Every Child Matters

Hi Shit Givers,

September 30th was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

The day is meant to be a public commemoration of the painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools, one of many acts of violence and injustices that Indigenous peoples have endured and continue to endure at the hands of colonialism — the last one in Canada didn’t close until 1996. #EveryChildMatters🧡 

I know many of you are not Canadian, but I am, and solidarity with Indigenous peoples (who by the way, are leaders in solving the climate crisis) is important and necessary worldwide.

In an effort to participate in reconciliation, all of the Action Steps this week will be related to supporting Indigenous peoples and organizations.

And now, onto the news.

This week:

• 🚗 Auto strikes and climate change

• 🦠 Plastic-eating bacteria

• 💰️ Cancelling school lunch debt

• 💻️ Obama-era net neutrality

• And more!

Have a great week,

— Willow

This is science for people who give a shit.

Every week, we help 23,000+ humans understand and unfuck the rapidly changing world around us. It feels great, and we’d love for you to join us.

🥦 😷 New Shit Giver Mysti wants to help solve “the lack of clean, real, affordable food; the fentanyl crisis; the border crisis; the problem with politicized healthcare.“

Let’s do it!

⚡️ Climate change:

• Auto strikes show that we can’t fight climate change without protecting working people

• Antarctic sea ice is at a historic low, there could be a global food shortage by 2050, and mass climate migration is upon us, but the ED of the IEA says that there’s still hope for staying within 1.5C

• Brazil is aiming to cut emissions by 53% by 2030, while European leaders balance the rise of the far right and climate action, and a government shutdown in the US (kicked down the road for another 40 or so days) is bad news for the climate agenda (and kids, and pregnant people, and hungry people…)

• The good news is, electric trucks are charging faster and going farther, Apple suppliers are committing to clean energy, and The Rockefeller Foundation is committing $1 billion to fighting climate change

🦠 Health & Bio:

• While hospitals (and people) are struggling with cancer drug shortages, treating women like human beings could save 800,000 women a year from dying of cancer

• Covid vaccines have been updated. Here’s a cheat sheet to find out if your insurance covers them

• Imagine if all children were automatically covered by Medicaid at birth

• It’s just the beginning for plastic-eating bacteria

• At-risk communities are getting $230 million for suicide prevention and behavioral health care programs

💦 Food & Water:

• Earthworms are really, really important if you like bread

• Senator Fetterman wants to cancel all school lunch debt

• As drought wreaks havoc on Europe’s olive oil supply, drought funding needs to do better

• We don’t need to live at the expense of other animals. Seriously, the number of animals we kill for meat is beyond out of hand

• The climate-resilient produce of the future

👩‍💻 Beep Boop:

• ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. Whether or not it can add “no evil” to those functions remains to be seen 🙈🙉 🙊 

• Obama-era net neutrality rules are being reinstated

• A.I. is being used to predict hurricanes and fight wildfires

• Cybersecurity experts are stress testing voting machines

• And Musk has cut half of X’s election integrity team

Last week’s most popular Action Step was donating to Every Mother Counts to support mothers and newborns worldwide.

• Donate to the Indigenous Climate Action and support the work of peoples who have been land stewards since time immemorial.

• Volunteer with Minnow, an organization linking climate justice to food, social, and land justice by securing land tenure for Indigenous communities.

• Get educated about how the conservation of Canada’s boreal forests cannot be achieved without the consultation of Indigenous peoples, with resources from the Conservation Through Reconciliation Partnership.

• Be heard about stopping the financing of the climate crisis and violations of Indigenous rights by signing the No More Dirty Banks petition to urge RBC to defund the Coastal GasLink Pipeline.

• Empower autonomous Indigenous relief organizing by donating to Indigenous Mutual Aid.

• Support the prosperity of Indigenous food producers with Akiptan, an organization providing loans and technical assistance to Indigenous workers in the food system.

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The best heat pump you can buy.

That’s right, another home electrification appliance, and in my opinion heat pumps are the 🤌 crème de la crème 🤌 because heat pumps:

✅ Can heat AND cool your home

✅ Are generally more efficient than gas-powered furnaces

✅ Make your home more comfortable and save you money

✅ Reduce household emissions and thus, fight climate change 🤝 

There is a lot to consider before you have one installed in your home though. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled everything you need to know before you make the switch all in one place 👇️ 

CRISPR: Genetic game changer or Pandora’s box?

The discovery of CRISPR has cracked open the genome, smashing our preconceived notions about genetics, and leading to promising advancements in disease treatment.

But many have raised ethical concerns about how CRISPR could be used, and if it’s something we should be doing.

In our CRISPR explainer, we cover how it works, the good, the bad, and the mutants. The more we understand about how a tool works, the better we can direct its uses.

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This newsletter is free, but to support our work, get my popular “Not Important” book, music, and tool recommendations, connect with other Shit Givers, and attend exclusive monthly live events, please consider becoming a paid Member.

No Brains, Just Gains. Read it 👇

🙋‍♀️ Today’s Poll

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