Essay: Never Tell Me The Odds

This week:

Solutions to our biggest problems shouldn’t be so perplexing. On the other hand, washing our hands wasn’t obvious for a couple hundred thousand years, and my kids STILL don't want to do it.

Plus: Seasonal allergy news, a new Barbie, non-profit grocery stores, climate hackers, the SEC, the WHO, Google’s huge new feature, and Khan Academy revolutionizes education — again

Here's What You Can Do:

• ⚡️ Floods or not, fire season’s (probably) right around the corner. Get up to the minute air quality reports with a Purple Air monitor (and nifty map, too)
• ⚡️ Your community may need to replace toxic lead water service lines. Check out Beyond Plastic’s report on the pros and cons of PVC pipes.
• ⚡️ Sure, the economy and market are completely unpredictable at this point, but there’s no better time to put your retirement fund to work fighting climate change. Do it with Carbon Collective.
• ⚡️ Speaking of lead pipes — will microplastics and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) be our version? Check out PFAS Central’s PFAS-free brands and consumer products.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

• Seasonal allergies are coming for us all
• In Cancer Alley, US chemical giants mounted a campaign against grassroots organizers, so they can continue to kill people
• Apparently forever chemicals in food packaging (like take-out containers) can migrate into food
• North Carolina passed a 12 week abortion ban, fuck those guys
• Barbie launched the first doll with Down’s syndrome

Climate

• None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
• Recycling, which doesn’t really work, also spews microplastics
• Environmentalists sue California over their stupidly reduced solar incentives
• The SEC is taking forever to regulate climate disclosures, so the EU has gone one farther and oh boy
• Florida and Louisiana are borrowing millions to pay insurance claims (go deeper in my must-listen convo with Washington Post reporter Brianna Sacks)

Food & Water

• In which the FDA chief dips his toe very gently into the idea of food as medicine
• Non-profit grocery stores are trying to rehab America’s food deserts
• Inside Big Beef’s (incredibly effective) climate messaging machine
• Meet the climate hackers of frontline Malawi
• Pollution from farms violates civil rights, maybe?

Beep Boop

• WATCH: Sal Khan unveils Khan Academy’s new educational chatbot, Khanmigo
• Google began rolling out passkeys — this is a great day for data security (check out how to enable it now)
• The FTC wants to stop Meta/Facebook from releasing any new products until they stop trouncing kids’ privacy
• Washington State passed a sweeping health data law

COVID

• Per the WHO, with commentary from David Wallace-Wells: Apparently the Pandemic Emergency is Over (it was America’s 4th leading cause of death in 2022)
• There’s a new culprit behind Long COVID: monocytes

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