#207: Some actual good news

Welcome back, Shit Giver.

Climate change

Mo money, hopefully vastly fewer problems

Bloomberg: "To meet its mid-century goal of becoming the world’s first climate-neutral continent, the region needs to boost offshore wind capacity to 300 gigawatts by 2050 from just 12 gigawatts now, according to an EU roadmap published on Thursday. That will require as much as 789 billion euros ($940 billion) in investment, mostly from utilities and energy majors.

The strategy proposed by the European Commissiondetails how to unlock the potential for wind farms at sea that’s getting cheaper every year and are more powerful than those on land."

⚡️ Take Action: there's always been arguments against massive climate investments in the realm of "how will we pay for them" or "the debt is out of hand".

Fun story: the costs of not investing dwarf everything else. And now everyone's getting on board. Major banks have created a (voluntary) global accounting standard to gauge the climate impact of financial transactions (while simultaneously gearing up to fight real climate risk stress tests), the Fed is actively warning against abrupt price changesfrom climate-related disasters, buying green bonds, and has apparently signed up to the Network for Greening the Financial System, Bezos has finally started throwing his $10 billion around, and Scottish pensions are dumping a half billion in investments for failing moderate ESG standards.

The best way for you to contribute? Help the Sunrise Movement -- who, somehow, just started two years ago -- hold Joe Biden to a climate-first agenda. Volunteer with and donate to Sunrise.

Clean energy

The electric car industry has their very own lobbying group

The Atlantic: "More than two dozen automakers, electric utilities, EV-charging firms, and lithium companies are forming a new advocacy group devoted to pushing for electric cars on Capitol Hill. It’s called the Zero Emission Transportation Association, or ZETA.

“Our goal is to change politics so that every new vehicle sold by 2030 is an EV,” Joseph Britton, ZETA’s founder and director, told me. ZETA won’t look for regulation that requires anyone to buy an EV, he said. Instead, it will push for policy changes that make EVs irresistible to consumers."

⚡️ Take Action: as we've discussed here, the lack of federal oomph has meant a decade of progress that is honorable but still lacking from cities, states, and industry. SF's banning new gas hookups, Quebec is banning gas cars, GM (way behind) is finally going deeper on EV's, etc. We're not just battling billions in legacy fossil fuel subsides, but also cloak and dagger consulting firms like FTI.

To do: donate to the Climate Change Fund through the Founders Pledge (currently matching up to $1.2m).

COVID

Fuck it, here's some good news

New York Times: “How long might immunity to the coronavirus last? Years, maybe even decades, according to a new study — the most hopeful answer yet to a question that has shadowed plans for widespread vaccination.

Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data show. A slow rate of decline in the short term suggests, happily, that these cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.

The research, published online, has not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date."

⚡️ Take Action: two ground-breaking vaccines are on the way -- but it'll take a while, if you're healthy, white, and not an essential worker (and if we do it right). Masks work. GAVI has raised $2b to vaccinate poor nations.

And yet -- hospitals are full. Frontline workers of every stripe are broken (at best). We're losing 1500 Americans a day and that's only going to go up (2000/day by Dec 1).

Our community doesn't need to be told to do the right thing. But if there's anyone in your life that's wavering on whether or not to travel, or host a dinner party, please send them this.

Biology

Measles is rampant, and not just because of COVID

Vox: "Measles cases increased by 556 percent globally by 2019 from a historic low in 2016, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study. Around the world, measles deaths also shot up by nearly 50 percent in that period, to 207,500 last year."

⚡️ Take Action: UNICEF (gold-standard) vaccinates millions of children every year. Give these kids a chance, amid everything, with just a few bucks.

Food & water

The McPlant burger arrives (soon, hopefully, cannot come fast enough)

Engadget: "McDonalds is making its own plant-based burger and other meatless menu items. The company will start to test the McPlant products in some markets next year.

"In the future, McPlant could extend across a line of plant-based products including burgers, chicken-substitutes and breakfast sandwiches," the company's international president Ian Borden said at an investor meeting on Monday, according to USA Today."

⚡️ Take Action: McD's serves about a billion pounds of meat a year. Meat consumption is crushing our hearts, our land, our water, and our rainforests. Fake meat isn't perfect, and everybody wants to argue about individual actions, but McDonald's wouldn't be making these moves if they didn't add up. Choose plants, and if not, choose Beyond or Impossible, for your plate, and your investments.

Where it all comes together

The Washington Post let this ad run and, well, I'll let Emily tell it over at HEATED. Meanwhile, Australia is quickly becoming unlivable (related: Tucson). On the other hand, sea ice is melting faster than anticipated, which means northern winters are going to get more brutal. And the second order effects aren't just flooding. There's a whole bunch of infrastructure that's not made to handle salt water.

Speaking of minerals -- lithium is fraught with sourcing issues. California's Imperial Valley (85% Latino) wants to change that. Meanwhile, the key to heating our buildings might be right under our feet with massively expanded geothermal. Speaking of under our feet (I'll stop now), a bunch of America's most prominent farmers got together to fight climate change, in Washington. That's...unexpected. And The Netherlands has gone HAM on fake meat (I'm sorry, it's almost over).

Finally: we've spent decades either on the cusp or miles away from solving Alzheimer's. New revelations include a link to your gut, and by way of ADDI, a new big data initiative with help from that monster (j/k) Bill Gates.