The Problem with Universal Benchmarks

Welcome to the week.

If you’ve been looking for ways you can take real, measurable climate action, great news! We’re partnering up with our besties at the Environmental Voter Project for Earth Week, and Quinn is hosting one of their phone banking sessions to turn out low propensity environmental voters ahead of the municipal election in San Antonio, TX. Join us!

This Week

• Air conditioning's vicious cycle

• Air pollution's sources

• A snowpack trifecta

• AI weather forecasting

And more!

Have a great week,

— Willow

48,929+ people who give a shit got this post in their email, for free.

🙋‍♀️ Vote!

Last week, we asked: How important of an issue is affordable housing in your community?

You said:

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Extremely important (67%)

“We've lost teachers because there's nowhere they can afford to rent or buy.”

“It’s so expensive to rent families can’t save for a down payment for a home for themselves.”

“There are folks who were born in this rural community who can’t afford to live here if they can even find a place.”

 🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Very important (22%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Moderately important (5%)

“I live in a rural area of NY state so affordable housing is not really important in my community. But if you asked me in general , it would be extremely important , especially in the inner cities where luxury high rises seem to take precedence, no one goes outside to meet their neighbors or play in the schoolyards and parks as a consequence there are no more neighborhoods.”

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Slightly important (3%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Not at all important (3%)

“This is not an important issue to me until they deal with to mental health, school funding, healthcare and environment.”

New Shit Giver Shahrukh is here because “I'm a student. I want to do some good before I die.“

Let’s go!

🤝 Become an Important Member

We’re 100% independent and proudly supported by readers like you.

Members get a 30 day free trial to:

• Ad-free everything

• Your What Can I Do? profile: get and keep track of personalized action steps, connect with other Shit Givers

• Vibe Check: Our news homepage, curated daily just for you. Never doomscroll again, thx

• Seriously?: The frameworks, models, history, and pop culture we use to understand what’s happening now and next

• Half Baked: Weekly briefs to help you think and act on specific, timely issues as they happen

• Not Important: My favorite books, art, movies, music, apps, and more that have nothing to do with the jet stream slowing down

• Lifetime thanks for directly supporting our work