#106: Throw me the idol, I'll throw you the whip!
August 31st, 2018
New hero: Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Shiloh Baptist Church, North Carolina.
“Jesus said love your neighbor,” Dr. Barber told the crowd. “I don’t care how many times you tell me you love me, if you put coal ash in my water you don’t love me. Because if there was nothing wrong with the coal ash, then put it in the wealthy communities.”
Preach, Reverend. Preach.
PODCAST UPDATE
This week's question was: Are You Ready for Some Radical Environmental Justice?
Our guest was Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director for Creation Justice Ministries, where she busts her ass on the reg to help empower minorities affected by this well-rounded environmental shitshow we've created.
We raged against the machine, discussed The New Jim Crow, Chicago, pissed off moms, Virginia, and more.
Subscribe now to get next Tuesday's episode: The Revolution Is Upon Us.
Our guests: Elsa Mengistu & Emelly Villa, teenage ballers behind the This Is Zero Hour Movement (don't call it a march). We talk the march, the future of the movement, and of course why old people have ruined everything, but for real this time.
On to the news!
Food 🍌🥑🥕🔬💊👩🌾
Climate change will make hundreds of millions more people nutrient deficient
"Experts say that by the middle of the century about 175 million more people develop a zinc deficiency, while 122 million people who are not currently protein deficient could become so.
In addition, about 1.4 billion women of childbearing age and infants under five years old will be living in regions where there will be the highest risk of iron deficiency.
Among other problems, zinc deficiencies are linked to troubles with wound healing, infections and diarrhoea; protein deficiencies are linked to stunted growth; and iron deficiencies are tied to complications in pregnancy and childbirth."
+ Related: Stop. Wasting. Food.
Clean Energy 💨☀️⚡️
California's Going Carbon-Free by 2045 -- Will It Be In Time?
"California joins Hawaii, which passed legislation in 2015 calling for 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045. Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., are also considering such a mandate, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Maryland and Colorado had considered bills but have not passed the requirement."
+ Here's the kick in the pants: Climate change will be deadlier, more destructive and costlier for California than previously believed. Semi-related: How California Can Save the Amazon
+ More clean energy:
- The U.S. is on the verge of an offshore wind revolution
Climate Change 🔥🌊💨
The Global Rightward Shift on Climate Change (this is not the headline you were hoping for in 2018)
"Last Thursday, Malcolm Turnbull was the prime minister of Australia. By the end of this week, he’ll be just another guy in Sydney.
Turnbull was felled by climate-change policy. His attempt at a moderate, even milquetoast energy bill—which included some mild cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions—proved too aggressive for his co-partisans. On Friday, members of Australia’s center-right Liberal Party voted him out of office."
+ Editor's note: Fuck Trump
+ More climate:
- Lowering air pollution just *a bit* would increase life expectancy as much as eradicating lung and breast cancer
- Permafrost not frosting faster than expected and I don't have a good feeling about this
Biology 401 💉👾💊
Anti-vax fears drive a measles outbreak in Europe
"In the past decade, measles-vaccination rates in some European countries have often fallen below those in parts of Africa. Italy, France and Serbia, for example, have lower child-vaccinations rates than Burundi, Rwanda and Senegal.
Two-fifths of people in France—a country whose people pop antibiotics like sweets—believe that vaccines are unsafe. A quarter of Greeks and Ukrainians are also hostile... A survey of French doctors in 2014, for example, found that nearly a quarter believed that some of the officially recommended vaccines were not useful."
+ Here's why Islam can't make up its mine on vaccines
+ More Bio:
- Inside the slimy underground hunt for humanity's antibiotic saviour
- Ebola outbreak in Congo could be slowing down, maybe due to experimental vaccine
- China Has Withheld Samples of a Dangerous Flu Virus
- The Future of Medicine May Land Within Five to 10 Years, Crispr Inventor Says
The Final Frontier/Escape Hatch 🚀
How NASA Built a Shark Tank for Space Inventions
"Here at NASA's iTech competition, the cofounder of PharmaJet is vying for access to expert advice from the space agency. She and 14 other researchers are pitching diverse terrestrial technologies that they hope to level up to space. Each team has three minutes each—after which “shark music,” an off-brand Jaws theme, plays them out like a shepherd’s crook—to convince a panel of judges (not including Barbara Corcoran or Mark Cuban) they are worthy of the agency's wisdom. Tonight's winner will become one of 10 finalists chosen from similar events across the country, who will then compete for just three mentorship slots."
Fuck Cancer, Volume CV 🖕
A malaria protein may be the key to a universal blood test for cancer
"The new research reveals that a particular protein produced by malaria parasites is attracted to a very specific sugar molecule found on more than 95 percent of cancer cells. Called VAR2CSA, the protein essentially acts like a tumor cell magnet, gripping onto any cell found to harbor the target sugar molecule.
The experiments have already yielded some exciting early results. One test placed ten single cancer cells into five millilitres of blood. Using the malaria protein the researchers were able to successfully retrieve 9 of those cells."
+ More cancer:
- Immunotherapy Drugs Slow Skin Cancer That Has Spread to the Brain
- Here's the new test for melanoma immunotherapy potential
War 🚀🌎🔥
The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History
"Jensen walked out of the building and into the warm air of a late June afternoon. Like the vast majority of Maersk staffers, he had no idea when he might return to work. The maritime giant that employed him, responsible for 76 ports on all sides of the earth and nearly 800 seafaring vessels, including container ships carrying tens of millions of tons of cargo, representing close to a fifth of the entire world’s shipping capacity, was dead in the water."
+ More war:
- With Ships and Missiles, China Is Ready to Challenge U.S. Navy in Pacific
The Highlight Reel
- Asteroid Honors Aretha Franklin's Unforgettable Legacy
Older men are more prone to cognitive impairment from dirty air
98.6 Degrees Is a Normal Body Temperature, Right? Not Quite
Throwback reminder: if Americans switched from beef to beans, we'd basically meet our emissions goals -- in two years
Is being lazy a dope way to evolve the species? Asking for a friend
Floating nuclear plants could herald a new era of cheap, safe energy (or be a REALLY bad idea)
Thanks for reading, thanks for acting, and thanks for giving a shit.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
The Staff