The Hottest New Misinformation Strategies

Welcome to the week!

For those of you in the US and Canada, I hope you’re staying safe and warm through this polar vortex.

Grab a warm beverage, and let’s catch up on the news.

This week:

• 🏠️Insurance correction risks

• 🧠Early Parkinson’s detection

• 🚱Drought, drought, and more drought

• 🤖 Robot teachers

• And more

Have a great week,

— Willow

This is science for people who give a shit.

Every week, we help 27,000+ 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 Mark says solving “cancer is paramount. From my perspective, I have lost many to it. Why have we not cracked the code?“

Fuck Cancer. We’ve made huge leaps forward, but cancer is complex. We’re dedicated here to supporting research, and increasing understanding of effective prevention, detection, and treatment.

⚡️ Climate change:

• Since YouTube banned the monetization of climate denial on the platform, creators are shifting to “new denial” strategies that include attacks on solutions and even claim global warming will be beneficial. Stay vigilant, folks

• New data indicates that Greenland, already known to be shrinking, is losing 20% more ice than previously thought

• Home insurance shocks are hitting the housing market hard, with insurers pulling out of markets already at increased risk of fire, flooding, and wind. Check out how at risk your home is for “insurance correction” with this analysis

• Hedge funds bet on insurance-linked securities related to natural disasters in 2023 to generate huge returns

• Emissions have continued to climb, but as the world transitions to renewables and EVs, global emissions could peak very soon

🦠 Health & Bio:

• A huge breakthrough in Parkinson’s disease research means that we can now reliably detect signs of the disease (and other brain diseases) and start treating patients much earlier.

• Inequality drives preventable mortality and illness among minorities, and these outcomes are getting worse

• Uganda’s extremely harsh anti-LGBTQ law will likely cause a resurgence in the HIV epidemic as patients are denied or are afraid to seek out medical care

• A bipartisan deal to expand access to the child tax credit could pass this month (call your reps!) and would be particularly beneficial for low-income families.

• Drug prices in the US are significantly higher than in other wealthy countries. Here are 6 reasons why

💦 Food & Water:

• A quarter of humanity (almost 2 billion people) were living under drought in 2022 and 2023, a crisis exacerbated by war and climate change

• This includes people in California, where questions about the state’s ability to manage its water are being raised after growers were able to drain a river undetected for months

• Was one of your New Year’s resolutions to cut back on meat? Vox’s free Meat/Less newsletter will help you get more plant-based foods on your plate

• The future of cooking is on an induction stove, and maybe even one that runs on batteries, mitigating the need for electrical upgrades

👩‍💻 Beep Boop:

• Google Search has gotten worse, with results turning out low-quality SEO spam

• If the future of education is AI, then Chatbots may be your child’s new favorite teacher

• TikTok has shared its plan to fight election misinformation in 2024, and it’s mostly more of the same

• The FTC settled with a data broker selling location data, but the win won’t do much to protect privacy going forward

• AI-generated articles that rip-off other outlets are being boosted by Google News

Last week’s most popular Action Step was volunteering with a local 350.org chapter to put an end to fossil fuels.

• Donate to fight cancer and support leading-edge research, care, and education at the MSK Cancer Center.

• Volunteer with your local YIMBY chapter to advocate for affordable housing in your community.

• Get educated about opportunities where you can use your tech skills for good.

• Be heard about the right for workers to organize and advocate for the PRO Act.

• Invest sustainably in online ESG portfolios with Earthfolio.

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What is environmental justice?

Marginalized communities disproportionately shoulder the burden of climate change and other environmental hazards, despite having contributed the least to create them.

Read our explainer to better understand environmental justice on a domestic and global scale, and find constructive actions you can take to drive change.

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