Welcome back, Shit Givers.

It’s hurricane season, Chipotle is testing their own in-house fake chorizo, and rattlesnakes can fool human ears. If only curating the news were so easy.

Last week’s most popular Action Step was Call 4 Climate. That’s awesome. Let’s keep it up!

Have an Action Step to recommend? Send it to questions@importantnotimportant.com, and we’ll put it through our vetting process!

Special Action Step: please support women journalists in Afghanistan -- those trying to stay, and those trying to flee for their lives -- through the International Women’s Media Foundation.

This week: Flood insurance; Booster shots; Pesticides; TikTok

Do Better Better

Tackling the low-hanging fruit of transformative change is like eating leftovers (often it’s actually just eating actual leftovers, like over-ripe bananas or cold pizza, and eliminating food waste right in your own kitchen, done and done).

Leftovers aren’t necessarily the sexiest choice, but eating them can 1) be delicious and 2) the most efficient choice, and 3) in the short term, the most impactful -- because it’s the most immediately doable.

The pizza is right there in your fridge in a half-closed Zip-lock you’ve earnestly tried to reuse to do...something. Anything.

I’m here to tell you, the little things add up. Action begets action. Start small.

Take methane, for example.

Some 80+ times more potent than carbon dioxide when measured in something called “global warming potentials” (we don’t need to get into the math here. It’s bad).

Yes, yes, in many cases methane is a natural by-product of some ecosystems and has been for billions of years. Sure.

But when we talk about tackling methane, it means using planes and some super fucking cool new satellites to identify -- in real-time -- massive, frequent leaks from wells and pipelines; to cancel any new fossil gas infrastructure; to provide incentives and rebates, combined with regulation, to get gas cooktops and furnaces right the hell out of homes everywhere; and to stop raising a trillion cows for slaughter for smashed burgers, because increased big ag land use means fewer rainforests, which means it’s getting even warmer, which means all those marshes and also the melting/burning Arctic will spit out more methane and CO2 than we can even imagine.

Here’s the good news.

The half-life of methane is so short compared to CO2 that eliminating as many sources as possible will buy us a substantial amount of time as we decarbonize the power sector, and transportation, etc -- in fact, it could slow the rate of warming by something like 30%. That’s nuts.

And it’s all doable with current tech.

Thanks to hard-working folks across America, we’ve shed most of our dependency on coal.

But we made it up with all this unprofitable fossil gas. For context, here’s a map of how much of your power is coming from gas right this second.

The science is undisputed, btw -- here’s 45 peer-reviewed papers describing how the methane issue is way worse than anticipated, which helps illustrate why CARBON reductions have been offset by methane leaks, and why we need to tackle this fixable problem, right meow.

What are some similar low-hanging fruit across the INI spectrum? Click here to read the rest of the (unintentionally) longer essay.

Climate Change & Clean Energy

Operate from a place of self-awareness

Understand this: Much of living productively in this discontinuity -- the power sector, our ecosystems, and our geopolitics are undergoing a complete overhaul; COVID will be with us for a very long time; solar is mostly the cheapest energy of all time, etc -- requires a level of self-awareness we’re not willing to confront, yet.

But acceptance usually leads to a willingness to deal with the present as it actually is.

Getting there seems to be the issue of the day.

From InsideClimateNews:

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been collecting a lot of information about flood risks across America, including the increased risk of flooding linked to climate change. But the agency has not effectively used that new knowledge to persuade more Americans to buy flood insurance, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

As a result, homeowners are at increasing risk of costly damage from floods, and the government is facing rising costs for disaster relief assistance, the report found. The report called on Congress to consider requiring FEMA to evaluate how the agency can use the “comprehensive and up-to-date flood risk information” it has been collecting to determine which properties should be required to have flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program.”

Meanwhile:

• Up to 25% more of the global population is currently exposed to floods (around 290 million people), 10x higher than previous estimates
• The infamous Jersey Shore’s going bye bye
• China’s more worried about controlling the message than the flooding
• Indian monsoons are more destructive than ever
• Floods in Cameroon have doubled in just the last five years
• The moon’s natural wobbling means even worse flooding

Flooding alone -- ignore the fires out West, and not including hurricanes! -- has cost the US something like $199 billion from 1988-2017.

But despite all of this and even, yes, slim majorities in both houses of Congress, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has objected to adjusted flood insurance rates -- because steeper rates for high-value homes in the Hamptons would finally be priced appropriately.

We can Do Better Better.

⚡️ Action Step: States, cities, corps and NGO’s can benefit from rapid and localized flood data. Check out FloodMapp to upgrade your locality's situational awareness.

COVID

God, we are so bad at math

Booster shots are coming, but not without extensive controversy.

From the AP:

“U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines’ effectiveness is slipping.

The plan, as outlined by the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top health authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20.”

France and Germany are right behind, and Israel has already gotten boosters underway.

Questions abound, and not just from you. Is efficacy against severe disease waning? Maybe! Maybe not!

“I worry very much that this is going to lead to vaccination chaos”, one infectious disease expert told STAT.

The World Health Organization called for a moratorium on booster shots until fall, to free up supplies for low-income nations -- like those in Africa, where just 2% of the continent’s population has been fully vaccinated.

2%.

Meanwhile, shots produced in Africa are being shipped out of Africa.

Understand this: The Delta variant, vastly more infectious than any previous mutations and currently laying waste to places like Florida, was first picked up in India.

But Joe Biden wants to protect Americans. To paraphrase The Mandalorian -- this is not the way.

You see, viruses don’t care about borders. They care about susceptible hosts.

Every single person we leave unvaccinated, no matter where they live, is not only another life at risk, but another opportunity for the virus to mutate again, inside that person, and then cause havoc wherever they may be, or even, again, eventually, in Florida.

The political math is far more complex, and far more fraught than it’s ever been. I empathize. I’m a realist. It's fun.

But if we’ve learned anything from the climate movement, pressure works.

It’s Friday August 20th 2021, and 5 billion people remain unvaccinated.

⚡️ Action Step: Despite increased vaccine numbers at home this week, we’re still leaving a lot of folks unprotected.

Help fight disinformation among Black and Latinx groups in your area by exploring and sharing The Conversation, a video-heavy campaign led by pediatrician and public health advocate Dr. Rhea Boyd. Share the materials on Facebook!

Medicine & Biotech

A half-century later

Understand this: One of Donald Trump’s most notable and dangerous ignorant policies (and that’s saying something) has been reversed.

From The New York Times:

“The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it is banning a common pesticide, widely used since 1965 on fruits and vegetables, from use on food crops because it has been linked to neurological damage in children.

The Environmental Protection Agency said this week it would publish a regulation to block the use of chlorpyrifos on food. One of the most widely used pesticides, chlorpyrifos is commonly applied to corn, soybeans, apples, broccoli, asparagus and other produce.

[...] In compliance with the court order, which noted that the science linking chlorpyrifos to brain damage is over a decade old, the rule will be published in final form, without a draft or public comment period.”

⚡️ Action Step: Support Earthjustice, one of the petition signatories and a highly-regarded charity, so their 170+ lawyers can keep suing to protect you, our kids, and the environment.

Important Job of the Week

Drive pediatric cancer research

Research Program Director, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation

Look. Cancer is the worst. But kids cancer? GTFO.

The Research Program Director at Alex’s will oversee the Foundation’s prestigious research work at over 100 institutions, helping to develop new cures and save a bunch of little lives. God, I wish I were smart enough to do this job.

If you’ve got an advanced degree in biomedical and/or translational research and get the grant cycle world -- please apply for this very awesome job.

Food & Water

What’s the future of meat work?

Understand this: If any good has come of this pandemic, besides more baking, I guess, it’s the stupendous growth of plant-based foods.

A new Bloomberg report calls for the market to:

• Be almost 8% of the global protein market by 2030
• Be valued at over $162 billion
• Support population growth, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, where food supplies are already limited

Even Cargill (Cargill!) has admitted that plant-based meat would be 10% of the meat market, and soon.

But increasing and increasingly severe weather threatens food supplies worldwide and drives up prices of what remains, the question of what happens to legacy meat and dairy food workers is a big one.

Take another step back, and understand an estimated 73% of US farmworkers are immigrants, and half of all crop hands are undocumented.

If coal and oil workers were (somewhat) able to transition into gas, wind, and solar work -- what can we learn from that ramshackle conversion to move immigrant meat, dairy (and soy and corn) farmers and farmhands into, say, the legumes business?

Regulating meat and reducing subsidies for corn and soy are a start. Transition programs, transferrable to small and large farms alike, are an efficient next step.

⚡️ Action Step: In the meantime, it’s hot as shit out there, and farm workers have basically zero protections.

Take 30 seconds to fill out the Union of Concerned Scientists form urging your members of Congress to support the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, ensuring essential protections from extreme heat for workers.

The Human-Machine Interface

TikTok misinformation enters the chat

Understand this: Facebook would like you to think they’re working against COVID misinformation, releasing a report that claims credit for banning 3000 accounts, groups, and pages.

Doesn’t seem like much, but then again, another recent report claimed just 12 people were responsible for the bulk of the damage (Facebook disagrees with the reports methodology).

Enter TikTok.

“In (a new) report, Media Matters... kept tabs on 18 specific vaccine misinformation videos (on TikTok) and found that at the conclusion of its research, those videos had garnered a combined total of more than 57 million total views.

The tracked content reportedly included a video that told viewers that “your children and elderly that are not vaccinated will be removed permanently from your home,” (3.9 million views) and a video promoting a hoax about “vaccine bandits” who will “walk up to you on the street and they ask if you’re vaccinated and if you hesitate at all, they inject you with a vaccine right on the spot,” (6.3 million views).”

⚡️ Action Step: Mis- and disinformation are two of the biggest issues of our time. The superb Montreal AI Ethics Institute is partnering with AI Policy Labs for a discussion around AI and the climate fight (any ethics lessons gleaned are absolutely transferrable to infectious disease, FYI).

The event is September 9th, on Zoom, where you live, forever. You can register for just $10 here.

From My Notebook

There’s a new Indigenous-led student movement to protect California’s waters

Meet the law firms helping fossil fuel companies

ICYMI: the new app greatly reducing solar permitting times

• And here’s some ideas for how to recycle old panels

Siberia’s wildfires are bigger than all of the other wildfires, combined

Are we...actually getting closer to fusion?

Tiny 3D printed houses are a big deal

In Texas, you can now carry handguns without a permit, so

How do we enforce climate court victories?

Leaky sewage pipes in Baltimore are no bueno for the Chesapeake Bay

It was 124 Fahrenheit Sicily this week. That’s not amore.

You can brush your teeth religiously and still get cavities, which is bullshit, but is probably tied to your microbiome (like everything else)

Public work project investments have an insane ROI. Speaking of, here’s how to build 500k EV chargers.

Another mutation in Alzheimer’s means more questions for diagnosis and treatment

500,000 tests a week. $350 million. Some planes. 1000 healthcare techs. How LAUSD is testing...everyone, every week.

We’re re-evaluating depression, at the source

Amid soaring hunger, food stamp benefits will permanently expand by over 25% starting this fall. Tremendous news.

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 for free here.

• Cofounder, Counterfactual Ventures (Remote)
• Product Designer, LeanTaaS (Remote)
• Software Engineer, Hardware Systems, Kairos Aerospace (Mountain View)
• Senior Software Engineer, Eleanor Health (Remote)
• Scientist, Cell-Free Applications, LanzaTech (Illinois)
• Controller, C16 Biosciences (New York)

Browse 60+ open roles, or list your own for free at ImportantJobs.com.

Important Pod Guests - In The News

Dr. Carissa Veliz on the ethics of vaccine mandates and passports

Sarafina Nance has started her tenure on fake Mars!

Hana Kajimura on Allbirds new sustainable activewear

Reverend Mitch Hescox on the urgency of the IPCC Report

James Rogers on Apeel’s huge new funding round

Jessica Cisneros on her opponent and the infrastructure act

Deepsea Dawn Wright and ESRI have partnered with the National Geographic Society to help preserve more of the ocean -- and train more mappers to uncover what’s down there!

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

-- Quinn

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