How a new global carbon market could exaggerate climate progress

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The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology The trouble with climate credits 11.24.21 Good morning! Today: why a new COP26-backed global carbon market could potentially threaten efforts to address climate change. Also: we explain what is (and isn't) AI in a fun new podcast episode. Don't forget to get your friends and colleagues to sign up here to get The Download every day. How a new global carbon market could exaggerate climate progress   A new development: Nations are poised to begin building an international carbon market. Under the COP26 agreement, countries should soon be able to buy and sell UN-certified carbon credits from one another, and use them as a way to hit their greenhouse gas reduction pledges. These credits are produced from projects that claim to prevent a ton of carbon dioxide emissions, or to pull the same amount out of the atmosphere.  Caution needed: Major loopholes could make it appear as if nations are making more progress on emissions than they really are. Although the rules theoretically prevent double counting of climate progress, experts fear there are ways it could still occur. Countries may be able to select the most beneficial method every time they report progress, likely distorting the overall carbon math. The big picture: The hope is that the new supervisory body will take a hard, honest look at the problems in earlier programs and strive to fix them. But the fear is that political incentives will work against that, threatening overall emissions progress, and slowing global efforts to address climate change. Read the full story. —James Temple Podcast: What is AI? We made a radio play to help. Defining what is or isn’t artificial intelligence can be tricky. So much so, even the experts get it wrong sometimes. That’s why MIT Technology Review’s Senior AI Editor Karen Hao created a flowchart to explain it all. In the latest episode of our podcast, In Machines We Trust, we’ve gamified it into a fun radio play. Listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Be a good example  If you enjoy reading fiction, why not treat yourself to this short story from the latest computing-themed issue of MIT Technology Review? It’s all about the relationship between two sisters, one of whom is a robot, and it's full of twists and turns that’ll keep you reading right to the end. And if you're not a subscriber already, sign up to read the full magazine. 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.)   + It started with a cat video, and then got wildly, gloriously out of control.    + Entertaining guests over the holidays? Try making these finger foods.   + Artist Ra Paulette has carved 14 incredible, psychedelic caves in New Mexico.   + The Nikon Small World Competition, which celebrates photography shot through a microscope, has announced this year’s winners.   + Proof that South Korean cinema is definitely Having A Moment: another TV show, Hellbound, has shot to the top of the Netflix charts.   + How the tamagotchi helped to pave the way for the games of today. The must-Reads The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 The promise of a universal flu vaccine 💉 It would represent an enormous medical breakthrough—and it’s increasingly within reach. (New Yorker $)   + How to keep yourself and your family as safe as possible this Thanksgiving. (NYT $)   + How bad vaccine advice ended up killing pregnant women. (The Guardian)   + Covid is on the rise among kids. (Ars Technica)   + Israel has started vaccinating kids aged 5-11. (NYT $)   + The UK has managed to avoid new restrictions. Can that last? (BBC)   + What went wrong in Russia. (New Yorker $)   + New Zealand is going to reopen to vaccinated visitors from April. (Axios)   + The US will require all border crossers to be vaccinated from January. (AP)  2 NASA’s asteroid-deflection mission has just launched 🚀 It’s testing technology that could one day avert a disaster. (BBC)   + A deep dive into the spacecraft itself. (TR)   + When it hits its target, things might get chaotic. (TR)  3 Climate change might lead to a boom in fungal infections Oh another thing to worry about? Great! (Wired $)   + Earth is headed for well over two degrees of warming. (Nature)  4 Apple is suing Israeli spyware company NSO Group  Apple wants to permanently prevent NSO from using any of its products, which could render its surveillance software useless. (NYT $)   + NSO was about to sell hacking tools to France. Now it’s in crisis. (TR)  5 Twitter is going to host its first shopping livestream this weekend These are huge in China—but how will they go down with Western consumers? (The Verge)   + Twitter will give its moderators aliases to try to protect them from harassment. (The Verge)  6 How Facebook ended up turn a blind eye to racism Seems like it was more worried about upsetting racists than protecting people of color. (WP $)   + To combat misinformation, social media should slow down. (FT $)  7 ​​The world needs to crack battery recycling—and quickly This wasn’t such an issue when electric vehicles were rare. But soon, they’ll be everywhere. (Wired UK)   8 The aftermath of the failed crypto bid to buy a copy of the US Constitution  Donors can now a) leave their money in a failed project, or b) lose most of their money trying to get a refund. (Vice)   + The famously litigious Tolkien family are not very happy about a new “JRR Token” cryptocurrency. (The Verge)    9 A patch of virtual real estate sold for $2.4 million  Nothing means anything anymore. (Reuters $)   10 Holiday parties are back, and they’re tiny 🥳 Think teams, not whole companies. (Vox) Early Bird Savings are here (for a limited time). Join us on the MIT campus for EmTech Digital, our signature conference on AI and business leadership. Save 25% on your ticket. Quote of the day “Normally in an investigation, you have to dig a lot to find a small piece of gold. Here, we had an open gold mine.” —Belgian Federal Prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw tells the Wall Street Journal that investigators hit the jackpot when they gained full access to an encrypted messaging system used by criminal gangs. Top image credit: Getty Please send tamagotchis 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? 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