July 27: What Really Happened This Week: Oops All Good News Edition
Climate change reparations, affordable housing, and Senate stands up for science
Hello friends.
Welcome to my weekly paywalled news roundup. Every week I give you a measured amount of the news so you can stay informed without going insane, plus action steps.
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This week is my second monthly “oops all good news” edition, and it’s packed! Thanks for those of you who chimed in last time and suggested you’d like to see these good-news roundups monthly. I will keep them coming.
1. Epstein isn’t going away
2. Landmark International Court of Justice opinion on governments’ responsibility to address climte change
3. Doctors donate their time for new global health effort
4. US cities expand permanently affordable housing
5. A plastic-free restaurant
6. Senate committee protects funding for NASA and NSF
7. A rescue effort for public radio
8. Texas parents rally in DC
1. Epstein isn’t going away
Admittedly this is a judgment call on my part. And this sordid story is in no way good news for the victims.
But the stubborn persistence of the pedophile and sex trafficking scandal, its viral nature, the bipartisan obsession with it, feels like a real vibe shift for President Trump, our president, who is, lest we forget, already an adjudicated sexual assailant. In the words of Republican Senator Thom Tillis (who has announced his retirement), this could hurt the GOP "all the way through next year's election." Here’s hoping.
2. Landmark International Court of Justice opinion on governments’ responsibility to address climate change
The UN’s International Court of Justice, is better known by its metonym, the Hague. Its unanimous advisory opinion on July 23 found:
Climate inaction is a violation of human rights.
States that fail to curb greenhouse gas emissions could be responsible for reparations.
States that fail to regulate *or* to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industry could be in violation of international law.
While not legally binding, the court’s advisory opinion creates a precedent that could strengthen intepretations of other laws and therefore court cases. Inside Climate News quoted an international law expert saying the opinion was “unexpectedly clear and strong.”
3. Doctors donate their time for new global health effort
My friend Cara Agerstrand is director of the Medical ECMO (heart-lung machine) program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center / New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She’s a wildly impressive person!
And she’s on the board of the newly formed Center for Health Action Research & Training in Africa (CHART-A), a global nonprofit providing life-saving medical care to people with highly treatable HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and sepsis across Africa.
Basically: a group of doctors whose federal funding has been eliminated continuing pro bono and raising money to cover their basic operations.
CHART-A is also investing in training the next generation of African physicians and scientists, especially in pulmonary and critical care medicine, where there are critical deficits and need is urgent. At a time when U.S. global health funding has been decimated, CHART-A is working to ensure this essential, life-saving work continues.
Every donation received by CHART-A goes directly to these critical causes. There is no overhead and the doctors, public health professionals, researches & students that work with CHART-A do so on an entirely volunteer basis.
To learn more about CHART-A or donate, please visit:
