Welcome to the week.
First: RIP to Jane Goodall, one of my heroes, and a total badass that led her life with courage, empathy, hope, and humor.
Second: There’ll be no It’s Called Science next week, as it is Canadian Thanksgiving (sounds made up, but it’s real!) and I’ll be eating all the cauliflower casserole (Okay fine, it’s mostly cheese) I can get my hands on.
Third: The news, what else! Let’s go.
This Week
And more.
Have a great week,
— Willow
{{active_subscriber_count}}+ people who give a shit got this post in their email, for free.
🙋♀️ Vote!
Based on your interest in climate change, we'd like to understand which related areas you're most interested in learning about. Which of these topics would you most like to hear more about?
Last week, we asked: Do you support banning smartphones in schools?
You said (lots of great responses this week!):
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes (77%)
“They are terrible for attention spans, directly linked to some of the cruelest forms of bullying. Get them out of schools ASAP!”
“Our tax money goes to employ people to teach and children to learn to listen to other people. Smartphones are an educational tool to use outside of the school environment.”
“As a retired teacher, I can’t imagine how hard it is today to get students full attention. Phones just make it even worse. ”
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No (11%)
“Intelligence is not the retention of information but knowing where to find the answers.”
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I'm not sure (7%)
“I have concerns for student privacy if phones are taken from students at school. Like many others, I also worry about safety and dissemination of urgent information. ”
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Something else (write in!) (5%)
“Yes to a point; most parents sending kids to school with smart phones is to be able to reach them in an emergency - or vice versa. I don't want phones in school or work either, but with secondary authentications to be able to do your work, it has become necessary to have your phone with you. I would support using scramblers in schools in the learning spaces; this would eliminate the distraction in the classroom and would allow kids to be 'social' or communicate when in a place where they are not disturbing a class (or distracting themselves from the learning needed in school). Finally what about the special needs children - are we talking about banning their devices too? I guess my point it where does it end. Instead of teaching responsibility, banning outright seems to create a higher desire for whatever it was that was banned.”
New Shit Giver Janet is here because “I am a retired RN. The reason I am retired is not my age. It is because I became disabled in my 40s. I am 65 but if I was still physically able I would still be working as a nurse. I loved my profession passionately. It has taken me years to come to terms with my physical disability. I have fibromyalgia which I contracted after a serious work injury to my neck. Since then I have also developed degenerative disc disease and spinal arthritis with spinal stenosis.
It took me until 5 years ago to receive a diagnosis of disability from the government. I was diagnosed by my Dr's but had to get an attorney to finally get officially recognized as disabled. I am far from being the only one who has had to jump through numerous hoops to be recognized as disabled. It is so hard to want nothing more than to be able to do the job you love, that is such a huge part of your identity and to be looked down on as less than because you can't work. To be treated both officially and by society as if you are just lazy.
I have 10 grandkids that mean the world to me that I can't interact with anywhere near to the degree I want to. I have to have a caregiver just to keep my house livable. I'm so blessed to have a husband who has stayed with me and understands my limitations. I don't know what would have happened to my kids and myself without him.
Many people in my situation don't have anyone supporting them. I just don't understand why we seem to no longer see the value of human beings when due to age or disability they can no longer contribute to society. We have lost the ability to see the inherent worth and dignity of human life. I have seen it both in my profession and personal life.“
Thank you for sharing your story! It’s so important and goes such a long way into helping us all develop a little more empathy.
🤝 Become an Important Member
We’re 100% independent and proudly supported by readers like you.
Members get a 30 day free trial to:
Ad-free everything
Your What Can I Do? profile: get and keep track of personalized action steps, connect with other Shit Givers
Vibe Check: Our news homepage, curated daily just for you. Never doomscroll again, thx
Seriously?: The frameworks, models, history, and pop culture we 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
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!
⚡️ Climate change:
How to process and harness the complex emotions (anger, hope, wherever you’re at!) triggered by the climate crisis (action>avoidance!) (New Scientist)
🌎 Climate policy experts weigh in on what China’s recent emissions pledge means for global climate efforts (Carbon Brief)
For some godforsaken reason, we’re trying to bring back coal, going so far as providing $625 million in DOE funding to keep plants open, opening 13 million acres of federal land for coal mining, and delaying EPA pollution deadlines (Canary Media)
Climate tech companies and investors are forming new coalitions to strategically map, fund, and advance decarbonization efforts amid reduced federal support (Heatmap)
Nearly half of agricultural workers reach dangerous core body temperatures during work shifts, and data reveals that even brief cooling breaks can prevent life-threatening heat buildup (The Washington Post)
🦠 Health & Bio:
Doctors have successfully treated Huntington’s disease for the first time using gene therapy that slowed progression by 75% (BBC)
Children and teens are twice as likely to develop long Covid after a second infection compared to their first (The New York Times)
🌍 US foreign aid funded initiatives saved about 3 million lives annually (PEPFAR alone is credited with saving over 20 million lives since 2003), though now many of these programs have been cut (Our World in Data)
The FDA has approved a third generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone, expanding supply despite pressure from anti-abortion groups (The New York Times)
New Mexico has emerged as a progressive healthcare sanctuary, doubling its number of abortion clinics, enacting the strongest protections for gender-affirming care in the Southwest, and becoming the first state to offer universal free childcare (The New Yorker)
💦 Food & Water:
Black women in Mississippi are combating severe food insecurity (affecting 18% of the state) by opening grocery stores, launching mobile food trucks, and creating online delivery services for communities abandoned by traditional retailers (Capital B)
Denver Urban Gardens has created 26 food forests in three years to provide free fruit to communities while cleaning the air and fighting climate change, and guess what, they lost their funding! (Civil Eats)
The EPA is on track to lose one third of its workforce by the end of the year, reducing it to levels not seen since Nixon and reducing its ability to enforce environmental laws, clean up toxic sites, and protect public health (The Conversation)
An unsung hero of sustainable agriculture? The bourbon industry is embracing practices like no-till farming, cover cropping, and creating healthier soil (Fast Company)
A flagship diet report continues to recommend that wealthy nations eat less meat and more plants to improve public health and reduce emissions (Bloomberg)
👩💻 Beep Boop:
Both parents and teens must opt in to parental safety controls on ChatGPT for it to work (WIRED)
🌎 Experts at the Global Summit on Disinformation say that traditional fact-checking is insufficient against modern threats (LatAm Journalism Review)
California has enacted some of the strongest AI regulations in the nation, requiring advanced AI companies to report safety protocols and potential risks while strengthening protections for whistleblowers (The New York Times)
🌍 China is integrating AI into education, but these untested tools may harm children’s development and potentially widen educational inequalities (Rest of World)
Lawyers caught using AI tools to generate fake citations or fabricate legal evidence have a vast range of explanations, highlighting how widespread AI use has become in the profession (404 Media)
🌎 = Global news
Last week’s most popular Action Step was learning (or teaching!) about the history and culture of the Indigenous nations in your region using resources from Lessons of Our Land.
Donate to the People’s Action Institute to support their fight for justice for all, from the climate crisis to housing to health care.
Volunteer with Food & Water Watch to join their fight for safe food, clean water, and a livable climate.
Get educated about the magic of electric school buses with this article from Earthjustice (then share it with your school board!)
Be heard about building more multi-family homes near transit in California.
Invest in organizations committed to a greener future. Start by finding out if your financial institution is on this list from Carbon Accounting Financials.
NEW: Find the action steps that mean the most to you at WhatCanIDo.Earth
That’s A Hard No
We're back!
This week, Claire and Quinn are crashing out over back-to-school chaos (music class that your kid swears they aren't supposed to practice for, curriculum night avoidance, and late start mornings), the cognitive labor of being the "superhuman" parent vs. "the bumbler", dealing with your stubborn Boomer parents, and their current survival strategies (from hiring a scheduling assistant to taking two gummies in the closet because it's a an EMERGENCY) amid a news cycle that just won't stop (media literacy is the new first aid).
PS. We’re Signal Award finalists in the categories Family and Child-raising! You can vote for us here.
📖 Prefer to read? Get the transcript here.
▶ Or watch the full episode on YouTube.
💌 Loved this issue of It’s Called Science?
Check out what else we make (or take it easy on the emails, we get it) right in your Subscriber Preferences.
🤝 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 Important, Not Important - reach {{active_subscriber_count}} (and counting) sustainably-minded consumers across our newsletters, web, and audio.