Show Ants Amputating Nest Mates’ Legs to Save Their Lives

The insects seem to know which injuries to treat as they engage in a behavior that seems almost human.

www.nytimes.com/2024/07/02/science/ants-amputation-legs.html

🤝 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.

🎯 Sponsor the newsletter - reach {{active_subscriber_count}} (and counting) sustainably-minded consumers.

Join the discussion.

Avatar

or to participate

Related articles

Because you give a shit.

Podcast

Shop

Books

© 2026 Important, Not Important.
Report abusePrivacy policyTerms of use
beehiivPowered by beehiiv