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Welcome to the 12th 2022 edition of The Nett Report. Our goal is to provide clients and friends with new perspectives and insights in hopes of stimulating creative thinking throughout the year. Feel free to share with friends! Links to all three years of The Nett Report can be found here.

Apologies for the late distribution. We changed email servers and were delayed as a result!

 


 
 

The Political Divide

Words to ponder

"Forget about party politics, liberals, conservatives, and all that, what America yearns for is a leader with the integrity to tell the truth, the charisma to make people listen, and the guts to act on it." - UN Ambassador Peter Harriman on Madame Secretary - Season 5, last episode, April 21, 2019

Why politics is failing in America

This March 9, 2017, story in Fortune is as relevant today as it was in 2017. The article discusses how our political system "serves as only a barrier to solving nearly every important challenge our nation needs to address." I call it the "on and on" syndrome. Here are some snippets from the story:

  • U.S. politics is an industry—a duopoly that’s about as anti-competitive as any you’re likely to find these days.
  • The preferences of the average voter have a near-zero impact on public policy.
  • America’s political system was long the envy of the world. The system advanced the public interest and gave rise to a grand history of policy innovations. 
  • Washington has made virtually no progress on any of the essential policy steps needed to restore prosperity and growth.
  • A broken political system has suddenly become the greatest threat to our nation’s future.
  • America’s current political system would be unrecognizable to our founders.
  • Many of its (the political system's) day-to-day components have no basis whatsoever in the Constitution—which offers no mention of political parties, party primaries, caucuses, ballot access rules, segregated congressional cloakrooms, party-determined committee assignments, filibuster rules, and countless other practices that drive today’s dysfunction.
  • “There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other.” - John Adams, one of our founding fathers.
 
 

 
 

Climate Change

Your kids are not doomed – a hopeful view of climate change

New York Times Opinion Columnist Ezra Klein provided a hopeful view of the impact of climate change and whether we should bring kids into a world so impacted by climate. Klein observed that while many people without children cite climate change as a reason, many climate experts are having kids. He started asking them why. Here’s what he found.

  • To bring a child into this world has always been an act of hope.
  • The past was its own parade of horrors. Was the world so bad, for virtually the entirety of human history, that our ancestors shouldn’t have made our lives possible?
  • We have done so much to make the future better than in the past. To give back any portion of those gains or even to prevent the progress we could otherwise see is worse than a tragedy. It is a crime.
  • Many credible estimates from a decade ago put us on track for the average global temperature to increase 4 or even 5 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels by 2100. That would be cataclysmic. But the falling cost of clean energy and the rising ambition of climate policy have changed that. The Climate Action tracker puts our current policy path at about 2.7 degrees of warming by 2100. If the commitments world governments have made since the Paris climate accord hold, we’re on track for a rise of 2 degrees or even less.

Oxford report sees barriers to going green

A June 7, 2022, story in 3BL Media revealed there are “significant barriers to corporate sustainability initiatives.” Based on research by Oxford Economics and SAP, the story says the barriers include “lack of communication and engagement by executives, ineffective use of data, siloed technologies that don’t share processes or information, and a lack of cross-company and industry collaboration and partnership.” However, the study also showed that the business case for sustainability is well understood, and 63% of executives indicated that their company has a formal sustainability plan already in place. They also saw business benefits such as these:

  • 58% - expressed eagerness to become more sustainable, citing efficiency
  • 46% - thought it improved brand reputation
  • 44% - said it met customer needs

The story concluded that achieving sustainability goals requires “a high degree of communication and engagement.”

Methane leak at Russian mine could be the largest ever discovered

It's no secret that methane leaked into the atmosphere has been estimated to be 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The Guardian reported in a June 14, 2022, story that a methane leak at a coal mine in Russia could be the largest ever discovered, emitting as much as 90 metric tons (tonnes) per hour.

 
 
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Future of Work / The Economy

As an asset class, it’s 100% based on the greater fool theory—that somebody’s going to pay more for it than I do. - Bill Gates on NFTs

Peer-to-peer car rentals taking off in the face of rental car shortages

When car rental companies sold off their cars during the pandemic, they created a future shortage of rental cars that now has rental cars costing as much as 200% more than before the pandemic. This price increase has been made worse by higher fuel prices. Supply chain shortages limiting the number of cars available to rebuild the fleets means the current status is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. According to a June 13, 2022, story in Wired, peer-to-peer car-sharing platforms (Airbnb for cars) have not taken off to fill the demand – yet. The story says privately-owned cars are idle 96% of the time, and that “with old-fashioned rentals expensive and hard to get hold of, car sharing might finally have its moment.”

World Bank projects global economy may suffer from stagflation

Stagnation is defined by Merriam-Webster as “persistent inflation combined with stagnant consumer demand and relatively high unemployment.” A June 7, 2022, story in the Washington Post projects that the global economy “may suffer 1970s-style stagflation.” The story says “the risk from stagflation is considerable with potentially destabilizing consequences for low- and middle-income economies … There’s a severe risk of malnutrition and of deepening hunger and even of famine in some areas.” The story cites three overlapping crises as the cause: “fallout from the war in Ukraine, recurring coronavirus lockdowns affecting Chinese factories, and the highest inflation rates in decades.

 
 

 
 

Covid-19

Long Covid and vitamin D

We have reported previously on the benefits of vitamin D in helping to prevent the onset of Covid. Now evidence is emerging that vitamin D might also be helpful with long Covid. According to a study published on April 13, 2022, in the National Library of Medicine, “vitamin D is an immunomodulatory hormone with proven efficacy against various upper respiratory tract infections. Vitamin D can inhibit hyper-inflammatory reactions and accelerate the healing process in the affected areas, especially in lung tissue … Although more evidence is needed on the effect of vitamin D in COVID-19 (acute and long-term phases), the fundamental role of this vitamin on immune function is evident. So, it appears to be an inexpensive and safe supplement to add as part of COVID-19 treatment.”

Can Monkeypox be contained?

A story in Wired on June 13, 2022, suggests that “testing, vaccinating, and contact tracing can control the virus in Europe and North America—unless complacency allows it to take hold.” Monkeypox is a different class of disease than Covid, however, “were it to get into a population where it could spread efficiently, we could see extended chains of transmission, providing this virus with a runway that it hasn’t had previously.” Monkeypox has historically jumped from animals to humans, but now there seems to be more human-to-human transmission. A June 8, 2022, article in Science says “the possibility that humans infected with monkeypox virus will spread it to wildlife outside of Africa “warrants serious concern … For now, the limited number of human cases reduces the odds.”

 
 

 
 

The Nett Light-Side

Savannah Bananas bring a new twist to professional baseball

A story in the Los Angeles Times on May 16, 2022, brings a whole new twist to minor league baseball. A traveling team called the Savannah Bananas bills itself as the “world-famous baseball circus,” mixing sport with full-on entertainment. If you liked the Harlem Globetrotters, you will love the Bananas, currently on a world tour of the U.S.

Dad holding baby makes major league catch

Speaking of baseball, this May 31, 2022, tweet by SNY TV captures a dad making an exceptional catch leaning over the rail while holding his baby.

 
 

 
 

Nettleton Strategies — Helping People to Think

Carl Nettleton is an award-winning writer, acclaimed speaker, facilitator, and subject-matter expert regarding water, climate, sustainability, the ocean, and binational U.S. Mexico border affairs. Founded in 2007, Nettleton Strategies is a trusted source of analysis and advice on issues at the forefront of public policy, business and the environment.

 
 

 
 
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Nettleton Strategies

P.O. Box 22971
San Diego, Ca 92192-2971
U.S.A.
+1 858-353-5489
info@nettstrategies.com
www.nettstrategies.com

 
 

 
 

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