🌎 The Inevitable Future
This week:
Is the future inevitable?
Plus: A lack of OB-GYN’s in a post-Roe world, some new bills for agrivoltaics, the best in climate journalism, the link between COVID and Alzheimer’s, misinformation, and more
Here's What You Can Do:
- ⚡️ Our algorithms and technology are only as good as the people who make them. Empower future innovators to consider the social impact of their work with Tech Shift.
- ⚡️ Donate to the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank working on solutions and policies to make coastal cities climate-ready.
- ⚡️ Electrifying school buses reduces air pollution, immediately improving the health of kids while ALSO reducing emissions. Tell your school board about Highland Fleets, an organization working to make electric fleets accessible for all.
- ⚡️ As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, emergency services are becoming overstretched. Climate Resilience Hubs prepare communities before, during, and after an emergency. Find yours with this interactive map from Climate Crew.
- ⚡️ The housing shortage is bad for people, equality, the environment, and the economy. Help your city develop, implement, and monitor local housing strategies with actionable tools and guidance from Local Housing Solutions.
News Roundup
Health & Medicine
- Half of US counties don’t have an OB-GYN. That’s fucking unacceptable, and abortion-bans are making it worse.
- Dirty air kills more people than smoking, car crashes or HIV/AIDS, cutting up to six years off the lives of billions of people. Coal (surprise!) is the worst culprit
- Endocrine disrupting chemicals could be the reason behind the decrease in global sperm counts
- A new report is highlighting how hospitals can address the nursing shortage by attracting and retaining more nurses (cough-pay them-cough)
Climate
- A coalition of environmental organizations have the solutions to scale up transmission infrastructure in an equitable way
- The US Treasury and IRS have the released the latest updates on IRAs clean energy incentives, in time for Rewiring America to determine the pace at which we need to electrify everything to meet climate goals
- Indigenous communities are leading the climate fight as usual, this time with the help of mapping tech to claim their land rights, and stop deforestation
- Climate-related start-ups in Africa have received $2.8 billion in funding since 2019
- Covering Climate Now has released the finalists for the 2023 CCN Journalism awards, honoring the best coverage of climate change and climate solutions around the world
Food & Water
- Agrivoltaics get a boost in the Senate, a climate solution that benefits farmers, ecosystems and the climate
- Chickens in Europe are getting dose with antibiotics “critical to human health”, causing growing concerns about superbugs
- Sooo what happens if California’s dams fail?
Beep Boop
- ICE is using LexisNexis to track and gather information on people in order to make arrests for deportation
- What data does your car have on you?
- If misinformation actually is increasing, what can we do about it?
- An algorithm designed to reduce poverty is doing a bad job
COVID
- Researchers have established a link between Covid-19 and Alzheimer’s
- A common drug for diabetes may prevent Long COVID
Get more:
- Get more news, analysis, and Action Steps at https://www.importantnotimportant.com/
- Got feedback? Email us at questions@importantnotimportant.com
- Follow us on Twitter at @importantnotimp
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
- Take a nap you deserve it
Advertise with us: https://www.importantnotimportant.com/c/sponsors
Mentioned in this episode:
Listen On
Featured Episodes
How To Make Ethical Decisions
Has there ever been a more important time, a more consequential time, to lead with ethics? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Susan Liautaud . Susan is the author of The Power of Ethics and of the …
The Female Origin of Species
How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? And why the hell are we just finding out about it now? That's today's big question, and my guest is Cat Bohannon . Cat is the author of …
Can Your Gut Predict Alzheimer's?
Can your gut composition predict Alzheimer's? That's today's big question and my returning guest is Gautam Dantas. Gautam heads up the Dantas Lab at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis . His lab works at...
What Causes Depression?
Content Warning We're going to be talking about stress and anxiety, depression, suicide, and more today. If any of this could be triggering to you in any way, please feel free to just skip over this one. Nothing in this …
Fighting Food Waste With The iPhone of Trash Cans
How much food do you throw away every week? And do you have to? That's today's big question, and my guest is Matt Rogers . Matt is a former Apple iPod and iPhone engineer . The Co-Founder of Nest thermostats …
How To Live A Happy Life
How can we live happier lives? That's today's big question, and my guest is Dr. Marc Schulz, the co-author with Dr. Robert Waldinger of “The Good Life: Lessons From the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness” They're t...
Every Climate Action Matters
What can I do? The simple question is the underlying premise of everything we do here. It's often the easiest one to help people answer for themselves, but from the outside, it's often the most imposing. All of which is …
Clean Air Is An Inside Job
Imagine you’re in a sci-fi movie. The one where everything’s on the line . And while dinosaurs or aliens or a virus takes over down on the ground, you’re the scientist unexpectedly riding in the helicopter with the actual pre...