New broader waiver to the freeze for life-saving assistance announced
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-issues-new-waiver-humanitarian-aid-amid-freeze-2025-01-29/
I’m not sure “sharing articles on PEPFAR as widely as you can” won’t have some negative consequences.
I’ve been following the posts around this on Twitter/X & they routinely get disdain & hate from MAGA users. Like if one put up a link to contact Congress, I wouldn’t put it past some people to contact Congress to say the program is wasteful, doesn’t prioritize US citizens, only helps irresponsible gay people, etc. The ignorance & selfish cruelty on display has been very disheartening. It has shaken my faith in humanity, not even a faith in people being really empathetic & good, but the faith that people won’t hatefully oppose something so good because of a warped world-view.
The support on places like Bluesky has been much better.
Maybe the most tractable new idea to improve lives by 5% or more at scale!
I recently came across this short-sleepers intervention idea on Twitter. https://x.com/byersblake/status/1865853596769849671?s=46
And when I started listing out big project ideas like economic/political systems change, reducing diseases/aging/major causes of death, resolving climate change, working on advanced market commitments, etc., I couldn’t think of anything that was as tractable that would significantly improve lives at scale. There are ways to improve democratic decision making & alignment with people’s values & priorities in big ways, but implementing the mechanisms is a big political challenge if not a non-starter. Attacking major causes of death is feasible if we find scalable solutions for aging, obesity, & addictions. We could likely increase lifespans/healthspans by 5% or more, but at this point we may get a decent amount of this when existing markets scale GLP1 drugs.
It seems like a short-sleepers intervention, even if it only reduced required sleeping hours from 8 to 6, would be equivalent to giving most people 6 more years of conscious life or a 7.5% longer healthy life if it could be done in an affordable drug/therapy. And it seems most challenges for an intervention would be narrow technical challenges & known regulatory challenges instead of unwieldy, widespread political/societal challenges.
I really like the potential here. I’ll keep reading more on it & look forward to any updates or opportunities to support it.
I’m still using donation multipliers to increase the amount of funds given/directed to orgs: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/BFbNymbn4ukmKWHrX/donation-multiplier-stacking-directing-1-27x-to-6-6x-more
So I’m lined up to give $950 to the Evidence Action donation match campaign https://supporters.evidenceaction.org/page/2024match?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=giving_season
And I’m doing it on a new credit card with a $200 cash back bonus.
Then my remaining holiday donation of $550 will be split between the GiveWell All Grants Fund & the Giving Multiplier matching fund (https://givingmultiplier.org/matching) But I’m holding off until January to make this one on the off chance tax deductions will be more viable next year.
Many of the most cost-effective & scale-able interventions are preventative, like child immunizations in globally poor areas. Unfortunately preventative work usually isn’t as flashy, like there isn’t a lot of fan-fare or striking event when in 6 months a vaccinated child doesn’t get malaria.
In what ways might the Mr. Beast team or others creatively work through/around this challenge to make highly-effective preventative work more compelling?
Would you consider more work & content in nutrition for pregnant mothers & developing children in globally poor regions?
-Multi-micronutrient & calcium supplementation & education for pregnant mothers to prevent still-births/early-births/underweight-births.
-Complementary feeding supplies & education for families with infants to prevent stunting.
-SQ-LNS (https://www.unicef.org/documents/nutrition/SQLNS-Guidance) distribution to prevent malnutrition in early childhood.
Research presented in the “Best Things First” book (https://lomborg.com/best-things-first) estimate a benefit of $14-$24 for every $1 spent on these interventions in globally poor regions.
I think solutions that solve all of climate change may be more tractable than wide-reaching solutions for factory farming / animal suffering.
Climate change resolutions that cost $1 trillion a year or less & don’t require widespread political change…
-SO2 Injection
-Olivine Rock Weathering
-Continued Steep Cost Declines in Renewables & Batteries
-Abundant Carbon Neutral Synthetic Gas
How to Solve Climate Change https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/we-can-already-stop-climate-change
Current SO2 Credits https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/so2-injection
Donate
https://makesunsets.com/products/join-the-next-balloon-launch-and-cool-the-planet
Olivine Rock Weathering https://worksinprogress.co/issue/olivine-weathering/
Steep Renewables & Batteries Cost Declines https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/11/09/solar-and-batteries-for-generic-use-cases/
Abundant Carbon Neutral Synthetic Gas https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2024/06/24/how-terraform-navigated-the-idea-maze/