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

• Inside The Frozen Vaults That Archive The World’s Plant Species, Photographer Dornith Doherty documents the international institutions that are protecting the future of our ecosystem from our own destruction.
• Artificial intelligence can now predict how much time people have left to live with high accuracy, Courtesy reddit – “Basically what they’re saying is that they can determine an individual’s quality of health to a high degree of accuracy using CT scans for data alone, rather than looking at genetic and environmental risk factors. These days we mostly look at genetic makeup and environmental influences for estimating longevity. But, since it is difficult to collect the right data and parse through the complicated interactions of these factors, this new method might prove to be a better alternative.”

  

• Commuting By Foot: Big Sur Residents Struggle With Life After Mudslide, Most mornings and afternoons, a newly built footpath that plunges through a grove of towering redwoods is clogged with workers and schoolchildren. That hiking trail is a lifeline.
• This Map Will Remind You Why You Can’t Always Trust Your Tap Water, The most comprehensive resource to date on chemical contamination shows that the taps of 15 million Americans pour out unsafe water.
• World’s First battery-Free Pacemaker Gets Its Power From Microwaves, Researchers at Rice University and the Texas Heart Institute have created the internal components for a battery-free pacemaker, designed to be inserted directly into the heart and free of wires.
• Monitoring your blood pressure? Careful, 70% of home devices may be inaccurate, The error range is enough to sway decisions about taking or stopping medication.
• Precious metals, Some survivalism humor from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal 🙂

Sustainability

• 247 mayors adopt Paris climate accord after U.S. pulls out, “The world cannot wait—and neither will we.”
• Hawaii Ignores Trump and Becomes First State to Legally Support Paris Climate Agreement, Hawaii has passed a law to document sea level rise and set strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The bill signed by

  

  Gov. David Ige aligns the state’s goals with the Paris climate accord, AP reported.

• More states sign on to U.S. Climate Alliance to honor Paris agreement, The member states represent about one-third of the U.S. population, roughly 102 million people, and also about one-third of the U.S.’s overall Gross Domestic Product at $6.83 trillion combined.
• Last Week Tonight Covers What Leaving the Paris Agreement Means for the Climate Change Movement, If you have 21 minutes to spare, John Oliver reviews the Paris Agreement and its general purpose, along with the repercussions that may follow the US leaving the agreement.
• Bloomberg Promises $15 Million To Help Make Up For U.S. Withdrawal From Climate Deal, “Americans will honor and fulfill the Paris Agreement by leading from the bottom up — and there isn’t anything Washington can do to stop us,” said Bloomberg.
• If These Giant Companies Can Switch To The Circular Economy, So Can Anyone, Overhauling the traditional take-make-waste business model can be daunting, but these initiatives demonstrate that the payoff for experimentation and boundary-pushing is worth it.
• Researchers create hydrogen fuel with artificial photosynthesis, They could become a source of clean energy in the future.

Self-Improvement

• The Millennial Obsession With Self-Care, There is one generation that has been consistently defined by its obsessions: avocado toast, memes, Harry Potter … and self-care. They are often perceived as entitled snowflakes, but millennials might be the generation of emotional intelligence.
• Dirt has a microbiome, and it may double as an antidepressant, Your garden has its own microbiome, and research suggests it’s good for you. Our health depends on the flourishing microbiome in our guts—and on how much of the natural world’s microbiome we let infiltrate.

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  The Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now, Created by a team of Stanford psychologists and AI experts, Woebot uses brief daily chat conversations, mood tracking, curated videos, and word games to help people manage mental health.

• Shocking Discovery Shows That Zapping Your Brain Can Boost Creativity, A new study from London tells us more about the nature of creativity, and how it arises in the human brain.
• Americans are suddenly defaulting on their credit cards, In the past two fiscal quarters, banks reported a steep rise in credit-card charge-offs — debt that companies can’t collect from their customers — according to a report from Moody’s.