Essay: "Why Do We Exist?"

This week:

For the next few weeks, I’m rewriting and sharing a selection of essays I wrote in 2020 and 2021, so about two hundred years ago. I think they’re more relevant than ever — I can’t wait to hear what you think.

This week: What would you say you do here? (Originally published July 2020, updated February 2023)

Why do we exist?

After a hundred years of progress, humanity faces stress tests unlike any we’ve faced before, and all at once.

The good news: Your company can help rewrite the future.

Here's What You Can Do:

• ⚡️ The death toll in Turkey and Syria continues to rise. Relief agencies are having a hell of a time, but you can donate to the Syrian American Medical Society, Doctors Without Borders, and World Central Kitchen.

• ⚡️ There’s never been a better time for educators to bring climate crisis solutions into the classroom, and no better tool than the All We Can Save Project.

• ⚡️ Renter? Landlord? Either way you can find out how to green your building with BlocPower.

• ⚡️ Clean up the air in your town with Mom’s Clean Air Force.

• ⚡️ Every boob is different, so help recruit more women to breast cancer studies with WISDOM.

News Roundup

Health & Medicine

• Please read this David Brooks piece on friendship and depression

• Sure, yes, electric cars can clean up the air, but please also way fewer cars

• A quarter million US students haven’t returned to school since the early pandemic. Where the hell are they?

• Workers fighting America’s overdose crisis need much more help

• Yelp is coming for “crisis pregnancy centers” and the GOP is not pleased (this is exactly what I mean in the essay above)

Climate

• Shell’s board of directors were sued for mismanaging climate risk

• EU leaders are still unsure how to deal with the United States’ climate industrialization moves (which we’ve gotta get right)

• NPR’s stunning multimedia piece on Senegal’s climate fight is worth a read

• Paris is growing new mini-forests

Food & Water

• Hot damn — bacteria really does eat plastic.

• How to save food from the landfill with WhatsApp (?)

• Yeah there’s lead in most dark chocolate, so what should you eat?

Beep Boop

• AI is a lot right now. The invaluable Ted Chiang puts it all in perspective, and Charlie Warzel on the gold rush

• Federal agencies only followed 40% of cybersecurity recommendations, the same percentage as my children’s chores

• Legacy IT systems at London hospitals are not ready for global heating or even like a gentle breeze

• What happens when you Google “grief”

COVID

• Biden will end the COVID emergency declaration soon. Issac