Welcome to the week.
Apologies for the delay this week, I was off last week and have been working through heaps of emails and any news that I missed!
In case you missed it: We published our 2024 Charitable Giving Guide last week! If you’re looking for organizations to donate to before the end of the year, these are the best of the best.
Ok, let’s get back up to speed.
This week:
⚡Accelerated clean energy spending
🐮Antibiotics in livestock
🥛Testing milk
🌡 AI weather predictions
And more
Have a great week,
— Willow
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Last week, we asked: What would most help you take action on the issues you care most about (climate, health, food, tech, etc.)?
You said:
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Connecting with like-minded people (22%)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Clear steps I can take today (45%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Seeing more success stories (7%)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Understanding the science better (15%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Having my community more involved (7%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Something else (write in!) (4%)
“I can't take any more steps than I already have available! I need the city, state, federal agencies to do something more!!”
“Having a job in climate”
“Elect and support like minded leaders which seems to be impossible anywhere these days. World wide.”
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⚡️ Climate change:
🌍 Fossil fuel influence over COP negotiations has been a hot topic as of late, but the industry has been shaping the global environmental decision-making process from the very beginning
How do rising house insurance premiums due to rising climate risks correlate with where you live? Here’s the data, visualized
The Energy Department has dramatically accelerated its clean energy lending in the month following the election, with nearly a third of over $13 billion in loans and guarantees issued
Can we simultaneously revitalize US manufacturing while addressing climate change and industrial pollution? Yes, we can! With these five key policy recommendations.
🦠 Health & Bio:
Climate change is affecting patients’ health at frontline clinics (especially, as always, disproportionately impacting low-income and patients of color), due to issues like power outages, clinic closures, and clinic inaccessibility.
🌎The mosquito-borne disease, chikungunya, has cost the world nearly $50 billion over a decade
Humans have historically (and currently) used animals as “chemical factories” to produce dye, insulin, vaccines, etc. Advancements in biotech are increasingly allowing synthetic alternatives that are less harmful and more efficient, but the transition is complex
🌎 Overuse of antibiotics in livestock increases the risk of antibiotic resistance (yet another looming crisis). We probably can’t remove them completely (they’re still great at preventing disease!) but several countries have figured out how to use them more effectively
💦 Food & Water:
🌏 Mexico has added constitutional reforms that include animal welfare, and could be a game changer for animal rights
The USDA is launching a National Milk Testing Strategy to test milk for H5N1 nationwide, improving the agencies abilities to track and monitor bird flu
🌏 Farmers in Ghana are practicing agroecology to build climate resilience in the region, as planting tress helps to retain soil moisture and fertility while helping to control pests as temperatures increase and rainfall becomes more erratic
Why does it seem like there’s always a food recall from carrots to cucumbers to onions? Learn more about how food safety and regulation in the US works.
👩💻 Beep Boop:
Google’s DeepMind team released its latest weather prediction model is better at predicting extreme whether and the movement of tropical storms than traditional tools
China has banned exports of several critical minerals to the US in the latest escalation of trade restrictions between the two countries
🌎 Meta is aggressively expanding WhatsApp into business messaging and e-commerce markets, despite WhatsApp’s original minimalist vision, and although it remains committed to end-to-end encryption, some privacy concerns have been raised
Utility companies are building more natural-gas-powered plants to meet the electricity demand of AI data centers
🌎 = Global news
Like everything, it’s an issue with a lot of nuance 👇
Last week’s most popular Action Step was reading this Guide to Meditation to help with anxiety (understandable) — it’s a practice, and it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Donate to Alex’s Lemonade Stand to support childhood cancer research.
Volunteer with the Alliance for Period Supplies by hosting a product drive and getting menstrual products to people who need them.
🌏 Get educated about how to improve the health care system with community health workers by taking this course.
Be heard about ending the world’s deadliest (preventable!) infectious disease by asking you representatives to support the End TB Now Act.
🌍 Invest in companies that aren’t contributing to deforestation and the destruction of the planet using Deforestation Free Funds.
🌎 = Global Action Step
NEW: Find the action steps that mean the most to you at WhatCanIDo.Earth
Together With Duckbill
Hey, it’s Quinn. Sometimes I show my kids my calendar(s), usually on dual 27” monitors, just a little taste, one week at a time — so they get a tiny glimpse into adult/entrepreneur/dad life.
It’s a lot. I love it, but it’s a lot.
So I’m trying every day to get better about delegating what needs to actually get done, but doesn’t necessarily need to be done by me — stuff that unnecessarily takes me away from my kids, my wife, or this work.
I’m super thankful to Duckbill for sponsoring this week to show busy people there’s another way.
Duckbill is an executive assistant for your personal life.
Simply hand them the things you dread or should be on autopilot (regular doctor's appointments, birthday cards to loved ones, filling out paperwork…you know the ones). They know what really matters is the life that happens outside of your to-do list.
Life is short - focus there. Let Duckbill do the rest.
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