Welcome back, Shit Givers.

This is Important, Not Important, the newsletter that pairs curated, vital science news and analysis with Action Steps that’ll make you feel good -- and improve the world around you.

You can use it in combination with our Webby-nominated podcast to help us crack the world’s hardest problems.

This week

Gradually, and then suddenly

Joe Biden has been president for about eight and a half days and let me hit you with some TLDR: the man’s not throwing away his shot when it comes to climate, environmental justice, COVID, or science in general.

Legacy industry and activists the world over are simultaneously super sad and super proud. This moment, and all of the executive orders Joe’s crushing -- slipped under his door at night by his plant-based slipper-clad 500 new science minions -- are a direct correlation to the pressure young folks and not-young folks that give a shit, like you, have put on him since 2019.

To be clear, it’s not like industry’s turning on a dime. They’ve known there was more or less a 50% chance that a Democrat would win in 2020, and a smaller chance that Democrats would take the Senate. And that if both happened, radical change would be on the docket. I don’t think anyone expected it from Joe, until like yesterday, but he didn’t do this. You did.

You understand that science fundamentals are great but action is necessary, on everything from COVID variants to capping oil wells, from big meat to clean water, from AI ethics and antibiotics to misinformation and mangroves.

And it feels like all of that’s on the list right now. It feels good. Sure, we’ve gotta beat COVID, and we will, even with what could be a very scary couple months coming up, and yes, the seas are warming way faster than we thought, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

We’ve entered an age of possibility, one we’ve been clamoring and fighting for for what feels like forever, and now we get to get to work.

Climate Change & Clean Energy

It’s like Christmas, but Santa’s packing EO’s and budget reconciliation

Building a radically cleaner and more equitable new world will require ending some legacy industries, pivoting others, and building some new ones.

Among the first to go? Fossil fuel infrastructure: pipelines -- and most notably, finance (welcome to newest big divestments, Columbia University, New York, and France!). The Fed’s in.

Transitioning: Power -- energy inequality starts right on your block. The grid -- a complicated one. Micro-transportation -- most trips are under a few miles. Batteries -- could we recharge in just five minutes, and soon? Jobs. Vehicles -- to the tune of a 645,000 government vehicles and private, where GM’s going clean by 2035 and Rivian just raised huge money. Mayor Pete has his eyes on your clunker.

Coming online: carbon capture. Yes, it’s early. Yes, it’s got a lot to prove. Yes, there are other priorities. But we need it.

Rebooting: conservative fear-mongering. But now they’ve gotta go up against our most powerful champion: Moms.

And by the way, all of this, just in time: England’s flood defenses are not great, Bob, and we’re going through ice faster than my wife’s cocktails.

⚡️ Take Action: join or donate to the new Science Moms campaign linked above, led by YouTuber, atmospheric scientist, and supermom Dr. Katharine Hayhoe.

COVID

Version control

If the climate crisis is a race against time, COVID is a microcosm of the same. Biden’s got a 7 point plan: masks, testing, PPE, guidance, vaccines, targeting those most at risk, and building for the inevitable next one.

We’re vaccinating (first dose) over a million people a day. Cases are dropping all over the US, which is great, but the variants are many and multiplying. Please don’t be fooled -- this moment, the next six weeks or so -- is among our most dangerous. It’s the previously infected and vaccinated and mask-wearers (in better masks) vs. variants that are far more contagious and even more deadly. Stay strong.

For those who’ve already gotten their shot -- work is underway to discover just how much transmission is cut by vaccines. More to come in late February.

Major’s best friend Joe ordered 200 million more doses of mRNA shots, but it’s a good moment to stop and ask -- what does that mean? This isn’t DoorDash. Here’s how the supply chain actually works. Breathtaking. (Meanwhile, the Novavax vaccine is on the way, and is 90% effective against all strains -- except the South African strain, at 50%)

But Joe must have also read our feature last week about vaccine hoarding, because he’s also committed to COVAX, the international effort to get shots in arms everywhere. India’s giving away millions of doses, too.

Other groups that need vaccines, stat: Black Americans, who are still dying (nationwide, it varies locally) at 1.5x the rate of white people. For Indigenous and Latinos, it’s 1.2-1.4x. This is unacceptable. Our friends at The COVID Tracking Project have launched a Racial Data Tracker, and efforts are underway to build public messaging campaigns specifically for Black communities. Ring ring LeBron.

Winston Churchill reportedly said “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” And we haven’t.

From Quanta:

Scientists have had to reckon with the limitations of models as tools — and with the realization that pandemics can push the utility of models to the breaking point. The ravages of disease on society intensify the headaches involved in obtaining unbiased, consistent patient data, and they amplify the fickleness and irrationality of human behaviors that the models need to mirror.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of all is simply making sure that decision-makers fully understand what the models are and are not saying, and how uncertain their answers are. But those challenges are also driving huge improvements. The world of epidemiological modeling has seen “a lot of new thinking, new methods,” said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a mathematical biologist at the University of Texas, Austin. “I would venture that we’ve probably progressed as much in the last [10] months as we have in the prior six years.”

⚡️ Take Action: double up those masks, and keep contributing to Feeding America. More than 45% of you have clicked through to feed our neighbors -- an incredible number.

Medicine

Staying power

Vastly improved epidemiological models and viable vaccines in less than a year are one of humankind’s most incredible accomplishments, full stop.

But sometimes, if not most times, the slog is much longer. We just have to stay at it. We’re finally on the cusp of breakthrough treatments for lung cancer, and blood tests for 50 different types of cancer.

And, now, from The New York Times:

It’s what many people with H.I.V. have long awaited: monthly injections to keep the virus in check, instead of the three drugs daily they now must take. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a combination of two monthly shots for treatment of H.I.V. in patients in stable condition. The treatment is called Cabenuva.

Great news. But the system is still broken:

Doses of the combination will cost roughly $4,000 per month, plus $6,000 for the initial dose, according to a spokeswoman for ViiV Healthcare. Some people with H.I.V. may not be able to afford the treatment, said Mark Harrington, who heads Treatment Action Group, an advocacy organization.

Health care is a human right.

⚡️ Take Action: GiveWell is the gold standard for giving, improving the most lives per dollar. There’s plenty of places you can make an impact (hello, that’s why you’re here), but their targets are always among the most effective: malaria and vaccines are on the list.

All We Can Save is All We Can Save

Become a Circle leader, get free signed books!

Last year, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, two of Earth’s mightiest heroes, published an inspirational collection of essays called All We Can Save, gathered from women across the frontlines of the climate fight.

Whether you’ve been in this movement for a long time or you’re still finding your place, AWCS Circles are for you. Circle participants have said this book “changed my life and made me feel seen and heard in a way I never have before. I finally feel like I have a place in the climate movement.”

We are proud to support this book and these women, and so starting today we’re giving away 80 signed copies of the anthology.

Here’s how to get yours:

1. Go to allwecansave.earth/circles
2. Sign up to lead a Circle
3. Take a screenshot of your confirmation
4. Email it to us at questions@importantnotimportant.com, along with your shipping address
5. We send TWO signed copies of the book your way!

Food & water

Beef is still what’s for dinner but the heat is on, if you know what I mean

The oil industry, awash in stranded assets, may be a bell-weather for meat.

From the Financial Times:

Teni Ekundare at the Fairr Initiative, an investor advisory and research network focused on sustainable protein production whose members manage $27tn worth of assets, says more investors are now concerned about the risks for food production linked to climate change.

“Unless things are done, there is a risk that [the meat industry] becomes the next oil and gas with stranded assets,” she says. Many of the world’s biggest meat companies have been slow to respond. According to Fairr’s annual survey of the 60 largest listed protein companies, including meat and fish groups, three out of four have not declared or put in place reduction targets set according to scientific guidelines for emissions. Indeed, in the year to November 2020, more than a third reported a rise in emissions.

It’s not just the meat on your plate. The entire supply chain is harmful (24% of emissions) and wasteful, from deforestation to seafood to soil degradation.

⚡️Take Action: help protect sustainable land (and water) with Conservation International. They’ve locked down 2.3 million square miles and counting. Let’s add to that total.

Thanks as always for reading, and thanks for giving a shit. Have a great weekend.