Welcome back, Shit Givers.

Men have begun wars for millennia, blood for resources, raging insecurities nourished by a million dead, constantly challenging us with the question: can we ever change?

I believe we can, and we will; part of building a better future is imagining what it could be like.

But this morning millions more are fighting back, innocent people are suffering, and Russian rebels are marching in the streets against a tyrant, so our community will do what we do best: help.

• Doctors Without Borders is still running COVID-19 screening and psychological support, among others
• Direct Relief for IV fluids, antibiotics, and a variety of medications
• Support journalism when it matters the most today: The Kyiv Independent

This Week, Summarized:

• Gas: the forever bridge fuel
• Boosters, boosted
• Megadrought self-awareness
• Maternal deaths on the rise
• Your location data, for sale

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

🕛 Reading Time: 9 minutes

CLIMATE CHANGE

The price of energy independence

New York Times

The news: The geopolitics of the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries were a story of fossil fuels -- the countries whose borders surrounded them, the countries whose didn't, the trillions exchanged on both sides of a supply and demand market, of haves and have-nots, the infrastructure to mine, drill, refine, and deliver a collection of products that built the west, and when those markets failed or greed won out, the wars fought over them.

In 2022 and beyond, clean energy independence is the mantra, but the transition won't be so unsoiled.

Understand it: More than a third of Europe's natural gas comes from Russia. Conversely, at least 56% of Russian exports are fossil fuels. Right off the bat, it's complicated.

So it's a relatively big deal for Germany to can the Nord Stream 2 fossil gas pipeline, especially in light of high gas prices worldwide, mid-winter, in light of climate change, and Deutschland's closing up the nuclear shop after Fukushima.

And yet, they also appear to have carved lucrative energy payments out of yesterday's otherwise crippling Russian sanctions -- the same payments that reinvigorated the Russian military and made Vladimir Putin quite possibly the wealthiest man alive.

Of course, it'll take years for Europe to ditch Russian gas, and those same supplies (and future minerals) could go to China, but around the world, countries and economies are transitioning to renewable energy (and storage) in vastly different ways (and not fast enough):

• China's building more solar than anyone -- and $4 billion in new coal plants
• Solar and offshore wind are growing in the US (without much federal help, still), but we're the world's #1 fossil gas exporter, and is oil production is rising again
• France will build up to 14 (!) new nuclear (for everyone in the back: it's "new-clear") plants
• Nobody loves coal more than Australia -- but they just smashed solar and wind production records

That's not to say countries with less sun and wind coverage should suffer in the future (more power lines!), and I've got a lot (a lot) to say about the clean energy mineral rush rewriting geopolitics all over again, but we have a unique opportunity to disentangle ourselves from the ways of old.

⚡️Action Step: Not war-related, but something you can actually affect today. The US Post Office approved a deal to build 150,000 new gas-powered trucks and it's complete bullshit. EarthJustice is suing. Get info and support their efforts here.

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COVID

Unsplash/CDC

Vaccine equity update: Just 12.3% of people in low-income countries have received at least one dose, and 37.4% of people worldwide have received no doses.

Boosters boosted

The news: With 2.9 billion people still completely unvaccinated and no virological mandate that the next variant of Sars-COV-2 will be as "mild" as Omicron, we have no idea when the next wave may come, or how it could present among both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

But it seems boosters may hold up, no matter what comes our way. From The New York Times:

"The Omicron variant can dodge antibodies — immune molecules that prevent the virus from infecting cells — produced after two doses of a Covid vaccine. But a third shot of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or by Moderna prompts the body to make a much wider variety of antibodies, which would be difficult for any variant of the virus to evade, according to the most recent study, posted online on Tuesday."

Understand it: Antibodies inevitably decline over time, but as we discovered with SARS and other viruses, T-cells can be a long-lasting backup to the more immediately reactive antibodies. And don't sleep on B-cells, which keep learning, especially when instigated by vaccines.

"Trust the science" is an oversimplification of a complicated, unpredictable process. Over the course of the past two years, so much as changed as we do this thing live.

But in the end, Sars-COV-2 is still a coronavirus, albeit a brutally dangerous one, but still the likes of which we've faced before. In these rare lulls, it's vitally important we take stock of what we've learned, where we are, and how we can get ahead of what's to come.

And it looks like the mRNA boosters could be the last we'll need for a long time.

⚡️Action Step: You do not want Long COVID. And yet only 40% of vaccinated Americans have received a booster. Get yours if you haven't, and share this newsletter with others who need one, too. Public health is about you and me.

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FOOD & WATER

Unsplash/Jakob Owens

The drought deepens. How will the West adapt?

The news: Facing the worst drought in 1200 years, the American west continues to adapt for the long-term, where the water levels that fueled massive immigration and agriculture throughout the 20th century may never return.

Understand it: As reservoir levels continue to drop, water laws from decades past are up for renegotiation -- and need to be completely reinterpreted for a more volatile future.

Hundreds of climate bills  -- band-aids and overhauls alike -- are floating through the California legislature, the first state to sell a million plug-in vehicles, where a Scope 3 emissions bill recently passed, where Biden recently restored the state's unique legal power to regulate tailpipe emissions, where Central Valley farmers are preparing to receive no water in 2022, where the nights are dryer and hotter.

Preparing for the future will be letting go of the past, and building a new way of life -- one that is more sustainable for every part of nature, including ourselves.

⚡️Action Step: Get up to speed on all of California's bills here, and then watch/listen to the powerful conversation between INI pod favorite Dr. Beronda Montgomery ("Lessons from Plants") and upcoming guest Dr. Jessica Hernandez ("Fresh Banana Leaves").

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(Please) come help me (make memes and) build a better future. Apply to be my #2 right here.

HEALTH & BIO

Unsplash/Andrea Bertozzini

The Momnibus can't come soon enough

The news: The number of women in the United States who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth increased 14% in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

This sucks for a million reasons but most notably because:

1. The US already had the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries and
2. Black women continue to suffer the most

From The New York Times:

"Black women in America experienced the most deaths: One-third of the pregnant women and new mothers who died in 2020 were Black, though Black Americans make up just over 13 percent of the population. Their mortality rate was nearly three times that of white women."

Understand it: While cardiovascular issues and other conditions and infections directly fuel maternal deaths in the year after giving birth, poorer quality of health care at basically all times, implicit bias and structural racism throughout the health care system (and elsewhere), and chronic health conditions contribute to a crushing inequity.

There are few areas where we can make more substantial, immediately meaningful gains. Giving birth and recovering from it is hard enough -- racism shouldn't be anywhere near it. Let's Do Better Better.

⚡️Action Step: Support the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, where they provide technical assistance, trainings, and capacity building for grassroots organizations, maternity care service providers, academia, and the public health industry. Need more background? Check out my conversation with Rep. Lauren Underwood on this very subject.

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BEEP BOOP

Unsplash/CardMapr

Wherever you go, (basically anyone) can follow

The news: It's almost entirely legal for companies in the United States to buy and sell location data harvested from your doomscroll device.

I could stop there, because what the hell are we doing here, but let's give it some more context, because I think you thought we were done here.

Understand it: If you're an iPhone user, you're very likely among the vast majority who, upon upgrading to iOS 14.5, declined to let apps track you across the rest of your apps -- and inevitably contributed to straight crushing Facebook's business model.

Great. Right? But data tracking goes so much farther -- literally.

While Apple and Google have both made strides to crack down on SDK's enabling data collection, the market for selling your location history is still enormous -- over $12 billion.

"Workers in the location data industry told The Markup that data brokers are increasingly collecting data directly from app developers instead of relying on SDKs, which often leave a digital footprint. And it’s unclear how Apple and Google could even monitor how apps are sharing and selling data once they obtain it."

Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR, or, as you're more likely to know it, "Allow All Cookies?") carries some stiff penalties, but without US federal action, the market will only grow.

⚡️Action Step: Most of the location data privacy legislation isn't there yet, but we can still make some progress on privacy: The new (and bipartisan) Kids Online Safety Act can do some good to provide parents with “easy-to-use” tools to keep kids safe, limit screen time and protect their data. Get up to speed with The Washington Post's coverage, and we'll have further action soon.

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10 THINGS FROM MY NOTEBOOK

• Vaccine equity update: Six African countries will kick off domestic production of mRNA vaccines, as distribution resources remain the holdup, and Biden asks for far less than needed to help
• Scientists keep unraveling ALS (this one hits so close to home)
• Decarbonizing heavy industry (cement, steel, etc) will be difficult as hell -- my friend David Roberts at Volts asked the experts just how we're gonna do it
• The US throws away 2150 pieces of clothing -- every goddamn second
• Speaking of trash -- here's how we could keep EV batteries out
• What if we could grow (a shit ton of) rice -- in seawater?
• Stripe has begun their 4th round of carbon removal purchases (whether it ever works or not is at least partly dependent on efforts like these to scale it up)
• A pig's heart in a human's body. Why the hell does it work, anyways?
• Should your company join the RE100?
• "Paul Farmer invented a new way of caring for one another". A must read about a man who meant so much to our efforts here. Rest in peace, Paul.
  
  

It's a hard week, folks. Let's take care of one another, wherever we may be.

Thanks as always for reading, and thanks for giving a shit. Have a safe weekend.

-- Quinn