Welcome back, Shit Givers.

In brief: Biden’s plan, explained; financial climate risk, uncovered; at-home COVID tests, approved; pesticide poisonings, revealed

This Week

It’s never enough.

There could never be enough effort focused on eradicating pediatric cancer, until it’s gone.

Or urban heat, until every red-lined city block is as cool as the rest.

Or air pollution, until we’re all free and clear.

Or jobs, until we’ve all got one, if we want one, and until those jobs are meaningful, and productive for the greater good.

But there’s a difference between enough, and a first step in the right direction, to making things right.

And if perfect is the enemy of done, then we can recognize historic progress when we see it, and finally -- finally -- get started on a journey that may takes decades, but could transform billions of lives, and every ecosystem on this, our one livable planet, in our otherwise very quiet backwater stretch of the galaxy.

This week, Joe Biden, perhaps the least attractive Democratic candidate for progressive voters for about sixty-seven reasons, announced The American Jobs Plan.

It’s a suite of measures that so blows away anything from the last 50 years, it nearly measures up to the decades of destructive austerity and deregulation that require it in the first place.

Included are unparalleled American investments in:

• Clean energy (and divestments from existing dirty sources)
• EV manufacturing and charging
• Public transit, trains, and transmission
• A clean electricity standard
• Clean water and climate resilience
• Hydrogen, building retrofits, carbon capture, and more

Investments that will spur millions of jobs in a transformational, transitional economy to help us climb out of the poverty and suffering from fossil fuels and COVID to something better, cleaner, and more just.

Justice is required, and so there are also investments in environmental justice.

It is clear that this administration is not done, as this week they also named the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, a collection of inclusive advisors to further this plan, and more plans like it.

Building a more just future requires not only forward-thinking and funding for new climate tech, but also the ability to listen, and primarily to those who’ve suffered in the past, and continue to do so now.

And if you listen well enough, you might be able to gain some empathy -- defined, simply, as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Building back better is just another bullshit token marketing push unless we actually begin to atone for our past, guided by inclusive voices most representative of those for whom the system has injured.

It will never be enough, but it’s a start.

We can never let our guard down, we must continue to push, to hold feet to the fire. Humanity has never known an atmosphere so chalked with CO2.

We have to ask the hard questions -- about power, about adaptation, about surrendering to the seas where we must, and fortifying where we can, for those that have suffered the most, and caused the least.

We can use time-honored checks on power and greed, like unions and data-driven regulations, to wield new technologies that harness but do not destroy the oldest and most plentiful power we know: nature itself.

Climate Change & Clean Energy

Popped collars means climate oversight

Understand this: New Treasury Secretary and fashion icon (come at me) Janet Yellen called climate change an existential threat and the nastiest emerging risk to financial systems.

What it means: Forget the terrifying weather treats for a moment, and focus on proactive change.

• Ireland is the first country to divest from fossil fuels
• BlackRock and Vanguard are going “net zero” (FWIW)
• Complicated new EU ESG rules are getting real for US fund managers

You can’t transform the economy without touching the financial systems.

You want a new car, or house, or office building? You get a loan, which is then re-sold, you get insurance, which is then re-insured.

But right now, most of those necessary items don’t factor in climate risk. And that’s a problem, for the scary bad stuff, but also the exciting good stuff.

⚡️ Action Step: I’m so excited to tell you about Project Drawdown’s new “Climate Solutions 101” online course, featuring a murderer’s row of our favorite climate nerds.

Get context and take Action at the same time -- check it out right here.

COVID

Better than a scan-tron

Understand this: For what was actually a year, but felt like the course of human history, public health experts have been pleading with the U.S. FDA to approve over the counter, at-home rapid COVID tests.

Today they got their wish. From NPR:

“The newly authorized tests in the fight against COVID-19 are Abbott’s BinaxNOW test and Quidel’s QuickVue.

“This is a huge milestone,” Dr. Michael Mina, a Harvard epidemiologist who has been a vocal advocate for widespread rapid tests, wrote in a statement responding to the news. “Having an inexpensive over-the-counter test can stop the virus from spreading by detecting people who are infectious and giving them an opportunity to know their status and ideally isolate accordingly.”

The authorizations come two weeks after the FDA created a simple pathway for companies that already had authorized tests to be able to apply to sell an over-the-counter version.”

What it means: While (for now) the tests won’t be cheap (probably in the $20 for two tests range), the approvals are a huge step towards tracking the virus in real-time and making interactions outside the home a much safer reality.

But the government will have to help them produce many, many more of them, if we truly want to canvas the population day in and day out.

⚡️ Action Step: Vaccinated? Volunteering? Up next? Still waiting your turn? We can’t forget the millions who are suffering from COVID or grief or both, but we can also look forward to what’s next.

Check out the New York Times’ new tool for figuring out what you can safely do once you’re fully vaccinated.

Medicine & Bio-tech

Where the grass is actually greener

Understand this: Racist, redlined American housing is closer to toxic air, has less reliable water, is less cool in the summer, and more prone to flooding.

The lack of green space not only makes the block hotter, but deprives its citizens of an increasingly wide swath of mental health benefits.

From New Scientist:

“The evidence of positive effects from nature includes studies on specific psychological conditions such as depression, anxiety and mood disorder. Access to nature has also been found to improve sleep and reduce stress, increase happiness and reduce negative emotions, promote positive social interactions and even help generate a sense of meaning to life. Being in green environments boosts various aspects of thinking, including attention, memory and creativity, in people both with and without depression.”

What it means: Despite COVID emptying out many of the world’s major cities, urbanization is still on the rise, in urban areas big and small, old and new.

Diverse, sustainable, equitably distributed and accessible green spaces have to be a part of every urban planning decision.

⚡️ Action Step: Go local. Check out The Nature Capital Project, a Stanford-based global partnership that works with decision-makers to develop measurable nature-based solutions for cities around the world, including yours.

Go Deeper

What the hell is infrastructure week, anyways?

Get Volts: When I need a thoughtful, extended take on clean energy fundamentals -- from batteries to transmission to EV’s, all included in the new Biden plan, above -- I start with David Roberts at Volts.

A long-time energy explainer at Vox, Roberts went solo earlier this year, writes with exceptional clarity, and also posts about his adorable dog.

Check out his work right here.

Food & Water

Pesticide risks are growing

Understand this: The pesticide lobby is no joke. Despite a 2006 UN recommendation for a progressive ban on highly hazardous pesticides, there’s been almost zero progress.

What it means: Pesticide use is growing like crazy, and that means poisonings are, too.

Civil Eats has more on a defining new study:

“Last December, four researchers from Germany, Malaysia, and the United States published the results of a systematic review estimating the number of unintentional pesticide poisonings and fatalities globally.

The conclusion was startling: An estimated 44 percent of farmers, farmworkers, and pesticide applicators experience at least one incident of acute pesticide poisoning on the job every year, and 11,000 die annually from accidental pesticide poisoning.”

⚡️ Action Step: The Pesticide Action Network is working to stop kids from getting sick, make change at the EPA and USDA, and protect bees. Join a campaign here.

The Round Up

The Pfizer-BioNTech seems to be exceptionally protective in kids over 12. Amen.

Netflix is going net-zero, and with an actual plan

A cool graph showing which countries are using how much clean energy, right now

Blue Steel is out, green steel is in -- hopefully

Europe’s in the midst of their worst droughts since Excalibur was still stuck in a rock

South Korea wants to build a wind industry, but local residents are up in arms. Welcome to the table!

ProPublica is out with a devastating report on Georgia’s coal ash issues. A must read, as they’re not alone.

Pod Guests - In The News

Dr. C. Brandon Ogbunu says it’s time for scientists (like himself) to admit where they were wrong this year. Because it’s good for science.

Dr. Sian Proctor was selected as one of the SpaceX Inspiration4 crew members to go to orbit!

‍