Welcome back, Shit Givers.

Note to future self: writing the newsletter on American Airlines wifi (owls carrying hand-written notes in their talons) is not advisable.

Last week's most popular Action Step was checking out the Blue Zones research. Live long and prosper, friends.

Have an Action Step to recommend? Send it to questions@importantnotimportant.com, and we’ll evaluate it for future inclusion.

This Week, Summarized: Moving on from Manchin; Kids shots; Forever chemicals regulated (finally); Google vs. Iran

Reminder: You can read this issue on the website, or you can listen to it on the podcast.

Together with The Tonic

https://thetonic.us/

Ahh yes. "Goals." There's no secret to success to achieving one. Setting a goal is like planting a seed. Deliver what's needed, when it's needed, and do so consistently, with patience and faith that your effort's going to pay off. As the “plant” grows, tend to its new needs in new ways — pruning, transplanting, and so on — to keep it rich and healthy, but don't make it complicated: water, sunlight, soil, repeat. Same for running marathon, starting a business, or saving the world. In Robert Stevenson’s words: “Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

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Featured

Do Better Better

"What can I do?"

With federal climate action teetering between hopefully and oblivion and climate scientists and policy-makers clamoring for our so-called last, best chance at comprehensive decarbonization, it's vital -- oh so vital -- you not give up the fight.

Because whatever happens there, this isn't over. It wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, and it isn't over now.

Every single tenth of a degree of warming that we can hold off is worth the effort. Every single one.

So.

If the best answer to "What can I do?" is "What CAN you do?", the next logical step is to identify exactly where your very specific set of skills can have the most effective impact.

Congress is not the answer (not right now, at least).

You can make an outsized impact in your state. In your town. At your newspaper. In your company. At your restaurant. Your medical practice. Your school. On your blog. In your investments. Your Tik Tok.

Ditching your gas-powered furnace and stove won't solve this thing.

Work at Google? Decarbonize your data centers.

Got a satellite hookup? Track methane, deforestation, flood maps, and more.

Interested in the exciting life of a corporate whistleblower? Is your company one of many with a bullshit net-zero plan? Fire up a burner account and tell the truth about their scope 1, 2, and 3 efforts.

Follow these three rules and we'll get there. I promise.

1. Trust the process

Big goals are fun, of course. But process is what gets us there. It's about building habits. Building momentum.

Mission and outcome-oriented projects are successful not just because of tangible, black and white outcomes, but because the most successful reverse-engineer every process along the way to serve the goal.

2. Share the love

Your actions alone won't do it. We're social beings.

We didn't get into this mess because Exxon lied to you. They lied to all of us.

It's time to drop the personal carbon footprint bullshit (unless you're in the 1%, in which case, come talk to me) and adopt network effect philosophies and methodologies for good. You know, the same ones that have so effectively destroyed democracy.

Let's encourage more individuals to take the Action Steps most likely to be adopted by their neighbors, until 1+1 = 40000 and now we're talking mass mobilization.

3. Be for good shit, not just against bad shit.

A cleaner world is not just desperately needed, but could also be SUPER RAD. Tell the story. Paint the picture.

To be clear: You should absolutely over-insulate your house if you can afford to do so, and ditch your gas stove and furnace right meow.

But gathering up your neighbors to petition your building or HOA or town to require these things, even to subsidize them at scale and for low-income neighbors, is how we move the needle.

This was always going to require all of us, and that hasn't changed.

Trust the process. Share the love. Be for good shit.

Do Better Better.

CLIMATE CHANGE

They are who we thought they were

The news: Senator Joe Manchin's complete inability to see past his coal investments isn't news. The news is how far he was willing to go to protect them.

TLDR: all the way.

West Virginia leads the country in flood risk, and is #2 for deaths among constituents that would have been avoided by enacting a Clean Energy Standard, a policy the majority of WV voters support. It didn't matter.

So can we still get down 50% by 2030? There's a chance, and David Roberts lists the jigsaw puzzle of elements that would have to come together to achieve it at the link above.

Understand it: Let's check-in with Shit Givers already having an impact:

• North Carolina (North Carolina!) struck a deal that's not perfect, but way more than the feds are getting done
• Young people are on a hunger strike in front the White House
  
• Building retrofits are measurably great, and underway
  
• Batteries, thermostats, and EV chargers could build a new grid infrastructure in California (and everywhere else, too)
  
• Metal and mining companies are already transitioning to cleaner processes
  
• Lighter EV's could extend range where batteries can't (yet) and micromobility is on the rise
  
• The Energy Department is giving away $40+ billion for clean energy tech, and that's good, because we need way more of it
  

Remember. Every single tenth of a degree matters.

Bloomberg

⚡️Action Step: You may have noticed the global financial system is, ahem, "brittle." Use Evergreen Action's 30 second form to tell Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen to force financial institutions to disclose, mitigate, and if necessary, cut off their climate liabilities.

COVID

Do it for the kids

The news: COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5-11 are seemingly imminent. That's the tweet.

Understand it: Distribution will look very different than it did for you and me (if you're between 5-11 and reading this I'm sorry or you're welcome for the F-bombs).

Biden and co got the check for shots for 28 million pre-tweens (so far), which will be administered by pediatric and primary docs and nurses, pharmacies, schools, community health centers, and special clinics in partnership with the Children's Hospital Association.

It's going to be among the most complex public health endeavors we've ever undertaken.

Why no mass inoculation sites, you ask, with thousands of 6-year-olds standing in line, anxiously waiting to get shots?

Have you ever taken 6-year-olds to get their shots, friend?

While COVID numbers in America continue to drop and most kids remain relatively safe, winter is coming, and with 4 billion+ humans still unvaccinated, this virus isn't done with us yet.

⚡️Action Step: Got a kid? Talk to your pediatrician about their plan. No kids? Call local schools and clinics to find out if and how you can volunteer to help out. Got a guitar? Ice cream truck? Half the battle's going to be making kids feel comfortable. Do what you do!

FOOD & WATER

(Less) dirty water

The news: The Environmental Protection Agency said they're planning to regulate PFAS compounds (for real this time) -- you may know them as the "forever chemicals" in your water, makeup, floss, clothes, couches, airports, and more.

Understand it: Previous administrations have, in years past, lolly-gagged around unenforceable and frankly insufficient limits, but the new EPA swears that this time -- after a period of some years -- water utilities and manufacturers will face stiff penalties for failing disclosures and reductions.

And for good measure. A variety of studies have documented not only how exposed Americans are to PFAS, but how gnarly the health effects may be.

⚡️Action Step: Read about and donate to the NRDC's efforts to persuade the Biden administration to go hard against the toxic chemicals many, many manufacturers would really rather not part with.

HEALTH & BIO

Can you hear me now?

The news: The FDA (still without a leader, during a pandemic) has outlined a long overdue but still exciting new plan to make hearing aid-like devices available without an exam or prescription.

Understand it: Almost 40 million Americans have some sort of hearing impairment, but the majority don't use hearing aids, because getting one is an expensive clusterfuck. We can do way better.

Among those looking to step in with an OTC option? Apple, maker of the incredibly popular AirPods you lost just this morning.

⚡️Action Step: Already a little hard of hearing (like me, from playing the drums, and selectively, when my kids ask for snacks) and own some AirPods? Use the super cool "Live Listen" feature to give yourself a level up.

BEEP BOOP

Google vs Iran

The news: This week, Google announced their Threat Analysis Group is tracking 270+ "targeted or government-backed attacker groups from more than 50 countries".

Understand it: This shouldn't be a surprise to you. We've shared news about hackers using commercial tools to attack infrastructure, the Pentagon, supply chains, political campaigns, hospitals, and universities. Even Google revealed the 50,000 warnings they've sent to users this year are a 33% increase from last year.

The reasons are manifold: we've done little to upgrade our defenses in recent years; software is more available and more sophisticated; payouts are bigger; more countries are offering safe harbor; everything and everyone are online everywhere, with very little consideration for security.

⚡️Action Step: Use Common Cause to call your reps and insist the “International Cybercrime Prevention Act” be added to the infrastructure package.

FROM MY NOTEBOOK

• The FDA and CDC approved boosters for some Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recipients. Check this tool to find out if you're eligible.
• Plastics got next: the industry is already plowing out the equivalent of 116 average-sized coal-fired power plants every. single. year.
• NYC announced a $50 billion divestment from fossil fuels AND new investments in renewables, from city pensions
• Cities are the future of sustainable living -- but dangerous heat exposure is making them more difficult to live in
• Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro might be charged with (checks notes) "crimes against humanity" for his negligent COVID response
• Language barriers are keeping some science down
• Maybe we shouldn't have hated nuclear power so much, huh
• 115,000 global health workers died from COVID
• A French company is using enzymes to recycle one of the most common single-use plastics
• India celebrates 1 billion vaccine doses administered
• Why does every food advertise to boost your immunity?
• The FDA approved the first trial using CRISPR as an HIV cure

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.

• Clinical Research Nurse/Research Coordinator - COVID, Boston Medical Center
  
• Research Assistant - COVID, Boston Medical Center
  
• Product Manager - User Engagement, Treecard
  
• Senior iOS Engineer, Aspiration
  
• Sr. Product Manager, Dividend Finance
  
• Director of Engineering - Sustainable Investing, Ethic
  

Browse 100+ open roles, or list your own for free at ImportantJobs.com.

IMPORTANT GUESTS IN THE NEWS

• Rep. Sean Casten has become a delightfully outspoken advocate for clean energy
• Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is not enthused about Biden showing up at COP 26 empty-handed
• James Rogers on the past and future of bacteria and food waste
  

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

-- Quinn