Essay: The Inevitable Future

Important, Not Important

This week:

Is the future inevitable?

Plus: A lack of OB-GYN’s in a post-Roe world, some new bills for agrivoltaics, the best in climate journalism, the link between COVID and Alzheimer’s, misinformation, and more

Here's What You Can Do:

• ⚡️ Our algorithms and technology are only as good as the people who make them. Empower future innovators to consider the social impact of their work with Tech Shift.
• ⚡️ Donate to the Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank working on solutions and policies to make coastal cities climate-ready.
• ⚡️ Electrifying school buses reduces air pollution, immediately improving the health of kids while ALSO reducing emissions. Tell your school board about Highland Fleets, an organization working to make electric fleets accessible for all.
• ⚡️ As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, emergency services are becoming overstretched. Climate Resilience Hubs prepare communities before, during, and after an emergency. Find yours with this interactive map from Climate Crew.
• ⚡️ The housing shortage is bad for people, equality, the environment, and the economy. Help your city develop, implement, and monitor local housing strategies with actionable tools and guidance from Local Housing Solutions.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

• Half of US counties don’t have an OB-GYN. That’s fucking unacceptable, and abortion-bans are making it worse.
• Dirty air kills more people than smoking, car crashes or HIV/AIDS, cutting up to six years off the lives of billions of people. Coal (surprise!) is the worst culprit
• Endocrine disrupting chemicals could be the reason behind the decrease in global sperm counts
• A new report is highlighting how hospitals can address the nursing shortage by attracting and retaining more nurses (cough-pay them-cough)

Climate

• A coalition of environmental organizations have the solutions to scale up transmission infrastructure in an equitable way
• The US Treasury and IRS have the released the latest updates on IRAs clean energy incentives, in time for Rewiring America to determine the pace at which we need to electrify everything to meet climate goals
• Indigenous communities are leading the climate fight as usual, this time with the help of mapping tech to claim their land rights, and stop deforestation
• Climate-related start-ups in Africa have received $2.8 billion in funding since 2019
• Covering Climate Now has released the finalists for the 2023 CCN Journalism awards, honoring the best coverage of climate change and climate solutions around the world

Food & Water

• Agrivoltaics get a boost in the Senate, a climate solution that benefits farmers, ecosystems and the climate
• Chickens in Europe are getting dose with antibiotics “critical to human health”, causing growing concerns about superbugs
• Sooo what happens if California’s dams fail?

Beep Boop

• ICE is using LexisNexis to track and gather information on people in order to make arrests for deportation
• What data does your car have on you?
• If misinformation actually is increasing, what can we do about it?
• An algorithm designed to reduce poverty is doing a bad job

COVID

• Researchers have established a link between Covid-19 and Alzheimer’s
• A common drug for diabetes may prevent Long COVID

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