Exothermic is the leader in self-reliance brand marketing, but we like to share our wisdom with the world. Here are the top stories we’ve identified this week in our markets:

Survivalism

• Climate Change Could Cause Significant Food Supply & Economic Problems Due To “Chokepoints,” Report Warns, Roughly 25% of all of the food currently eaten in the world is traded on international markets. This situation is especially true of staple foods such as wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans. Owing to this reality, and the accompanying reliance on a relatively small number of important deepwater seaports, roads, and straits — so-called “choke points” — climate change threatens to greatly disrupt international food supply chains in coming years.
• Lyme Disease Is Spreading, And It’s Partly This Mouse’s Fault, As tick-
• borne diseases become increasingly common in the U.S., scientists are scrutinizing these external parasites’ relationship with their hosts with the goal of figuring out how to fight the spread of Lyme.
• How farmers are fighting ticks with feathery fowl, Speaking of ticks –

  

  chickens and guineas are “tick-eating machines,” according to many poultry enthusiasts.

• WHO warns of imminent spread of untreatable superbug gonorrhoea, At least three people worldwide are infected with totally untreatable “superbug” strains of gonorrhoea which they are likely to be spreading to others through sex.
• Popular heartburn drugs linked to higher death risk, Risk increases the longer the drugs are used.
• Researchers find sunscreen becomes toxic when exposed to chlorine, New research reveals that sunscreen becomes toxic when exposed to chlorine, sometimes resulting in kidney and liver dysfunctions, as well as nervous system disorders.
• To Prepare For Mars Settlement, Simulated Missions Explore Utah’s Desert, For 16 years, this facility surrounded by red hills, deep canyons and very few signs of life has been a kind of testing ground for learning what life on the Red Planet might be like.
• Why Is There So Much Modern Architecture In The NRA’s New Ad?, For decades, authoritarian regimes have waged war on modern architecture and the philosophy it embodies. A new ad proves it’s still a target.

Sustainability

• Climate change skeptics suffer blow as satellite data correction shows 140% faster global warming, The rate of warming was about a third higher at 0.174 degrees Celsius per decade between 1976 and 2016, compared to 0.134C per decade.
• California Has So Much Solar Power That Other States Are Paid To Take It, On 14 days during March, Arizona utilities got a gift from California: free solar power.
• San Francisco Strides Toward An All-Renewable Future, Two key moves this year will propel San Francisco’s toward an all-renewable electricity mix by 2030, potentially making the city — the 13th largest in the nation — a model for others eyeing a similar transition.
• California’s Cap-and-Trade Program Just Won a Major Legal Challenge, And more news on California – but now legislators have to figure out what’s next after 2020.
• Just don’t call it ‘climate change’, What Republicans in Dallas can teach us about saving the planet.

  

• All Volvo models to become electrified from 2019, Volvo has announced the radical move to electrify every model launched from 2019, which will include five all-electric cars by 2021.
• Restaurants Are Returning Their Empty Oyster Shells To The Ocean To Rebuild Decimated Reefs, A partnership between a nonprofit and a waste-management company in Mobile, Alabama has already diverted 2.8 million oyster shells from landfill.
• North Carolina Seeks To Ban Wind Farm Permits Through 2018, Sad news from Exothermic’s home state: in a move that seemingly has no other intention but to hamper economic growth and ban the development of clean energy, North Carolina legislators seek to place a moratorium on new wind farm permits through 2018.
• Good Lord, The World Is Using Almost 500 Billion Plastic Water Bottles A Year, We’ll hit 580 billion by 2021.

Self-Improvement

• Tylenol May Kill Kindness, In research published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience scientists describe the results of two experiments conducted involving more than 200 college students.Their conclusion is that acetaminophen can reduce a person’s capacity to empathize with another person’s pain.

  

• Fitness-tracking company Jawbone, once worth $3 billion, is shutting down and liquidating its assets, Jawbone, the company that made fitness trackers and Bluetooth speakers, is liquidating its assets, according to a source familiar with its plans, marking the latest casualty in the once-promising wearable device market.
• There’s Now a Fitness App for People With Short Attention Spans, Signing on for a 12-week running program, or a full week of specific meals, is kind of a big commitment. Adidas’s new fitness app, All Day (free on iOS and Android), takes a different approach: it’s full of short, self-contained adventures to choose.
• Meditation platform Headspace raises $36.7 million, Headspace, an online mindfulness and meditation platform, has raised $36.7 million in a series B round of funding spearheaded by Spectrum Equity.