Hello everyone!

This week marked the Lunar New Year (hello year of the Wood Snake) and with only two weeks to go until the Project for Awesome kicks off, it really feels like 2025 is properly underway.

The P4A is definitely a grounding moment for me in the year, in part because we learn about so many different organisations and ways to help, but also because we are reminded of our collective capabilities even when our individual capacities are low. What gives me hope is the time people give to P4A, the excitement to be part of it, and the joy of seeing familiar usernames in the chat. It is a space of collective commiseration and collective celebration. (Also memes and the things that happen when Hank hosts at night and I’m asleep and I only find out about them in the morning to my horror.)

A lot of people are feeling the limits of their individual capacities this week for a hundred different reasons. Sometimes when I feel like that I just hide under my duvet and don’t talk to anyone and then wonder why I feel so rubbish days later. If you’re feeling this way, maybe the P4A can be a place of gathering for you, a place where we gather each other, gather our plans, and gather our actions. I hope to see you there in two weeks.

Rosianna (executive producer of Turtles All the Way Down and longtime Nerdfighter)

You can always email us at [email protected]

This Week in Stuff

• Anna-Laura Sullivan shared beautiful watercolor comics on Instagram.

• The Project for Awesome opened charity video submissions! Learn how you can help a cause you care about here.

• If you’ve ever used super glue, you know it’s perfect for sticking your fingers together! Veritasium explained why it works so well.

• A group recited Happy Birthday without singing for their friend.

• Hank was a guest on the Attach Your Résumé podcast!

Please send us stuff you think we should feature to [email protected]

The world has probably passed “peak air pollution”

Hannah Ritchie

Global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak.

The chart shows estimates of global emissions of pollutants such as sulphur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxides, and black and organic carbon.

These pollutants are harmful to human health and can also damage ecosystems.

It looks like emissions have peaked for almost all of these pollutants. Global air pollution is now falling, and we can save many lives by accelerating this decline.

The exception is ammonia, which is mainly produced by agriculture. Its emissions are still rising.

These estimates come from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS).

Our World in Data is a UK-based non-profit organization that publishes research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. You can find more of their data insights here.

This Week at Complexly

SciShow is asking you for help to fund another year of 5-times-a-week, backed-by-research and designed-for-fun science videos. We’ve always relied on your support to keep SciShow going, and that’s true now more than ever. Support us this month and you’ll get a postcard treat from the SciShow team… and a special secret SciShow video! Get your postcards at complexly.com/postcard before February 3rd!

Rhett and Link joined Hank to ask him about laying eggs, turning bread into gold, and weaponizing laughter in the first episode of Ask Hank Anything!

Some Games to Play!

Scrabble Tetris (by carykh)

SpellCheck.xyc (by Answer in Progress)

Download Gubbins on iOS or Android!

If you post your results on social media, we’d love it if you post a link for folks to subscribe to “We’re Here” (https://werehere.beehiiv.com/subscribe)

2025 New Release TBR

Last week, we asked for the 2025 book releases you were excited about. Thank you to everyone who helped build this TBR (to be read) list!

1. Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros (January 21st)

2. Picks and Shovels by Cory Doctorow (February 18th)

3. Air-Borne by Carl Zimmer (February 25th)

4. They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran (March 4th)

5. The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar (March 4th)

6. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (March 18th)

7. Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins (March 18th)

8. Go Forth and Forage by Whitney Johnson (March 25th)

9. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (April 22nd)

10. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (May 20th)

11. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (June 3rd)

12. The Jasad Crown by Sara Hashem (July 15th)

13. The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (July 15th)

14. Katabasis by R.F. Kuang (August 26th)

15. The Vegan Creamery by Miyoko Schinner (September 16th)

You finished the newsletter!

Write a letter to your future self. Use this as a moment to reflect, but also write down some of your hopes and dreams. You can just use this as a journal prompt, or you can actually send it to your future self with FutureMe.

Share your letter (or just some pieces of it) with us at [email protected]. Keep in mind that we might publish it unless instructed otherwise.

We're Here is the newsletter of Nerdfighteria; the community of people that sprung up around Hank and John Green's YouTube videos. That community has many focuses and has spawned many projects but the overarching theme is that hopelessness is the wrong response to imperfection. What makes the world better is groups of people trying to understand and solve problems, and people can only do that for an extended period if they're having at least a little bit of fun.