LT #14 - Top Links - June 2023
Covid-lab leaks? changing oil markets, US-India alliances, presidential politics, Trump indictments, orcas, Canadian wildfires, climate change, monopolies and mergers blocked, and recovering economies
Assorted Links
Chart: the most and least stressed cities in America - Charlotte’s Web
Mapped: The state of economic freedom around the world in 2023 - Visual Capitalist
Intercept: Documents link potential Covid patient zero to U.S.-funded research in Wuhan
40 mind expanding concepts (summer 2023) - Gurwinder
For example: #11. The Friendship Recession
American presidential politics is back
How many indictments does it take to bring down a cult leader? James Risen discusses the former president’s legal troubles and why Republicans are standing behind their man
Mike Pence and Chris Christie are going to lose - Jacobin
Can Democrats win back the working class? - Jared Abbott and Fred DeVeaux argue it is very difficult, but propose 4 ways to stop the bleeding:
Run working class candidates
Focus on messages that champion the working class and critique economic elites
Run on a jobs-first program
Take a critical stance towards both parties
We’re all just having fun here - Freddie DeBoer explains why Orcas are not, in fact, the revolutionary political forces you either love or fear:
Hey, you know what would be a much bigger symbol of radical progress than some killer whales attacking a couple dozen random small watercraft?
Oh, Canada
Maximum Canada is happening - Finally, Canada’s population growth rate has soared 1-1.5% pre-pandemic to ~3.5% - entirely via immigration - as the country pursues its tremendous growth ambitions.
Canadian wildfires and climate change - The Climate Brink
Climate change is not the only thing making wildfires worse. A legacy of wildfire suppression has resulted in extensive fuel loading in many forests that prime them for catastrophic wildfires. While mitigating climate change is important to prevent fires from getting worse, even if we get emissions down to zero the world will not cool back down for many centuries to come. Only more effective forest management can reduce the impacts we are experiencing today.
Will it be a record year for Canadian wildfires? - Sustainability by the Numbers - total wildfires are declining, but they are getting bigger and burning more and more land:
Geopolitics and Global Trade
The Saudi-PGA Tour golf deal isn’t going to happen - BIG - Matt Stoeller
The reverse OPEC maneuver - Noapinion - how growing American oil production and Russia’s desperate need for cash is upending recent-historical game theory of cartel-collaboration and resulting in a drop in energy prices.
Indiamerica - Noahpinion - explains what we are seeing is:
U.S. investment in Indian manufacturing
Indian investment in U.S. manufacturing
Sales of high-tech military equipment to India
Greater military-to-military cooperation
Space program cooperation
Easier immigration from India to the U.S.
Real estate is China’s economic Achilles heel - China’s housing vacancy rates are over 20% - only exceeded by Italy and Spain. The reliance of the Chinese economy on construction, housing especially, is staggering. It both drives government revenues via leases and is highly financed by debt. The house of cards will crumble.
Food
Sustainability by the numbers: Are plant-based milks healthier or less nutritious than cow’s milk? - Spoiler: That whole kerfuffle about soy being unhealthy? Turns out, soy milk is far healthier than any other plant-based milk.
Grist: Texas farmers are worried one of the state’s most precious water resources is running dry. You should be, too. - The Ogallala Aquifer is being emptied
Energy and Climate Change
Speaking of Aquifers… Rampant groundwater pumping has changed the earth’s axis - add this to your list of causes of climate change
Study: US owes $80 trillion in climate change reparations - Grist
Astral Codex Ten - Book Review #7: Safe Enough? -
Nuclear advocates correctly point out that the solar and wind industry have caused more deaths than nuclear… The total cost to clean Chernobyl and Fukushima may exceed a trillion dollars, but even consideration of this 'tax' would add only a penny or two per kWh to all the energy the industry has created in its history. The health and environmental damage from coal is easily ten times this.
Is it right to ignore the cost of the evacuation of Tokyo, merely because an unplanned flow of water saved us? What if we assume the maximum cost of a nuclear event is not $1 trillion for the Fukushima we lived, but $10 trillion for the Fukushima we escaped. Is nuclear still safe enough then? Five decades of development Probabilistic Risk Assessment has answered innumerable small questions about nuclear energy, but has failed to address the one question we care most about.
Chartbook 219: The triple inequality of the “global” climate problem - Adam Tooze
Soft Landing for the American Economy
BIG - Matt Stoeller:
Corporate Temper Tantrums - Outlines escalating conflicts between US corporations and various governments: from Microsoft battling the UK, to Meta threatening Canada and California, to Uber and the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, to Apple in North Dakota, and more.
Lila Khan fires a crooked CEO - how the blocking of a giant genomics industry merger spelled the end for Illumina's Francis deSouza.
Apricitas Economics:
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