🌎 Gradually, and then all at once

This week:

Things feel pretty out of control. Get used to it.

Plus: The Canadian West is burning, Oregon bans PFAS, ChatGPT plugins for everyone, the All We Can Save project is hiring, and more

⚡️Wildfire smoke exposure is directly linked to myriad health impacts due to poor air quality. Know your daily risk by using this Purple Air outdoor air monitor.
⚡️We need to heal ourselves to heal the planet. Find resources and community to help with your climate anxiety through the Climate Mental Health Network.
⚡️Act locally. Use ReFED to find current food waste policies and programs you can learn from and implement in your town.
⚡️Work in local government? Biobot Analytics provides wastewater testing tools so we can better estimate the number of COVID-19 (and other diseases) infections in the community

Health & Medicine

These are the cities with most bike deaths per capita (I share news like this to illustrate where we can make drastic improvements)
Not to be outdone, the South Carolina House passed a six-week abortion ban
UnitedHealthcare wants doctors to get prior authorization for colonoscopies. People are very pissed off.
Where American air pollution is improving, and getting worse

Climate

Our friends at the All We Can Save project are hiring a Programs & Community Manager — details here!
Could enormous robots dramatically speed up solar farm construction? Sure!
How can we restore oyster reefs without oyster shells?
Octopus Energy continues to be a model for…everyone else
The Canadian west continues to burn, and climate change is a big reason why

Food & Water

Oregon banned PFAS (forever chemicals) in food containers
How plant-based food makers can fight back against meat and dairy disinformation
If growing one almond requires 3.2 gallons of water out west, how do we reconcile that?
The women working for food sovereignty on island territories
Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is bullshit (more on humanewashing)

Beep Boop

OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT plugins to everyone, should be fine
Ransomware hackers are zeroing in (again) on under-resourced cities and towns
The Supreme Court ruled Twitter and Google aren’t legally liable for terrorists using their platforms

COVID

This isn’t COVID-specific (I wrote that big update last week), but it could be monumental, if we do the work: the CDC released a new health-based indoor air ventilation target, and the the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers released its own enhanced ventilation standard.
Here’s Joseph G. Allen on why it could be a game-changer.

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