Home down payments, global citizen expectations, Cat Island, smelling sickness, the sun, third party candidates, climate and movies
March 4, 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).
Climate Change
Testing for how climate change is represented in Oscar-nominated movies
The Buck Lab for Climate & Environment at Colby College along with Good Energy has a created a Climate Reality Check to evaluate whether our climate reality is being represented in films, TV shows, and other narratives. “The Climate Reality Check does not suggest or require that every story center on climate change, nor does it prescribe what kinds of stories filmmakers should tell. It simply measures whether our current climate reality is being reflected on-screen.” The Climate Reality Check asks, whether in a given story if climate change exists and if a character knows it. The test was used on the thirty-one 2024 Oscar-nominated films. The results:
13 fit the inclusion criteria: stories set in the present or near future, on Earth, in this universe.
3 (23%) passed the Climate Reality Test.
3 (23%) contained at least one character who was aware of climate change.
The films passing the test were Barbie, Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, and Nyad.
The public doesn’t know nuclear power is low-carbon
Hannah Ritchie in her Sustainability by the Numbers newsletter on February 27, 2024, writes that much of the public is confused about whether nuclear power is low-carbon. Ritchie says, “The life-cycle emissions of nuclear are just as low – if not lower – than solar and wind. And the main point is that all three are much lower than fossil fuels. Her findings:
A 2021 survey by YouGov asked over 3,000 people in the UK about the carbon intensity of different energy sources. Under half – 46% – knew that nuclear was low-carbon. 30% thought it was moderate or high. And more people said “don’t know” compared to other energy sources.
A 2020 study by the UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers found that just under half (48%) of UK adults knew that nuclear energy was low-carbon.
A survey of almost 3,000 adults in the U.S. found that 27% thought nuclear power was a “very major” or “major” cause of climate change. An additional 29% thought it was a “moderate” cause.
A major report by Zero Ideas asked about the icons used to represent nuclear power. The classic image of cooling towers was the least popular icon and gave the worst impression. An old coal plant spewing pollution into the atmosphere looks similar to white smoke from a nuclear cooling tower, so people assume nuclear and coal plants are similar. It reinforces the notion that fossil fuels and nuclear are close cousins.
Awareness building of the long-term costs of wind turbines
Like many industrial processes, the cost of long-term maintenance and decommissioning of wind turbines has been underestimated. According to a February 20, 2024, story in Harvard Business Review, “Wind energy is experiencing a boom, but wind farms are building ever larger turbines to farm wind energy further and further from shore. This trend carries risks, especially as turbines come with largely hidden costs. Increasing evidence suggests that although larger turbines can capture more energy, at a certain point, the costs of maintaining and decommissioning large turbines located far offshore will outweigh the benefits of that energy capture. If wind farm operators are to avoid creating an environmental and economic disaster in the longer term, they need to begin factoring realistic maintenance and decommissioning costs into their projections.”
Benefits of solar installations on farmland
Solar installations on farmland do more than just harvest energy. According to a study by the U.S. Department of Energy, as reported in a February 24, 2024, story in The Cool Down, farmland used for solar installations:
Can also be breeding grounds for pollinators and native plants.
Generate clean energy while also supporting local wildlife.
Host both solar panels and crops or livestock at the same time.
Political Divide
“Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing, once all other possibilities have been exhausted.” - once attributed to Winston Churchill, but no documentation can be found. It is now credited to Israeli diplomat Abba Eban.
Is a third-party candidate likely in 2024 elections?
Journalist James Fallows in the February 25, 2024, edition of his Breaking the News newsletter, explains why he thinks there will not be third party candidate in 2024. He writes that “In U.S. presidential politics, third-party campaigns are always and only spoilers. That risk for the 2024 election receded this week, as did some other threats.” Here are his reasons:
A likely end for No Labels 2024.
A possible end for magical thinking about an open convention.
What should be the end for the latest impeachment.
Over-reach in the culture wars: Frozen embryos as people.
Former Levi CEO on corporate responsibility
“We have a history. We’ve been around for 171 years now. Going all the way back to our founder Levi Strauss … the very first year he made a profit, he donated a percentage of it to a church orphanage in San Francisco. And he always believed that, yes, we make blue jeans, but we are here to do more than just make a buck for the shareholders. We are here to make an impact on society.” - Chip Bergh, former CEO, of Levi’s, who increased the company’s market value five times in the 12 years he served as CEO, but was accused of being a woke CEO “for taking strong stances on gun violence and voting rights.” In CEO Daily, March 1, 2024.
Future of Work / The Economy
“I think that [ignorance] is kind of the superpower of an entrepreneur. They don’t know how hard it is. And they only ask themselves: ‘How hard can it be?’ To this day, I trick my brain into thinking: ‘How hard can it be?’” – Jensen Huang, CEO, Nvidia, in Fortune, February 22, 2024.
How times have changed! Depending on who you ask.
Presidential power and oil prices
“The president doesn’t have a lot to do with what happens in the oil patch,” - Tom Kloza, founder, Oil Price Information Service. According to a story in The Morning newsletter on February 27, 2024, “Pump prices are driven by big global forces rather than administration policy.”
Exxon about investment in solar and wind
“Our view is we don’t bring any real capabilities to that space … We don’t bring capabilities other than a checkbook. And so we don’t see the ability to generate better-than-average returns for our investors.” – Darren Woods, CEO, Exxon, on Exxon’s lack of solar and wind energy investments compared to European oil majors, in CEO Daily, February 28, 2024.
Down payments on homes vary widely across the U.S.
Data from Bankrate.com reported and mapped by Visual Capitalist on February 26, 2024, has revealed a broad range of costs for the median down payment for a single-family home across the country. In the three highest states, Florida, Hawaii, and Washington D.C., the median cost is $98,670. In Mississippi, the median down payment is only $5,814. The average for the nation Is $31,500.
Expectations of citizens across the globe focus on inflation, social services, and technology
A survey of 50,000 people in 23 countries by the Future Investment Initiative Institute has found commonality around expectations and dissatisfaction with governments. As reported in Fortune, on February 26, 2024:
70% of people in developed countries say their nation is not doing enough to address inflation and the high cost of living.
Two-thirds don’t feel protected by their government when it comes to health care, social services, and crisis response.
62% in the U.S. say their government is not doing enough to regulate the impact of emerging technology on society.
U.S. imports from China eclipsed by Mexico
A February 7, 2024, story in Quartz reports that “for the first time in two decades, US imports from Mexico surpassed those from China, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, signaling a shift in global trade due to tensions between the U.S. and China. Mexico’s numbers remained about the same as last year, but imports from China decreased by 20%.
Health
Scientists working on being able to smell a sickness
A February 29, 2024, article in National Geographic explores emerging studies indicating that people can smell sickness in others. “Scientists have found that dozens of illnesses have a particular smell: Diabetes can make your urine smell like rotten apples, and typhoid turns body odor into the smell of baked bread. Worse, yellow fever apparently makes your skin smell like a butcher’s shop.” The current work came from the discovery that a woman in Scotland could smell when someone had Parkinson’s disease, a “sort of woody, musky odor.” This resulted in a test that was “95 percent accurate in determining whether a person had Parkinson’s.”
The Nett Light-Side
“Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.” - Annette Funicello, an American actress and singer and one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club.
What does the sun look like?
It is an older story, but this September 22, 2023, article in National Geographic provides a fascinating image of the sun and reports on how “views from a new telescope in Hawaii and clues from spacecraft orbiting the sun could not only help us understand how stars work—they could help us predict solar activity that threatens Earth.”
China’s Cat Island is a home for 400+ strays
Shanghai, China, has a feral cat problem. According to a story on February 26, 2024, in The Washington Post, “a government-affiliated nonprofit foundation opened the 130-acre Shanghai Pet Base facility, which encompasses Cat Island … it is concentrating on trapping and neutering strays, then returning them to the communities where they were found. When that’s not possible, they’re rehomed to Cat Island.”
Rabbits are like having a vegan cat
According to Anna Reynoso, the manager at a shelter run by the House Rabbit Society in Richmond, California, “rabbits are like having a vegan cat.” According to a February 20, 2024, story in the Washington Post about the benefits of rabbits as pets, “they have a minimal pawprint. They eat small amounts of hay and otherwise discarded vegetables. Their waste can be used as fertilizer in gardens.”
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.