Welcome to the week.
As the systems all around us are failing or being dismantled, who picks up the slack?
The answer, over and over, is the people closest to the problem. Eco-guards in Liberia. States passing paid leave laws Washington won’t touch. A Danish health ministry that actually put its money where its mouth was on mental health stigma.
Just something to keep in mind as you read through all the news in this week’s newsletter.
Let’s get into it.
This Week
And more.
Have a great week,
— Willow
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🙋♀️ Vote!
Without looking it up, do you believe inequality in the US is increasing or decreasing?
Last week, we asked: How important is it for you to reduce plastic in your home?
You said:
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Very important (55%)
“We have stopped using plastic bags, cups and containers at our house. We now use glass, wood and stainless steel. Small, personal steps...”
🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Somewhat important (41%)
“I have put a lot of time and effort into designing a life that has less plastic - buying bulk (glass jars), selecting products without packaging, bringing my own paper bags to use for produce at the store, etc. But I'm also old and tired and have an energy limiting condition and sometimes the product I need has to be ordered because I physically can't get to the store - and when it arrives it's in a bag that's in a bag that's in a bag. I do what I can within the best efforts I can design in advance, but I also give myself a little grace on the days when I'm just too tired to choose carefully.”
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not important (5%)
New Shit Giver Lisa is here because “I work for a public health nonprofit focused on community health worker training, mental health, & substance use prevention. I also have 2 boys, 2 and under. I care about the environment (for sure, 3rd generation vegetarian here) and supporting families and people in general. I’m passionate about the social determinants of health and somatic education.
My husband and I have a home tree project where we are starting oak, apricot & London plane trees from seeds we gathered in teeny tiny pots to one day plant in our community. I love yard work and being in nature.
During my second pregnancy I developed chronic migraine. It sucks. I still have it. Newfound passion for disabled people (especially people with invisible disabilities). I will heal from it; I’m determined to.“
Welcome! Thank you for sharing, so happy to have you here.
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⚡️ Climate change:
🌍 Let’s start off with a win: The rainforest is finally catching a break as Brazil’s Amazon deforestation hits historic lows (Mongabay)
The Trump administration tried to sell off a million acres of Alaskan ocean for oil drilling, and received approximately (checks notes) zero bids from drillers (Bloomberg)
While we obsess over gas prices, we’re conveniently ignoring the $81 billion/year military and multi-trillion-dollar wars that keep “cheap” oil flowing (The Climate Brink)
🌎 Turns out that planting trees to save the planet might accidentally bulldoze the very biodiversity we’re also trying to save. So maybe we just…stop burning fossil fuels first? (Mongabay)
🌎 A recent study has found that warming has been accelerating over the last decade, possibly due to better air pollution regulations…that also mean less clouds that were keeping things cool (Mongabay)
🦠 Health & Bio:
Declining vaccination rates are turning a fully preventable disease into a billion-dollar crisis, and behind every spreadsheet is a child in a hospital bed fighting something a free shot could have stopped (NBC News)
South Carolina has become the epicenter of America’s worst measles outbreak in 25 years, again, a preventable crisis fueled by religious exemptions and pandemic-era vaccine skepticism (The New York Times)
As climate change makes the South hotter and wetter, mold is creeping from a household nuisance to a full-blown public health crisis (Gizmodo)
🌎 Denmark figured out that fighting mental health stigma isn’t about posters and awareness campaigns, but about putting a real human in the room to tell their story (The New York Times)
A third of American workers finally have paid leave, but only because states got tired of waiting for Washington, creating a patchwork of haves and have-nots depending on your ZIP code (The 19th)
💦 Food & Water:
The Iran conflict couldn’t have hit at a worse moment for American farmers, with nearly half the world’s urea supply at risk right as spring planting season kicks off (WIRED)
Patagonia’s famously sustainable tinned fish couldn’t escape climate chaos, going from eco-darling to overfished cautionary tale (Bloomberg)
The Trump admin announced a $1 billion pesticide research initiative, but a closer look reveals that 85% of the money was already allocated to programs that have nothing to do with reducing pesticides and may actually increase them (Civil Eats)
MAHA calls everything from seed oils to food dyes “poison” but keeps begging companies to voluntarily change instead of actually regulating anything, which is less a strategy and possibly more of an admission that their claims wouldn’t survive a courtroom (Food Dive)
🌍 China is quietly building the next generation of alternative proteins by sneaking them into dumplings and buns and betting it’ll be their next BYD moment (HEATMAP)
👩💻 Beep Boop:
AI promised us liberation from drudgery but delivered layoffs, exhaustion, and an avalanche of “workslop”, while somehow contributing basically zero to actual economic growth in the process (Your Brain On Money)
🌎 The Gulf’s trillion dollar AI dream, sold to Silicon Valley on a promise of stability, has gone up in literal smoke when an Iranian strike set an Amazon data center ablaze (Rest of World)
OpenAI told everyone it kept its red lines on surveillance and killer robots, but sources say it quietly agreed to “any lawful use”, which is the government’s longtime loophole for mass spying (The Verge)
TikTok is the only major social platform refusing end-to-end encryption, framing it as a child safety feature (BBC)
Big Tech has pinky-promised it will power its own AI data centers, a pledge with no enforcement teeth and no ban on fossil fuels (The LA Times)
🌎 = Global news
Last week’s most popular Action Step was getting in touch with your state legislatures to remove taxes on period products.
Donate to Emerge to help women run for all levels of government.
🌎 Volunteer with CARE International to end poverty for women and girls all over the world, by improving access to education, health care and employment opportunities.
🌏 Get educated about the ways gender inequality and climate change are linked with this article from UN Women.
Be heard about protecting access to contraception in Virginia by urging your Senator to support HB6.
🌏 Invest in projects that have real impact to accelerate economic and social development across Latin American and the Caribbean using IDB Invest.
🌎 = Global Action Step
👉 NEW: Find every action recommended in It’s Called Science. right here.
The Plastic Crisis Isn't On You, Actually
Plastic. It is the miracle material that has quietly become the infrastructure of modern life over the past 63 years and the almost undefeated business model that's continuing climate change and keeping fossil fuel companies alive and reshaping our bodies, our oceans, and our politics.
Yeah, plastic keeps food fresh and hospitals running, and cars and planes lighter, and it's also in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the supply chains that keep churning out more of it while they tell us recycling will handle it.
Meanwhile, cities and states are actually trying to rein it in, companies are pledging circularity, and regular people are left staring at their blue bin thinking, does this matter? Does any of this work?
So what can I do about plastic?
My returning guest is Beth Gardiner, a journalist and author of the new book Plastic Inc. Beth pulls back the curtain on how plastic became so pervasive, why the personal responsibility story has been so convenient for yet another industry, and what the real solutions actually look like, because that's why we're here.
So stick with us because at the end of this conversation, what can I do? Won't feel like a shrug. It'll feel like a plan.
📖 Prefer to read? Get the transcript here.
▶ Or watch the full episode on YouTube.
How oil money haunts the Gaia Hypothesis
In this issue of The Science of Fiction, Maddie Stone sets the record straight about a theory on the nature of the Earth: The Gaia Hypothesis. It inspired countless scientists and science fiction writers to think about our planet as a vast, self-regulating superorganism. But it also has a dark side.
Winter is coming (and your body knows it)
In this issue of Life Finds A Way, Syris Valentine explores why our circadian rhythms are at odds with our economy, and what beavers, vervet monkeys, and deciduous trees can teach us about honoring winter’s rhythms instead of fighting them.
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