Welcome back, Shit Givers.

In brief: Pivotal new green voters, discovered; Africa's 3rd COVID wave; The dawn of biotech; Food labels are bullshit; An old category re-revealed, if that's a thing

This Week

It’s time to move on.

As we undergo this great transformation -- one I don’t believe most folks, including myself, are even remotely prepared for -- there will be peoples, systems, and tangible fundamentals left behind, abandoned, even.

Those are popularly referred to as “stranded assets.”

And when, over the course of just a hundred years or so, a (reasonably) intelligent biped species discovers the ability to power their creations through means other than brute strength, and subsequently bases their entire geopolitics and economies upon the extraction of a single, finite, resource, those assets are pretty easy to identify -- and incredibly vulnerable.

Fossil fuel production facilities across the globe aren’t closing down today, per se, but current owners are quickly finding them imminently less useful because of reduced demand, public pressure, the potential for regulation, or affordability -- that is, the cost of capital is way, way up.

When they’re no longer valuable, they’re abandoned (or picked up by private equity groups, who inexplicably believe there’s a long-term play here, hashtag the ocean is on fire), from Texas to California.

But we can’t just move on.

We can’t leave a bunch of oil rigs in our precious seas, waiting to rip a hole in the ocean floor and then we’re all stuck with another environmental disaster AND a Mark Whalberg hero movie.

These companies can’t just file for bankruptcy and leave thousands of oil wells uncapped across the permian basin, and next to schools and bedrooms in greater Los Angeles, polluting the air and water around them.

And it’s vital to ask not just who will pay to clean them up, but who suffers because they haven’t been.

If you don’t live next to an uncapped oil well (or a highway), methane and soot might not seem like a big deal.

But for people marginalized in every conceivable way, there’s a ticking clock stuck on 11:59, poisoning bodies and minds every fucking day.

Being accountable for our past is a necessary part, if heretofore ignored step in adaptation, transformation, in living in this discontinuity -- the end of the beginning of humanity’s reliance on power that is not our own, and a powerful if costly step to move forward into a cleaner tomorrow.

It’s time to reverse who’s bearing those costs -- to make the guilty pay -- and Do Better Better.

Climate Change & Clean Energy

Seeking a friend for the end of the world

Understand this: One of my favorite voting-advocacy groups has identified a “secret” voter bloc that could help swing some red states to blue -- and bring on some serious state and municipal climate action.

From Inside Climate News:

“There are hundreds of thousands of low-propensity environmental voters (LPEVs) in purple states like Georgia and Arizona, both of which narrowly went for Joe Biden in November, the report said.

These voters turn out in presidential years but then don’t vote in local or mid-term elections. They fall largely in the 18-34 age range and are both more likely to be women and less likely to be white than the general voting population.

With cities playing an important role in setting climate policy and regulating transportation, building efficiency and utilities, Stinnett is closely watching the more than 500 mayoral elections across the country this year.”

What it means: Every vote counts.

As if you needed a reminder:

• North America just suffered it’s hottest June ever
• 3/5 of all likely voters want climate infrastructure work to pass through reconciliation
• Our friends at Evergreen Action insist that include a Clean Electricity Standard, Clean Energy Tax incentives, a Civilian Climate Corps, investments in climate justice, clean manufacturing, and the death of fossil fuel subsidies

Meanwhile, the average US citizen consumes more than 10x the energy of the average Indian, 4-5x that of a Brazilian, and 3x more than China -- still.

But our very very broken Senate is held hostage to big bucks and remnants of the past -- including Exxon.

So: more environmental voters in red states could drive local action.

We know cities (like Chicago, even) are where climate hits, and where we can adapt the fastest, from concrete to equitable mass transit.

In the northwest, one terrifying heat wave will follow the last -- both of which are positively linked and made vastly more likely thanks to the climate crisis.

But it’s not just Seattle in the oven: despite having what could have been our first climate president as governor, Washington’s farmers fear for their crops, and people across the state can’t cool down their bodies at night.

In California, the governor has asked for voluntary water reductions, and your precious almond butter is under attack, as farmers die of heat stroke, probably after ripping out their water-hungry almond trees.

Radical action will get us there.

• California’s huge new battery order is like nothing else before it.
• Reno will become the first US city to track greenhouse gas emissions -- in real time
• We can fill this map with wind and solar -- and the HD transmission lines to get them from one state to another

⚡️ Action Step: Support and volunteer with the Environmental Voter Project -- they’re not trying to win elections, they’re trying to turn out more undercover Shit Givers. Let’s go.

COVID

To understand Africa, look to India. Or not.

Understand this: What can the progress of COVID on the Indian subcontinent tell us about a potential third wave across 55-ish countries across Africa?

From MIT:

“The catastrophe that has struck millions of Indians is the direct outcome of the government’s failures: its failure to plan ahead by increasing hospital capacity and acquiring medicines; its failure to figure out contact tracing, collect adequate data, and purchase vaccines. Even after it became clear that a second wave was inevitable, the government went ahead with superspreader events that served its own political purposes—and gave the virus a new opportunity.”

Meanwhile (FT):

“African countries from Uganda to South Africa are buckling under a ferocious third wave of coronavirus infections as the continent falls far behind the rest of the world in vaccinations.

The rolling seven-day average of new African cases rose to about 25,000 a day last week from 7,000 in the middle of May, according to data from Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Doctors have warned of dwindling hospital beds and oxygen supplies as more than a dozen nations are reporting their worst levels of infection since the pandemic began, just as they are struggling to launch mass rollouts of vaccines.”

The biggest difference? Besides, again, one enormous country with a dangerously ignorant leader, vs 50+ countries with a variety of political systems, on an entirely different continent?

India, FWIW, is home to one of the world’s largest vaccine makers. Africa...is not.

Also: greed.

“The world’s richest economies have secured enough planned deliveries of approved doses to cover their populations more than four and a half times over, but the poorest have only procured enough for 10% of theirs.”

And distributing the vaccines they have received across those countries hasn’t been an easy feat, either.

⚡️ Action Step: Project HOPE is on the ground in 20+ countries in Africa delivering comprehensive COVID-19 training programs (online and offline) for health workers at the frontlines of the crisis.

You can donate to those efforts here, volunteer your time here, or "shop" for specific items like a training class, thermometers, and PPE.

Medicine & Biotech

Reverse course

Fact: “The Honorable Katie Porter is on the phone” is decidedly not something you ever want to hear.

Some context: A couple weeks ago, we covered the FDA’s surprising and controversial approval of Aduhelm, a drug for Alzheimer’s patients.

This week, the backlash got real when back channel liaisons were revealed, and well, here comes the whiteboard.

“Facing sharp criticism for approving a controversial drug for all Alzheimer’s patients, the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday greatly narrowed its recommendation, suggesting that only those with mild memory or thinking problems should receive it.

The F.D.A.’s turnabout, highly unusual for a drug that has only been available for a few weeks, could considerably reduce the number of eligible patients. The initial label, saying the drug could be appropriate for anyone with Alzheimer’s, encompassed about six million Americans. Under the revised label, as many as two million Americans would likely be eligible.”

What it means: With the advent of mRNA, genomic sequencing, and machine learning, biotech is moving at a ridiculous pace.

Just this week:

• Moderna (the ones who put the 5G chip in your arm, j/k) announced they dosed somebody with their new near-universal flu vaccine
• Scientists dropped a handful of “gene silencers” into pig hearts, instigating the muscles to regenerate after heart attack damage
• Swedish scientists activated a protein that may allow far more cancer patients access to immunotherapy
• Grail Inc, the subtly-named diagnostics startup, finally released their (maybe) revolutionary blood test for 13 types of cancer

But is it all a money grab?

In the US, dozens of cancer meds are substantially more expensive than European versions, with no identifiable association between price and clinical benefit.

Cool.

⚡️ Action Step: Before we start regrowing limbs (which, to be clear, would be a delight), let’s fix basic prescription pricing.

Take less than a minute to call your reps with 5Calls.org and insist they support HR 3, the “Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act”.

Your Brand Goes Here

An exclusive offer

For the first time, we’re opening our doors to sponsors.

But not just anybody.

Potential sponsors should clear a pretty high bar: sustainable operations, preferably (but not required) a B Corp and/or member of 1% For The Planet, and provide exceptional value.

In return, you get exclusive monthly (or quarterly) attention from our incredible community, across our properties in a package deal.

We’re already booking into the fall. Reply directly to this email with interest and for more details.

Food & Water

Don’t believe everything you read

Especially “Best by” food labels: Nobody’s interested in food poisoning.

But how likely is it, actually?

From the invaluable Alissa Wilkinson at Vox:

“Every year, the average American family throws out somewhere between $1,365 and $2,275, according to a landmark 2013 study co-authored by the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic and the Natural Resources Defense Council. It’s a huge economic loss for food growers and retailers, who often have to ditch weirdly shaped produce or overstocked food that didn’t sell.

Environmentally it’s bad, too. The study found that 25 percent of fresh water in the US goes toward producing food that goes uneaten, and 21 percent of input to our landfills is food, which represents a per-capita increase of 50 percent since 1974.

[...] There are two vital facts to know about date labels on foods in the US: They’re not standardized, and they have almost nothing to do with food safety.”

A smarter move: Sniff it. Taste it.

Shit, you can even plop an egg into a glass of water. If it sinks, you’re good for omelets. If not, maybe no.

⚡️ Action Step: Learn how to build a food waste program in your town with our conversation with Rick Nahmias, founder of Food Forward, the LA-based org that rescues 100,000 pounds of fresh food -- EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Human-Machine Interface

New headline, who dis

I’ve retooled the category name for this section, borrowing a legacy term to encompass how I cover the area: that is, the many steps forward and MANY steps backwards being made across all of the ways humans and “machines” -- from software to hardware -- are becoming more entwined with (if less understandable to) one another than ever before.

A quick reintroduction: AL, ML, Facebook groups, ransomware, crypto, blockchain, facial recognition, YouTube algorithms, medicinal pattern matching, those terrifyingly adorably dancing robots -- they’ve all got one unifying factor:

They’re products and systems designed and implemented by humans.

And then all bets are off.

The biases we bring to the game are just as important as the innovations.

And every step we take forward without dealing with those will only further exacerbate (if not accelerate) systemic biases, hate speech, and marginalization.

⚡️ Action Step: Watch this space, and build AI ethics into your team with this handy guide.

The Round Up

Donate blood ASAP. That’s the tweet.

Can nanosensors help us understand which droughts will survive more droughts?

Now on the block: neighborhood long COVID clinics.

How can solar on farmland help solve California's land, power, and water crises?

The US government has halted distribution of monoclonal antibodies Bamlanivimab and etesevimab for COVID use

Here’s how Biden would like to address wildfire relief

Why is Gen Z so susceptible to dis- and misinformation? It comes down to community.

A full half of China’s planned overseas coal projects have been shelved

Half of European cities have dirty, toxic air

San Francisco remapped their "here's what might happen during a tsunami" map

Here’s how to be ready for heat emergencies.

Important Jobs

Every week, we share Featured roles from Important Jobs right here in the newsletter.

Hiring and want to get your open role in front of our community? Submit a Featured role here.

• Country Director, GiveDirectly
• US Senior Program Manager, GiveDirectly
• Full Stack Software Developer, Joro

Browse all open roles, or add your own at ImportantJobs.com.

Important Pod Guests - In The News

Sarafina Nance talks about training for her Mars simulation after undergoing a double masectomy

James Rogers told Dot.LA about Apeel's next steps

Thanks for reading, and thanks for giving a shit.

-- Quinn