Climate scientists are terrified of a second Trump term

The couple who shut their restaurant to fix our broken food system 

Sponsored by IBM The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology 09.24.20 Good morning! Today: why climate scientists are so scared of a Trump second term, the couple who closed their restaurant to fix our broken food system, and how the upcoming NASA Moon mission could help us get to Mars. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Climate scientists are terrified of a second Trump term   The implications: When climate scientists and policy experts imagine the possibilities if President Donald Trump is reelected, climate change isn’t the only issue they raise. “I immediately worry about democratic institutions,” says Daniel Schrag, director of Harvard’s Center for the Environment. “I worry about profound and deep corruption at all levels, including the Justice Department.” Regarding climate change specifically, they say new policies are effectively off the table. Old ones are very likely doomed. And climate change itself will only continue to accelerate as the time left to avoid extremely dangerous levels of warming ticks away. Specifically: Four more years would allow the White House to lock in place many of the environmental rollbacks it’s already enacted or is pursuing, which cover nearly every major federal tool available for cutting climate emissions. The very long list of policies the administration has tried to weaken or reverse include rules requiring oil, gas, and landfill companies to prevent leaks of methane, and the ability of states like California to set stricter rules of their own. It’s also another four years to force out or muzzle scientists in federal agencies and replace them with pro-industry staff. The bigger picture: The US directly contributes about 14% of the world’s total fossil-fuel emissions. But the election could have far wider effects on what the world does, or doesn’t do, to address climate change as well. Read the full story. —James Temple The couple who shut their restaurant to fix our broken food system When Karen Leibowitz and Anthony Myint opened The Perennial, the most ambitious and expensive restaurant of their careers, it was essentially on a self-dare. The couple had found enormous success with their previous restaurant in San Francisco, Mission Chinese Food, but realized something was missing. “Basically zero chefs were working on climate change,” says Myint. The food system is among Earth’s worst polluters, contributing more greenhouse gases than cars, planes, and ships combined. But action from the industry had, up to that point, been uninspiring at best. So when a local developer offered them a new space, they jumped at the opportunity to do something a little wild: build a completely carbon-neutral restaurant. Their “laboratory of environmentalism in the food world” opened to downtown diners in January 2016. Myint was the crazy-ideas guy and Leibowitz the shrewd marketing whiz, and between them no part of the restaurant escaped eco-proofing. The pièce de résistance was serving meat with a dramatically lower carbon footprint than normal. It was enough for a steak to cancel its own footprint, and then do the same for the beef tacos at a restaurant down the street. But they also realized that what has been called the “country’s most sustainable restaurant” couldn’t fix the broken food system by itself. So in early 2019, they dared themselves to do something else that nobody expected. They shut The Perennial down. Read the full story. —Clint Rainey How the Artemis moon mission could help get us to Mars What’s happening: America is finally seeking a return to the moon with Artemis, an ambitious (and probably unrealistic) goal of sending astronauts by 2024. But for the White House and NASA, the mission is about more than just getting humans back on the lunar surface. The moon is also a perfect base from which to establish a follow-up program to travel to Mars. For both destinations, the goal isn’t simply to plant a flag and return to Earth—it’s to maintain a permanent presence for people to live and work.  How do we get there? NASA has never clearly explained, and we’ve never properly tested out the technologies we’d need to live and work in space. Some things essential to Mars will be proven on the moon almost immediately. Life support is at the top of the list. We’ll need to ensure that a moon base and a Mars base can provide essential needs like food, water, and shelter. We’ll also need rocket fuel and other power systems. Many of these technologies would be very similar for both worlds. The moon is a more extreme environment, which means “if it works on the moon, it’ll work on Mars,” says Clive Neal, an engineer at the University of Notre Dame and an expert in lunar exploration. Read the full story. —Neel V. Patel We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Your favorite childhood cereals are making a comeback.    + Two Hollywood stars have said they’re interested in buying... Wrexham AFC, a fifth-tier football club in north Wales. Me neither.   + This duckling will cheer you up.   + Coffee tables that look like cassette tapes.   + Beautiful gardens. Sponsor Message Seven key drivers for modernizing your B2B architecture As organizations embark on a journey of digital transformation, they need a B2B architecture that can help manage an increasingly complex IT environment.   One of the key drivers for this B2B modernization is the need to automate complex data to help meet compliance with industry standards. This allows the ability to flexibly respond to changing business requirements.   Read this interactive whitepaper to learn more about seven of these key drivers and how each of them provides an opportunity to scale, secure and modernize your B2B architecture. The top ten must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 How China virtually eliminated covid-19 Rapid, hard lockdowns—a strategy that’s much easier to enforce in an authoritarian state. (Wired UK)   + Another vaccine candidate has entered the final stage of clinical trials. (Slate)   + Dogs in Helsinki airport have been trained to sniff out the coronavirus. (NYT $)   + That sense of unrelenting horizonlessness we’re all feeling? It’s called acedia. (CNN)   + Google Maps now shows you where covid-19 cases are spiking. (TR)  2 Much-feared coronavirus outbreaks in schools mostly haven’t arrived  It’s very hard to tell exactly why that is, though. (WP $)   3 The peril of space debris is a looming crisis Can we clean up orbit before it’s too late? (New Yorker)   + The ISS just avoided a ‘piece of unknown space debris’. (The Verge)  4 We’re not ready for AI, says the winner of a new $1m AI prize The question is how to use its strengths and avoid its weaknesses, says MIT professor Regina Barzilay. (TR)   5 Inside Facebook’s torrid summer It seems a lot of their problems arise from the fact that one company—and ultimately one man—just should never have this much power. (The Verge)   + Facebook’s oversight board plans to launch before the election. (CNBC)  6 If China plans to go carbon neutral by 2060, why is it building so many coal plants? There are significant discrepancies between the rhetoric and the action.(TR)   + California looks to eliminate gas guzzlers—but legal hurdles abound. (TR)  7 How Reddit kicked out QAnon 👋 It closed down a growing QAnon subreddit at just the right time. (The Atlantic).    + How the wellness world embraced QAnon. (Jezebel)  8 The importance of online anonymity The internet can be vile, but trans people have found love and support in small pockets of it. (Vox)   + Far-right Hindu nationalists are doxing interfaith couples, and Twitter is failing to act. (Buzzfeed)   9 The only black hole we’ve ever seen has a shadow that wobbles 🕳️ It’s got some serious moves. (TR)   10 A robot beat humans at their own game—on ice ❄️🤖 Congrats to Curly, the clever curling-playing robot. (WSJ $) Access, not academics.  Tap into the collective brain power of MIT when you purchase a subscription today. Take a stand “Right now, survival is the goal.” —Huawei’s chairman says the company is stockpiling chips as it faces yet another round of trade restrictions from the US. Top image credit: AP PHOTO | ANDREW HARNIK Please send cereal to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Leading with Innovation. Join us online, October 19-22. *View this in a browser You received this newsletter because you subscribed with your email address  *Edit email preferences   |   *Unsubscribe from all emails Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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