Wednesday, August 21, 2024

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Anna Betts reports that the fallout from the climate crisis may include threats to blood donations, while Zoe Schlanger writes about the dangers of relying on steel-based infrastructure which will fail under the temperatures which are becoming the norm. James Dyke, Robert Watson and Wolfgang Knorr discuss the folly of making choices which deliberately overshoot past emission targets in the short term based on the bare hope that carbon pollution can be captured or reduced later. Kate Yoder writes that action on climate change is far more popular than one would think from corporate-captured governments' reluctance to carry it out. And Richard Sandbrook is right to note that Canada can't use other countries' climate sabotage as an excuse for doing nothing - though it's unduly generous to characterize a track record of stagnation and delay as something to be continued rather than improved upon. 

- Betsy Agar and Raidin Blue examine the renovations and retrofits needed to make buildings safe amid a warming climate and more extreme weather, while Carissa Wong writes about new research showing that the temperatures which humans can survive are lower than previously assumed. And Adam Thorn points out that any transition to an electrified fleet of vehicles will require buildings to be EV-ready. 

- Douglas Main reports on new research showing that the ubiquity of microplastics now extends into the human brain. 

- Finally, William Brangham interviews Eric Topol about the current state of the COVID pandemic, including a summer surge in infections which has been met with no policy response. And Clovis Palmer et al. find that the effects of COVID-19 can include type 2 diabetes - but that there's a prospect that post-infection vaccination can reduce the risk.  

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