Welcome back, Shit Givers.

My self-care this week has been Victories Greater Than Death, by the wonderful human that is Charlie Jane Anders. 5 stars.

In brief: Fossil fuel financing; India’s COVID summer; MDMA to the rescue; how to fix our water pipes

This Week

The end result of a transformation is awesome. The first step sucks.

You know what I’m talking about.

Cutting your expenses, cutting back on Starbucks milkshakes, going for your first run in a year, deconstructing a complex industry that is part and parcel to how we define ourselves, that stretches from the Amazon to your plate.

But often, transformation is necessary. Your budget said so. Your doctor said so. Your only habitable planet said so.

Just look at the image above.

We need radical change, but we can’t just skip the loooooong part where everything changes.

The opportunity for change, the act of changing, brings enormous benefits, previously unavailable or unattainable.

But growing pains are unavoidable, and just the act of tying the laces on your new Allbirds running shoes means opening up a Pandora’s box of what else is broken, besides your hamstrings and enthusiasm.

Deciding to pursue change means acknowledging all the ways we’ve exposed ourselves, however painful the fixes may be.

The status quo simply cannot endure.

We’ve known Black, Latino, Native American, and Asian Americans are disproportionately exposed to heat and air pollutants.

But new research goes further, showing exactly how much the deck is purposefully stacked against them.

And we’re shocked when their COVID mortality rates are so high.

Red meat is among our most complicated -- and fraught -- topics. Meat is basically the 51st star on the American flag, but meat gives us cardiopulmonary conditions, destroys the rainforests, our antibiotics supply, our soil, water, and air -- but we don’t regulate factory farm emissions. Yet.

Tesla has dragged EV’s into the mainstream, and along the way, made itself profitable -- in large part due to selling emissions-credits to companies that don’t make the mark.

But change is afoot.

Those same manufacturers are on the up and up (finally), meeting standards and building hundreds of new EV models, and now Tesla’s looking at a giant hole in their budget. Now it gets real.

Australia’s on fire basically all the time, but foreign investors hold on. “You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water,” said one investor. “Ultimately, you’re trying to meet both the ESG and investment objective.” Felt cute, should probably delete later.

Natural gas has been America’s cheap “bridge fuel” of choice for a decade, but now that we know it explodes anywhere, at any time, and poisons you within your home, morale at HQ is not great, Bob.

Despite revised US flood maps, disclosure laws haven’t caught up, and you might not know what you’re in for until you’re swimming in it.

Farmers might get paid for no till farming, but they’re still tilling, because they can.

Banks are among some of the largest corporate office space holders in the world. We need to electrify buildings everywhere. But banks produce 700x more emissions from loans they give to emissions-heavy industry than they do their buildings.

People love to say “it’s about the journey, not the destination”, but they’re not the ones on this goddamn treadmill sweating it out at 5:45 AM.

But there’s no avoiding the hard work required.

Lace ‘em up, and let’s go.

Climate Change & Clean Energy

That’s not gonna cut it

Understand this: The direct and indirect financing of fossil fuels and emissions-heavy industry will remain a thorn in the side of a better, cleaner world until stricter regulations make them a no-go.

That could be sooner than later.

From Bloomberg Green:

“The European Central Bank is preparing to challenge lenders in the region on their view of how much risk they face from climate change and may impose individual requirements for those found to be most exposed.

The ECB is examining assessments by 112 relevant big lenders on whether they meet expectations its supervisory watchdog set out in November, according to Frank Elderson, an executive board member at the central bank.”

What it means: We’re not there yet.

Just this week, shareholders at Barclays -- Europe’s biggest fossil fuel funder -- voted down a proposal to quit coal, oil, and gas.

⚡️ Action Step: If you’re an institutional investor, join up with Climate Action 100+, a group with over $54 trillion under management, supporting stronger governance around climate risk, reduction of emissions, and corporate disclosures in line with TFCD.

Not an institutional investor? Check out Betterment’s Climate Impact Portfolio.

Our fascinating conversation with Boris Khentov, SVP of Ops at Betterment, is right here.

COVID

India burns

Understand this: While Global North populations barrel towards Hot Vax Summer, India’s burning their dead in the street.

Out of beds, out of oxygen, out of firewood, where priests are bribed to conduct final prayers, the worst is still ahead. Sound familiar?

But where America changed political leadership just in time, India cannot do the same.

What it means: In a country of 1.4 billion people -- 18% of the galaxy’s known population -- cases and deaths are almost certainly being undercounted, and political leadership is nowhere to be found -- at best.

⚡️ Action Step: Shit Givers are an interdisciplinary strike force and among the most impactful groups online. You are scientists, policymakers, investors and engineers, and medical professionals. This is why we exist.

We can help in two ways: Volunteer your expertise here, or donate to organizations pre-screened by volunteers for coverage (across geographies and targeted to groups that would otherwise be underserved), track record, and urgency.

Important, Not Important will match donations up to $1000. Just send us a screenshot of your receipt at questions@importantnotimportant.com.

Medicine & Biotech

Get your head straight, with Ecstasy

Understand this: 7% of the US population will eventually experience PTSD, including 13% of vets.

Up to half never find relief.

And that’s before COVID tore through frontline medical workers, families, and more.

Enter MDMA.

From The New York Times:

“Of the 90 people who took part in a new study... those who received MDMA during therapy experienced a significantly greater reduction in the severity of their symptoms compared with those who received therapy and an inactive placebo.

Two months after treatment, 67 percent of participants in the MDMA group no longer qualified for a diagnosis of PTSD, compared with 32 percent in the placebo group.”

What it means: MDMA treatment still requires therapy to be effective, it’s still very early, we don’t totally understand how it works, and this was a small trial.

But! More trials are underway, and this is the first progress we’ve had in forever.

Said one long-suffering Iraq vet, “The reason I like calling this medicine is it stimulated my own consciousness’s ability for self-healing. You understand why it’s OK to experience unconditional love for yourself.”

⚡️ Action Step: Trauma survivor and popular author/writer/podcast host Tim Ferris has put together an excellent “Psychedelics 101” resource to help you understand the basics of the science, the people behind the new research, and research centers you can support.

Get it here.

Food & Water

The Leaky Cauldron of Democracy

Understand this: As long as America’s pipes are leaking, it’ll always be infrastructure week around here.

But -- wait -- do you hear that? Is it good news? For...marginalized Americans?

“The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $35 billion measure to clean up the nation’s water systems... (it) would authorize funding to shore up the nation’s water systems, particularly in rural and tribal communities that have long been neglected and suffer from poor sanitation and unclean drinking water.”

What it means: Biden’s infrastructure/secret climate change bill is still a non-starter with Senate Republicans, whose leader said this week “One hundred percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.” So.

⚡️ Action Step: This is a great moment to pause, and use two minutes to call your senators to advocate for H.R. 1, because clean water is even harder to come by when you don’t have a functioning democracy.

The Round Up

Beyond Meat fake chicken is on the way

This is how Pfizer makes the COVID vaccine.

California would like Nestle to stop stealing millions of gallons of precious water

We doubled the average life span from 1920-2020. Science played a big part. But so did activism

ShakeAlert, the earthquake warning system, is live for the entire west coast

Speaking of the west coast -- California’s drought is “mind boggling”

Biden’s hustling to protect our power grid from hackers

The USDA extended universal free lunch through 2021-2022. It should be permanent.

Where the hell are we doing to put a half-million EV chargers?

Mapping 2.0: Forest carbon offsets; America’s most polluted neighborhoods; Methane emissions

There’s no easy way to say this: there was an all hands on deck asteroid impact simulation, and it did NOT end well.

The EPA is slashing fridge/AC pollutants. This is a very big win

I love my electric bike so much (1200 miles commuted since last July!), despite it not making the list of the 13 best e-bikes

Pod Guests - In The News

Anshuman Bapna and Terra.do are making waves online, and back home in India

Dr. Natalie Kofler says uncertainties remain about the genetically-modified mosquitoes dumped on Florida this week

James Rodgers and Apeel have teamed up with Imperfect Foods to get their long-lasting produce in more hands

Bina Venkataraman will be the USC commencement speaker

Rep. Sean Casten, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and other House and Senate Democrats re-introduced a mandatory climate-risk disclosure bill

Hana Kajimura and Allbirds are collaborating with Adidas on more sustainable supply chains and materials