Good news, solar motivation, humans on earth's timeline, half the world's population to vote in 2024, disruption, vibrating pill, nature photos
January 8, 2024 - The Nett Report
Every other week, the award-winning Nett Report provides readers with thoughtful perspectives helpful to navigating life in a changing world. Past issues can be found here (recent) and here (past three years).
Happy New Year! Let’s celebrate with good news from 2023
It is a new year, and we wish all Nett Report readers a healthy and prosperous 2024. To start the new year on a positive note, we provide a December 20, 2023, story in FutureCrunch providing 66 good news stories you didn’t hear about in 2023. FutureCrunch says, “The news is supposed to tell us what's happening in the world. It doesn't. It tells us what's going wrong. Thanks to a combination of commercial pressures, cognitive biases, and cultural habits, news organizations have become modern-day doom machines, showcasing the worst of humanity without highlighting any progress, healing, or restoration. … when we only hear stories of doom, we fail to see the stories of possibility. We deny ourselves the opportunity to do better.”
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Political Divide
“Some people have no idea what they're doing, and a lot of them are really good at it.” - George Carlin
Half of the world’s population to vote in national elections in 2024
“In 2024, nearly half of the global population is expected to vote in more than 50 national elections, including in the world’s two largest democracies: India and the United States. In many of these polls, democracy itself is on the ballot.” - Foreign Policy Magazine, January 7, 2024
Election year focuses the divide on the presidential election in 12 charts
Maybe it’s just the assortment of information that came across our desktop over the holidays and in the first week of the New Year, but most of the choices for stories to use about the political divide focused on the politics of the 2024 presidential election. I tend not to want to report on the politics of people and prefer to focus on the policies. As a result, I have taken the most neutral and data-driven article to post: a December 23, 2023, Washington Post comparison of the economy under the leadership of the two likely 2024 candidates: Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The article provides 12 charts showing the state of the economy under both administrations.
Future of Work / The Economy
“Whether you think you can or you think you can't--you're right.” - Henry Ford
"Dedicate yourself to learning all the time and doing the best possible work you can.” - Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s advice to young professionals
CEOs concerned about ability to manage disruption/change in 2024
The consulting firm AlixPartners publishes an annual Disruption Index using a range of 0 to 100 based on a survey of global executives. According to a January 8, 2024, story in CEO Daily, the index has dropped from 79 in 2022 to 72 in 2024. 296 CEOs were part of the survey, and their responses show that “disruption still rules the C-suite.”
63% fear their executive teams lack the agility to navigate today’s pace of change.
59% worry their employees “tend to be too set in their ways and not open to change.”
61% acknowledge that “my company is not adapting fast enough to stay ahead of disruption.”
78% said, “it is increasingly challenging to know which disruptive forces to prioritize.”
Commercial real estate values predicted to continue declining
A December 19, 2023, article in Fortune reports on the economic research firm Capital Economics’ outlook for next year, which predicts commercial real estate property values will fall another 10% in 2024, after falling 11% in 2023. The firm defines the size of the commercial real estate market “as more than $5 trillion, using a 2022 year-end estimate. That means the 11% decline in value this year equates to roughly $590 billion, while the 10% fall expected next year equates to $480 billion.” Office space leads the downturn with a projected 43% decline in value from its peak.
Manufacturing might not have a soft landing in 2024
Much has been reported about the success of maintaining a strong economy through the combination of the Federal Reserve’s management of interest rates and the influx of government dollars into the economy. This has led to confidence that the economy will have a soft landing rather than go into recession. Bill Wood, the economics editor for Plastics News, writes in the December 20, 2023, issue that he doesn’t think the manufacturing sector will have a soft landing. He writes that there is a divergence between the services sector, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy, and the manufacturing sector. He summarizes the problem like this: “The government pumped trillions of dollars of relief money into the system, and a disproportionate share of that money has gone toward the purchase of services ... the bulk of the job gains in recent months have been in the services sector ... Accounting for the one-time adjustment caused by the auto workers' strike, the prevailing trend in the jobs data for the goods-producing sector is flat to down.”
Climate Change
What motivates people to install rooftop solar? Think neighbors
A November 28, 2022, story in the Climate Coach newsletter reported on a study in Nature about why people install solar panels. “Subsidies, geography, and policy were all considered. The most powerful factor? Whether a neighbor already had solar panels. There was even a proximity effect. People living within two blocks of homes with panels were the most likely to buy their own. Solar panels, in other words, were contagious. With climate, we must consider social norms as well as policies and incentives.”
Where do humans’ 1/40th of a second fit on the Earth’s timeline?
Another story in Climate Coach, this one on December 19. 2023, reflected on the fact that “many of us act as if life on Earth will continue as it has within our lifetime.” However, the newsletter provides an analogy by Sierra Club founder David Brower, showing the “folly of this assumption comparing the last 4 billion years of Earth’s existence to six days of creation. On this time scale, life on Earth would have evolved around 4 p.m. on Tuesday. Plants and animals emerged from the oceans over the subsequent days. Dinosaurs appeared late Saturday, and redwoods took root a few hours later. A few minutes before midnight on Saturday, humanity debuted. The Industrial Revolution kicked off just a fraction of a second before the clock struck 12. “We are surrounded with people that think what we have been doing for that one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely,” Brower is quoted as saying. “They are considered normal, but they are stark raving mad.”
Geographic understanding in addressing climate change
An opinion by Esri founder Jack Dangermond in a December 2, 2023, story in Forbes, shares the five-factor framework to guide climate action for government and business Leaders that is rooted in the work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Understand and explore hazards
Analyze and assess vulnerabilities and risk
Investigate and communicate to create a broad understanding
Prioritize and plan, including testing multiple scenarios using simulations and 3D models
Take action inclusively by sharing data using technologies that are visually dynamic and engaging
Dangermond says “each factor is tied to geography. By following this framework, we can uncover and mitigate risk. We can learn and adapt to changes in the environment and design new ways to live and work.”
Health
Will a vibrating pill trick the stomach into feeling full?
Step aside, Ozempic and Wegovy. Researchers from Harvard and MIT have developed a vibrating pill that reduced food consumption in pigs by 40%, according to a story in Science on December 22, 2023. It is unclear whether the pill will work in humans.
Changes in sense of smell could be an early sign of dementia
A study from the University of Chicago has found that “a rapid decline in a person’s sense of smell during a period of normal cognition predicted multiple features of Alzheimer’s disease, including smaller gray matter volume in the areas of the brain related to smell and memory, worse cognition and higher risk of dementia.” As reported in a December 19, 2023, story in HuffPost. “Failing to smell strong scents like shower gel and shampoos, as well as not picking up on strong cooking aromas and candles, could be an early indicator of dementia.”
Some thoughts on mental health for the New Year
Stop regretting the past. You can’t change it. You can only learn from it.
Stop worrying about the future. Trust in your ability to handle whatever comes your way.
Stop looking for happiness in other people. Seek happiness within yourself.
Stop underestimating your inner strength.
From Instagram, evolvate
The Nett Light-Side
Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest produces stunning images
Smithsonian Magazine on January 5, 2024, reported on the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest produced by the Natural History Museum of London. The contest has produced another set of stunning images. “From a dragonfly landing on a turtle’s nose to a sleeping polar bear, the images offer rare glimpses into astounding, tense, and tender moments experienced by animals across the world.”
Time-lapse of winter shows buildup of icicles and snow
This time lapse video by Jamie Scott was featured in the December 22, 2023, issue of Colossal. Worth a calming and reflective few minutes.
The world’s first Formula E race car made from electronic waste
“Formula E is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars,” according to Wikipedia. Now Envision Racing has created the Formula E car made completely from electronic waste, according to a December 2, 2023, article in Waste Advantage magazine. “It is composed of various electronic products, such as laptops, keyboards, mice, phones, vapes, batteries, and wires. The car demonstrates how e-waste can be repurposed and reused in a creative and innovative way, rather than being thrown away and forgotten.”
About Carl Nettleton
Carl Nettleton is an award-winning writer, speaker, thought partner, facilitator, and subject-matter expert regarding water, climate, sustainability, the ocean, and binational U.S.-Mexico border affairs. Nettleton Strategies, the consultancy he founded in 2007, is a trusted source of analysis and advice on issues at the forefront of public policy, business, and the environment. He helps people and organizations to think strategically about their options for change. He is also the founder of OpenOceans Global, a nonprofit addressing ocean plastic in a new way.
Nettleton Strategies
www.nettstrategies.com