Essay: Start Over (Again)

This week:

Got fired? Start over.

Plus: More young people are getting cancer, the rise of solar power, new YouTube misinformation rules, getting paid to bike to work, and more

Here's What You Can Do:

• ⚡️ If apocalyptic skies and hazardous air quality reports are making your climate anxiety a little more intense this week (I feel you), look into the Climate Psychiatry Alliance’s database to find a climate-aware psychiatrist near you.
• ⚡️ Help spread fire adaptation practices and give communities the tools they need to reduce their wildfire risk and increase their resilience by donating to Fire Adapted Communities.
• ⚡️ Campaign to speed up the transition away from coal in your community by joining a local team to retire coal plants.
• ⚡️ While you’re staying indoors to avoid the unhealthy air outside, purchase an air purifier to keep your indoor air quality up to par (got Scrooge McDuck cash? Donate a few to local schools).
• ⚡️ Learn more about the impacts of air pollution, and read these recommendations for proper building ventilation.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

• A new pill for lung cancer was found to cut the risk of death in half during clinical trials, yay!
• Unfortunately, cancer is on the rise for people under 50 worldwide, and we don’t really know why, god I really fucking hate cancer
• The chatbot “working” for an eating disorder helpline, instead of real humans capable of human empathy, was found to be encouraging unhealthy eating habits. Cool cool cool
• This week was one of the worst wildfire pollution events in U.S. history

Climate

• Biofuels might not actually be the best climate solution
• Reforesting the Amazon could drastically help slow global warming, but there are a lot of roadblocks
• Would you bike to work if the feds paid you to?
• The clean energy transition is reliant on mines — but young people don’t want to work in them
• Solar is growing fast enough to meet global decarbonization goals — here’s a graph as a treat. You deserve it.

Food & Water

• Lack of water is limiting construction in Arizona, which I don’t know, feels like a big deal
• As global food costs soar, a food delivery company is launching a fund for food-insecure Americans
• Droughts in France are leading to water shortages, and the current solution isn’t sustainable
• A pretty pretty vital Ukrainian dam was destroyed this week, leading to major flooding

Beep Boop

• Could online age verification rules designed to protect children come at the price of everyone’s privacy?
• The A.I. boom could be hindered by the cost of operating systems to run them
• YouTube has changed its misinformation policy to allow 2020 election denial videos to remain on the site GREAT WORK EVERYBODY

COVID

• Anti-vaxxers and medical misinformation spreaders are getting their social media platforms back
• Wildfire smoke can increase the risk of contracting Covid. Let’s do neither?

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• Take a nap you deserve it

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