EA Updates for March 2021
Upcoming Virtual Events
3rd March—Lead Exposure Elimination—A global health career profile with Lucia Coulter, organised by EA Cambridge
9th March—Audrey Tang on Taiwan’s digital democracy, an event by the Centre for the Governance of AI
11th March—Tech EA London Social—Icebreakers
14th March—Giving What We Can Meetup
17-19th March—Oxford Workshop on Global Priorities Research—applications close 28th February
20-21st March—EA Global: Reconnect—Virtual conference
27th March—LSE Future of Humanity Summit
26-28th March—EA Fellowship Weekend—For people who are newer to EA
29-31st October—EA Global: London 2021
Latest Research and Updates
Meta
The Giving What We Can pledge campaign has brought in 978 new members with over 500 having taken the GWWC Pledge
Global Priorities Institute have released their annual report for 2019-20
There is an EA Focusmate group for people who want to increase their productivity and also meet others interested in EA
Luke Freeman is looking for feedback on an interactive donation tracking table to help map the EA charity space
Let’s Fund 2020 update
One for the World − 2021 update
80,000 Hours one-on-one team plans, plus projects they’d like to see
Ben West with research into retention within effective altruism
An ask me anything with people who work in operations at EA related organisations
Founders Pledge on why they say ‘funding opportunity’ instead of ‘charity’
Haydn Belfield with several alternatives to donor lotteries
Grants
Open Phil have made 5 grants recently with a total value of $2,461,000
$1,306,000 - Farm animal welfare
$1,005,000 - Scientific research
$150,000 - Potential Risks from Advanced AI
The Animal Welfare Fund, the Long-Term Future Fund, and the EA Infrastructure Fund are calling for applications, closing on the 7th of March
Animal Charity Evaluator Movement Grants are accepting applications until the 12th of March
Global Development
Max Roser on why economic growth should be a key focus if we want global poverty to decline
GiveWell on where they recommend Open Philanthropy to donate $70,000,000 to in 2020
An article looking at how Covid-19 has impacted the fight against malaria
Azeem Azhar in conversation with Regina Dugan, CEO of new biomedical non-profit Wellcome Leap and former director of DARPA, discussing approaches to delivering breakthrough technologies in global health
Kelsey Piper with an overview of how smallpox was eradicated
Neela Saldanha, Tom Wein and Cait Lamberton with a post for Apolitical on how governments should take into account dignity when making policies
Animal Welfare
80,000 Hours podcast with Lewis Bollard on big wins against factory farming and how they happened
Animal Advocacy Careers 2021 plans and 2020 review
Aquatic Animal Alliance has been launched, a coalition of advocacy organisations
Jo Anderson(Faunalytics) and Saulius Šimčikas(Rethink Priorities) on the Sentience Institute podcast looking at important research related to animal advocacy
An Ask Me Anything with Lewis Bollard on the EA Forum
Existential & Catastrophic Risks
A paper with contributions from 40+ experts looking at the top 80 questions for UK biological security
A paper assessing climate change’s contribution to global catastrophic risk
Stefan Riedener with a paper looking at existential risks from a Christian perspective
An interview with journalist Tom Chivers discussing existential risks
David Manheim with a list of project ideas in biosecurity
Improving Institutions
The UK is to launch a high risk, high reward scientific research agency, with £800,000,000 funding over four years
The 2021 metascience symposium will be on the 16-18th and 23-25th of September
Saloni Dattani & Nathaniel Bechhofer looking at the speed of scientific research and the debates around scientific reform
Matt Clifford discussing the history and future of innovation with Anton Howes
Stuart Ritchie looking at potential flaws in the scientific system that Covid-19 has revealed
Caroline Fiennes with a post suggesting that many charities are too small to measure their own impact
Environment
Bill Gates on a key idea from his new book on how to combat climate change
Hannah Ritchie looking at the history of deforestation and whether this can be reversed
Longtermism
A post looking at the objectives of longtermist policy making
Michelle Hutchinson on why she finds longtermism hard and what keeps her motivated
Emerging Technology
Matt Clifford in conversation with Marc Warner exploring how technology collides with politics, culture and society
Daniel Kokotajlo with an argument against using GDP as a metric for AI timelines
Other Links
Julia Galef and Jonathan Haidt with a podcast on understanding moral disagreements
Sparkwave have a new tool to help people create positive behaviours
Joe Carlsmith with a very popular post on the EA Forum called “Killing the ants”
Brian Tan with a list of EA related documentaries, movies and TV series
Lynette Bye with a post collating resources on personal mental health and finding a therapist
Tobias Baumann with a post looking at how can we reduce suffering risks
Tony Sena has a new project analysing religious text with an effective altruism lens
Luke Muehlhauser with a succinct overview of superforecasting
John Halstead looking at how much should people defer to expert opinion
Stefan Schubert on a podcast introducing effective altruism and discussing the different obstacles that stop people from donating effectively
Matthew Allcock with a tool for Clearer Thinking that helps people to determine when they should stop exploring
Susannah Birkwood has a new podcast looking at impact in journalism
Marcus Daniell on Hear This Idea discussing High Impact Athletes and the purpose of sport
Good News
India is proposing to double healthcare spending in the annual budget
Niger is set for their first peaceful transition of power
Angola has decriminalised same-sex relationships
Colombia has given protected status to nearly 2 million displaced Venezuelans
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