Feb. 13, 2023

🌎 "Why Do We Exist?"

This week:

For the next few weeks, I’m rewriting and sharing a selection of essays I wrote in 2020 and 2021, so about two hundred years ago. I think they’re more relevant than ever — I can’t wait to hear what you think.

This week: What would you say you do here? (Originally published July 2020, updated February 2023)

Why do we exist?

After a hundred years of progress, humanity faces stress tests unlike any we’ve faced before, and all at once.

The good news: Your company can help rewrite the future.

Here's What You Can Do:

⚡️ The death toll in Turkey and Syria continues to rise. Relief agencies are having a hell of a time, but you can donate to the Syrian American Medical Society, Doctors Without Borders, and World Central Kitchen.
⚡️ There’s never been a better time for educators to bring climate crisis solutions into the classroom, and no better tool than the All We Can Save Project.
⚡️ Renter? Landlord? Either way you can find out how to green your building with BlocPower.
⚡️ Clean up the air in your town with Mom’s Clean Air Force.
⚡️ Every boob is different, so help recruit more women to breast cancer studies with WISDOM.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

Please read this David Brooks piece on friendship and depression
Sure, yes, electric cars can clean up the air, but please also way fewer cars
A quarter million US students haven’t returned to school since the early pandemic. Where the hell are they?
Workers fighting America’s overdose crisis need much more help
Yelp is coming for “crisis pregnancy centers” and the GOP is not pleased (this is exactly what I mean in the essay above)

Climate

Shell’s board of directors were sued for mismanaging climate risk
EU leaders are still unsure how to deal with the United States’ climate industrialization moves (which we’ve gotta get right)
NPR’s stunning multimedia piece on Senegal’s climate fight is worth a read
Paris is growing new mini-forests

Food & Water

Hot damn — bacteria really does eat plastic.
How to save food from the landfill with WhatsApp (?)
Yeah there’s lead in most dark chocolate, so what should you eat?

Beep Boop

AI is a lot right now. The invaluable Ted Chiang puts it all in perspective, and Charlie Warzel on the gold rush
Federal agencies only followed 40% of cybersecurity recommendations, the same percentage as my children’s chores
Legacy IT systems at London hospitals are not ready for global heating or even like a gentle breeze
What happens when you Google “grief”

COVID

Biden will end the COVID emergency declaration soon. Issac Saul on what it means.
The FDA’s recommendation for annual COVID shots — like the flu — got mixed reviews