The Lobsterman To Seaweed Farmer Pipeline

Happy Monday, Shit Givers.

I’ve finally dug my way out of my inbox after being away for a week, and am back with your weekly news and action steps.

Let’s get to it.

This week:

• 🥑 Corporate food waste solutions

• 🏗️ Scaling green steel

• 🔥 Wildfire smoke and dementia

• 🧑‍⚖️ Prisoners training A.I.

• And more

Have a great week,

— Willow

This is science for people who give a shit.

Every week, we help 20,000+ 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 Nicole wants to help solve “daily living changes for the climate and our health.”

Welcome, Nicole! You’re in the right place.

💦 Food & Water:

• Players in the Maine aquaculture industry are transitioning from fishing for lobster to farming seaweed

• Like so many of the world’s problems, child poverty — and hunger — is a choice

• How corporations can fight food waste: from smart pricing at supermarkets to turning it into renewable energy on dairy farms

• Plant-based meat in the US has reached an all-time high in foodservice and e-commerce sales, while France has banned meat-like terms from being used for plant-based meat labeling

⚡️ Climate change:

• The receipts are in on Exxon’s role in raising doubts internally about climate change

• Decarbonizing the steel industry is a major lift. Greener production is possible, now it’s time to scale the shit out of it

• California’s new climate disclosure legislation will have major impacts

• The US accounts for a THIRD of planned expansions for oil and gas over the next few decades

• The backlash against climate protests is a coordinated network of assholes

🦠 Health & Bio:

• Approval for MDMA therapy as a treatment for PTSD is getting closer

• Need another reason to fight for clean air? Breathing wildfire smoke could raise the risk of dementia

• Private equity is no longer a last resort for troubled hospitals, putting rural and other safety-net hospitals at risk

• Covid and long covid (both search terms that have been blocked by Threads) are here to stay, and unfortunately, so is the anti-vax movement

• What was the global impact of lead exposure? Here’s a health impact and economic modeling analysis

👩‍💻 Beep Boop:

• Google is paying up for misleading customers about location tracking

• Prisoners in Finland are being used to train A.I.

• Tech leaders are debating the pros and cons of A.I. with the Senate

• Apple is working on a new device to monitor blood sugar

Last week’s most popular Action Step was contacting your representative about the Farm System Reform Act.

• Donate to Food First to help end injustices that cause hunger at a global, systemic level.

• Volunteer to build a food-waste program in your town with Food Forward.

• Get educated about divesting your 401(k) from fossil fuels.

• Be heard about making energy data free for research using the International Energy Agency open data tool.

• Invest in companies that score highly on metrics that underpin the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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The best EV you can buy.

Looking to buy an EV?

Bloomberg just posted a list of the best new models for 2023.

Read that, and then check out our recommendations and guidelines for everything you need to know before you buy one.

What are microplastics?

You’ve probably seen the news headlines that microplastics, kind of like forever chemicals, are everywhere.

In the ocean, in our food, and in our blood.

But where do they come from, and what can you do about them?

Read our microplastics explainer to find out.

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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.

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