The Political Divide

“Global political leaders, increasingly, are pursuing strategies of division. Business leaders, by nature, search for paths of addition and multiplication. The world needs their help.” - Alan Murray, CEO Daily, May 16, 2022

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Delicious secrets: why people leak information to the media

We all know it happens. But why do people leak information to the media? And why is Washington, D.C. so leaky? According to former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich in his May 10, 2022, newsletter in Substack, these are the reasons:

• To make themselves feel important
• To kill initiatives they don’t like
• To fuel initiatives they want
• A few (journalists, spies, inside traders) make money by buying and selling leaks

However, Reich says the biggest reason is that Washington is a one-company town. “Just about everyone who works in the upper reaches of government has a spouse, best friend, or lover who works in another part of the upper reaches of government, or in a firm that’s lobbying the government, or in the media that’s reporting on the government. In a one-company town like this, personal intimacies are indistinguishable from public gossip. Everyone knows someone extremely well who knows someone else extremely well who knows someone who has a delicious secret.”

Climate Change

How do we cool people without heating up the planet?

When it's hot we turn on the air if we are lucky enough to have it. But turning on the air also turns on more energy use, creating a paradox. According to a May 18, 2022, article in Vox, “the tactics for cooling can end up worsening the very problem they’re trying to solve if they draw on fossil fuels or leak refrigerants that are potent heat-trapping gases. And the people who stand to experience the most extreme heat are often those least able to cool off.”

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New evidence CEOs are taking climate change seriously

A May 10, 2022, report in CEO Daily reports on a new IBM study of 3,000 CEOs that shows they are taking sustainability seriously. Some highlights:

• 48% cited sustainability as one of the highest priorities, up from just a third last year
• 51% cited sustainability as their greatest challenge, up from 32% last year
• 72% said pressure for sustainability comes from board members
• 57% from investors
• 49% from ecosystem partners
• 49% from regulators
• 46% from the government

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Nuclear fusion is facing a fuel crisis

For those who support nuclear energy as a future source of clean energy, nuclear fusion has been the hoped-for technology of the future. Now a Wired magazine story on May 20, 2022, says “it doesn’t even work yet,” and the technology faces a shortage of tritium, a key fuel source for the most prominent experimental fusion reactors. Less than 20 kilograms of tritium are estimated to exist on earth, and it is produced either by old fission reactors being phased out or by breeder reactors whose “technology is a long way from being ready to use.” Tritium costs $30,000 per gram, and working fusion reactors will need up to 200 kilograms annually.

Future of Work / The Economy

The UK says the Ukraine war could lead to food shortages in the developing world

A May 16, 2022, story in the Guardian reports that “the inability to get wheat and cooking oil out of Ukraine could lead to "apocalyptic" food shortages in the developing world.” According to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, the U.K.'s central bank could have warded off inflation with higher interest rates but didn’t foresee a war in Ukraine. Another factor is Covid’s effect on China. He says these series of supply shocks coming one after another are unprecedented.

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German federal statisticians report shocking price increases

The war in Ukraine is affecting German business significantly. Data from Germany’s federal statisticians reported in the May 20, 2022, edition of Fortune are shocking according to the magazine.

• 33.5% - increase in producer prices of industrial products year-on-year
• 87% - increases in energy prices
• 260% - increases in natural gas for industrial consumers. For power plants, the price of natural gas has more than quadrupled. “And this is before Germany agrees to quit Russian gas.”

The story reports that “European demand for U.S. liquefied natural gas is already at record highs, thanks to record price spikes back home, and now we’re seeing the effects in the U.S., where natural gas prices are at levels not seen in 13 years. That, in turn, will mean higher electricity and plastics prices, among other things.”

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CEO confidence falls in the second quarter

CEO confidence took a dive in the second quarter, according to a press release published by The Conference Board. According to the Board's second-quarter survey, the Measure of CEO Confidence fell to 42 from 57 in the first quarter. A reading below 50 points reflects more negative than positive responses. Other data points:

• 60% of CEOs expect inflation will come down but “interest hikes to tame inflation will cause a mild recession that the Fed offsets
• 60% anticipate the economy will worsen over the next six months vs 23% last quarter
• 70% are combating a tight labor market by increasing wages across the board
• 80% reported some problems attracting qualified workers
• 63% of the CEOs still expect to grow their workforce
• 38% expect to increase capital budgets in the year ahead, down from 48% in the first quarter

Covid-19

Polluted air may increase coronavirus risk

According to a story in the May 13, 2022, issue of the Washington Post “breathing polluted air may increase the risk of contracting the coronavirus and suffering a severe infection … A growing body of scientific evidence suggests long-term exposure to air pollution leads to worse outcomes for people exposed to the virus, but even short-term exposure could have an impact.”

The Nett Light-Side

Scoters diving for herring eggs

Our friends at MacGillivray Freeman Films have captured a short, fascinating video view of scoters, a species of diving bird, doing what they do to eat herring eggs below the ocean’s surface.

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The murmurations of European starlings

Okay, I didn’t know what murmurations were either. They are "a large group of birds, usually starlings, that all fly together and change direction together." This cool video in the New York Times on April 4, 2022, shows the really cool black cloud of starlings' murmuration in Denmark.

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Eco-friendly death care could mean human composting

A May 16, 2022, article in Fortune says there is a demand for eco-friendly death care. According to John Niedfeldt-Thomas, the chief association executive of the Green Burial Council: “There's apparently growing interest in being composted after death, due to demand for more sustainable burial solutions. It's a movement creating a market."

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.