Essay: Gradually, and then all at once

This week:

Things feel pretty out of control. Get used to it.

Plus: The Canadian West is burning, Oregon bans PFAS, ChatGPT plugins for everyone, the All We Can Save project is hiring, and more

Here's What You Can Do:

• ⚡️Wildfire smoke exposure is directly linked to myriad health impacts due to poor air quality. Know your daily risk by using this Purple Air outdoor air monitor.
• ⚡️We need to heal ourselves to heal the planet. Find resources and community to help with your climate anxiety through the Climate Mental Health Network.
• ⚡️Act locally. Use ReFED to find current food waste policies and programs you can learn from and implement in your town.
• ⚡️Work in local government? Biobot Analytics provides wastewater testing tools so we can better estimate the number of COVID-19 (and other diseases) infections in the community

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

• These are the cities with most bike deaths per capita (I share news like this to illustrate where we can make drastic improvements)
• Not to be outdone, the South Carolina House passed a six-week abortion ban
• UnitedHealthcare wants doctors to get prior authorization for colonoscopies. People are very pissed off.
• Where American air pollution is improving, and getting worse

Climate

• Our friends at the All We Can Save project are hiring a Programs & Community Manager — details here!
• Could enormous robots dramatically speed up solar farm construction? Sure!
• How can we restore oyster reefs without oyster shells?
• Octopus Energy continues to be a model for…everyone else
• The Canadian west continues to burn, and climate change is a big reason why

Food & Water

• Oregon banned PFAS (forever chemicals) in food containers
• How plant-based food makers can fight back against meat and dairy disinformation
• If growing one almond requires 3.2 gallons of water out west, how do we reconcile that?
• The women working for food sovereignty on island territories
• Undercover audio of a Tyson employee reveals “free-range” chicken is bullshit (more on humanewashing)

Beep Boop

• OpenAI rolled out ChatGPT plugins to everyone, should be fine
• Ransomware hackers are zeroing in (again) on under-resourced cities and towns
• The Supreme Court ruled Twitter and Google aren’t legally liable for terrorists using their platforms

COVID

• This isn’t COVID-specific (I wrote that big update last week), but it could be monumental, if we do the work: the CDC released a new health-based indoor air ventilation target, and the the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers released its own enhanced ventilation standard.
• Here’s Joseph G. Allen on why it could be a game-changer.

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