Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Claire Pomeroy and the Financial Times each highlight the likelihood that survivors of long COVID will be affected for the rest of their lives by a disease which governments have decided to allow to spread. And a group of health experts in the UK weighs in on the folly of condemning thousands of people to illness or death in the name of "personal responsibility" in response to a social threat. 

- Apoorva Mandavilli and Benjamin Mueller discuss how the Delta variant is exacerbating the gap in outcomes between the reality-based portion of the U.S. and the Trumpist death cult. And Jonathan Bernstein discusses the willingness of Republicans to sacrifice the lives of their supporters for political gain. 

- Umair Haque makes the point that none of the interlocking crises which are endangering our health and our living environment are anything close to normal - even as far too many people have accepted (at the behest of those in power) that we should normalize a state of catastrophe. 

- Ezra Klein points out the absurdity that we would let our natural environment burn even as we're experiencing the results of a climate breakdown. And Sofia Andrade reports that climate scientists are recognizing that they've underestimated the climate impacts of increased greenhouse gas emissions and temperatures so far. 

- The Associated Press reports on Greenland's decision to reject oil development which would provide temporary profits at the expense of long-term survival. Mike de Souza reports on new polling showing that oil and gas workers are more than willing to transition to work in the renewable energy sector as long as petrostates aren't standing in their way. But Noam Scheiber points out the need to ensure that green development actually results in the creation of good jobs, rather than following a corporatist model which suppresses wages and working conditions.

- Finally, Lisa Carter highlights how women stand to bear the brunt of yet another set of impossible demands in navigating a reopening after exhausting available time away from work and losing pandemic-related supports. And Arisa Valyear points out the CCPA's work showing how families would stand to benefit from a full national child care plan.