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Welcome to the week.
Quick plug before we get to the news! Both of our podcasts (yes, we have two podcasts, if you didn’t know, now you know), The Most Important Question and Not Right Now, have been nominated for a Signal Award!
The Most Important Question is a finalist in Best Show: Sustainability & Environment and Best Show: Activism, Public Service, and Social Impact.
Not Right Now is a finalist in Best Show: Family and Child-raising.
Please, please, please vote for us! It’ll take 2 minutes.
Okay, thank you! Let’s get to the news.
This Week
And more.
Have a great week,
— Willow
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🙋♀️ Vote!
Do you support banning smartphones in schools?
Last week, we asked: Are you registered to vote?
You said: Are you registered to vote?
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Yes (94%)
“More important than ever. Not only register, but actually VOTE.”
“I have not missed the opportunity to vote in the last five + decades.”
“I am Australian. Registration is compulsory.”
“I lived in Latin America for 20 years and could not vote in our elections until Jimmy Carter fixed that. I always vote. Try living where you have no voice!”
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No (4%)
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not sure (2%)
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⚡️ Climate change:
In case you needed more science supporting the fact that rising atmospheric greenhouse gases are supercharging extreme weather events, here it is (The Climate Brink)
🇧🇷 Brazil has pledged $1 billion to fund global tropical forest conservation, in hopes that nations will also contribute (Bloomberg)
Hurricane Helene showed how the environmental impact of AI threatens its own supply chain, after it devastated the source of 90% of the world’s high-purity quartz essential for AI microchips (The New York Times)
🌍 EVs are now outselling fossil-fuel vehicles in developing countries like Nepal and Costa Rica, and China alone expects to sell more EVs in the last quarter of 2025 than the total number of all cars sold annually in the US (Bloomberg)
Fortescue believes that the AI boom will continue to drive renewable energy growth in the US, despite federal cuts to the industry (Bloomberg)
🦠 Health & Bio:
222-nanometer UV light could revolutionize indoor air safety by killing indoor pathogens without harming humans (The Works in Progress Newsletter)
A new bill aims to modernize the FDA’s sunscreen approval process by allowing alternatives to animal testing and accepting real-world evidence from other countries (Undark)
Okay, since we’re here, let’s go over the science of Tylenol and autism: some observational studies show correlations, but the association disappears when proper controls are applied, and the strongest evidence has found no causal link (Your Local Epidemiologist)
Cities are independently rewriting their housing policies, creating a patchwork of local responses to housing challenges amid reduced federal oversight (Slow Boring)
The CDC is reporting a 460% surge in infections between 2019 and 2023 caused by a “super bug” bacteria resistant to some of the strongest available antibiotics (LA Times)
💦 Food & Water:
Discover how a massive Meals on Wheels People operation transforms a $49,000 weekly grocery budget into 29,600 meals for seniors in the Portland area (Stumptown Savings)
🌎 New research predicts 74% of the world’s drought-prone regions will face high risks of severe “day zero” events by 2100 (Gizmodo)
The new American Dietary Guidelines advisory committee is recommending Americans favor plant-based protein over animal sources for the first time (The Washington Post)
MAHA has now invited farmers and food industry groups to participate in shaping their recommendations (The Wall Street Journal)
The Department of Defense has delayed cleanup of forever chemicals at nearly 140 military installations by an average of 5 years, despite communities having contaminated drinking water since 2017 (The New York Times)
👩💻 Beep Boop:
An advocate for an AI-powered surveillance society is positioned to acquire TikTok’s US operations, and add it to his existing media empire (Popular Information)
YouTube is creating a process to reinstate content creators whose accounts were banned for violating Covid-19 and 2020 election misinformation policies (The New York Times)
Surveillance companies like Flock and Palantir are using democracy as justification for providing services to ICE (404 Media)
Developing “culturally aware” AI that augments rather than replacing human creativity requires grounding systems in local realities through participatory design and real-world testing (Observer)
Customs and Border Protection flew drones at least 50 times to support ICE operations, raising concerns about surveillance expansion (404 Media)
🌎 = Global news
Why your to-do list isn’t work (and what might?)
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Last week’s most popular Action Step was throwing the whole kitchen sink at affordable housing.
Donate to the Conservation Through Reconciliation Project to support Indigenous-led conservation.
Volunteer with Water First to help bring clean water infrastructure — and training to support their continued operation and maintenance — to Indigenous communities.
Get educated about the history and culture of Indigenous nations in your region using the Lessons of Our Land curriculum.
Be heard about getting Indigenous communities the tools they need to mitigate climate risks with the Tribal Climate Health Assurance Act.
Invest in solar development in the Global South using Renewables.
NEW: Find the action steps that mean the most to you at WhatCanIDo.Earth
What can Andor teach us about how extractive industries impact every day life?
This month’s The Science of Fiction essay explores the Empire’s quest for a rare mineral (kalkite) to complete the Death Star, the destruction that brings upon the planet where that rare mineral is found, and how that parallels the human and environmental impacts of extractive industries (like critical mineral mining) on Earth.
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