Natural capital isn’t free, it’s priceless and yet it’s the source of most industries’ profitability. Capitalism needs to change fundamentally to meet today’s challenges – not everyone agrees. How considering probabilities and a metaphorical yellow note pad can help decision-making. First streaming, now AI – the impact of tech. on Tinsel Town. How flavour altering epigenics could recast the brussel sprout.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
David Roberts, None of the world’s top industries would be profitable if they paid for the natural capital they use
(Grist, 17 April 2023)
Simply put, “negative externalities” refer to costs imposed by businesses that are not paid for by those businesses (like air pollution: most of the time, the public bears the cost, not the polluting company – amounting to the privatization of profits and the socialization of costs). Among the world’s biggest negative externalities, the costs imposed on nature (which we use freely, taking it for granted) are the highest. A new study published by a S&P subsidiary (HERE) estimates that the biggest industries burn through $7.3 trillion worth of free (or unpriced) natural capital a year, relating to land use, water consumption, GHG emissions, air, land and water pollution, and waste. This is the reason why they can turn a profit.
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Reactions to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan’s Brookings speech
(Brookings, 2 May 2023)
Two weeks ago, Jake Sullivan (the US National Security Advisor) gave an important speech, arguing that capitalism needs to look fundamentally different to confront today’s problems. He lays out the US strategy (focused on decarbonization and de-risking) in the “intentionally messy” economic order that is now unfolding. This won’t be an easy sell, as shown by the reactions – all from US pundits (free access – notes about Sullivan’s speech read in about 10 min, much more time required to read the comments, some very insightful, and several asserting that “Buying American” is a big mistake).
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Robert Rubin, I Don’t Have the Secret to Making Hard Decisions, but I Do Have a Yellow Note Pad
(The New York Times, 9 May 2023)
The former Director of the national Economic Council explains his overall approach to decision-making in the face of uncertainty. It boils down to this: “probabilistic thinking,” or the idea that nothing is 100% certain and that everything is therefore a matter of probabilities. His tool: a simple yellow pad., where he lists possible outcomes in one column, and then his best estimates of the probabilities associated with those outcomes in another. It’s of course impossible to quantify every aspect of every decision – the yellow pad is both metaphor and means, a way of applying a questioning mindset and incorporating probabilistic thinking into the real world (gifted article – reads in 5-7 min).
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Alena Smith, The AI Apocalypse Is Coming for Hollywood, but Don’t Robots Rule Us Already?
(Vanity Fair, 8 May 2023)
Brilliantly written. It starts like this: “Before you know it, they say, robots will be making our TV shows (…) The businesses formerly known as theatrical film and broadcast and cable TV have by now, like the journalism and music industry before them, been subsumed into the vast cauldron of digital streaming soup.” It puts into perspective the current strike of the Writers Guild of America who set down their pens, stepped away from their laptops and took their fight to the streets (including at Netflix and Amazon Studios’ headquarters) because they’ve been upended by streaming and now fear being eaten alive by AI (metered paywall – reads in about 5-6 min).
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Meghan Bartles, Tweaking Vegetables’ Genes Could Make Them Tastier—And You’ll Get to Try Them Soon
(Scientific American, 10 May 2023)
A very practical example of how fast things are moving in bioengineering. Flavour is a tricky target, but technology and powerful genetic techniques are making it more feasible to improve the taste of vegetables. Take Brussel sprouts: modern breeders, armed with new gene-editing technology, are about to ‘reinvent’ it, transforming a bitter vegetable into a popular side dish. Tomatoes are another example. Some start-ups are creating more flavourful tomatoes using epigenetics—changing the expression of genes instead of the genes themselves (metered paywall – reads in 6-7 min).
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