World Economic Forum (December 10)
“Greenhouse gas emissions reached a new high last year, putting the world on track for an average temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius.” The UNEP report is only “the latest to suggest the world is hurtling toward extreme climate change” and comes on the heels “of sobering weather extremes, including rapid ice loss in the Arctic as well as record heat waves and wildfires in Siberia and the U.S. West.”
Tags: 3°C, Arctic, Climate change, Emissions, GHG, Heat waves, Hurtling, Ice loss, Record, Rise, Siberia, Sobering, Temperature, UNEP, Weather extremes, Wildfires
Financial Times (December 10)
“When the dust settles on the UK’s departure from the EU, few doubt that London will remain a major financial centre for the foreseeable future, as well as by far the largest hub in the European timezone, but there will doubtless be headwinds.”
Tags: Brexit, Departure, Doubt, Dust, EU, Financial centre, Future, Headwinds, Hub, London, Settles, UK
Boston Globe (December 8)
“Coronavirus cases are reaching record highs. Hospitals are overflowing in several parts of the country…. But as the final weeks of 2020 begin to mirror the grim, early weeks of the pandemic, the shelter-in-place orders and strict industry regulations that helped flatten the curve in the spring are almost nowhere to be found. Instead, public officials are pursuing another approach to managing the virus’s spread: a plea for personal responsibility.”
Tags: Cases, Coronavirus, Curve, Flatten, Grim, Hospitals, Officials, Overflowing, Pandemic, Personal responsibility, Plea, Record, Regulations, Shelter-in-place, Strict
Market Watch (December 8)
“The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 rose above 67.6 million on Tuesday… while the death toll rose above 1.5 million.” The U.S., which hit an all-time weekly high of 2,249 deaths from COVID-19, “has the highest case tally in the world at 14.9 million and the highest death toll at 283,746, or more than a fifth of the global total.”
Tags: Cases, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death toll, Highest, U.S.
CNN (December 7)
“With days left to reach a trade deal with the European Union, the stakes have never been higher.” Boris Johnson “will have to decide whether sticking to his guns on national sovereignty… makes real-world sense given the economic price the United Kingdom will pay if negotiations fail.” In a no-deal exit “UK companies, already reeling from the pandemic, would lose tariff-free, quota-free access to a market of 450 million consumers that is currently the destination for 43% of British exports.”
Tags: Access, Consumers, EU, Johnson, Market, Negotiations, No-deal, Pandemic, Quotas, Sovereignty, Stakes, Tariffs, Trade, UK
The Economist (December 5)
“Europe and America have shown that King Coal can be dethroned.” Next Asia must step up to “topple coal.” Fortunately, this “is overwhelmingly in Asia’s interest to do so. Its people, infrastructure and agriculture are dangerously exposed to the droughts, flooding, storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change….. Coal’s days are numbered. The sooner it is consigned to museums and history books, the better.”
Tags: Agriculture, Asia, Coal, Dethroned, Droughts, Europe, Exposed, Flooding, Infrastructure, Sea levels, Storms, Topple, U.S.
Bloomberg (December 4)
“Chinese scientists claim to have built a quantum computer that is able to perform certain computations nearly 100 trillion times faster than the world’s most advanced supercomputer, representing the first milestone in the country’s efforts to develop the technology.” This would be “exponentially faster than existing supercomputers.”
Tags: Advanced, China, Faster, Milestone, Quantum, Scientists, Supercomputer, Technology
Houston Chronicle (December 3)
“With record wildfires burning across the West Coast and a record Atlantic hurricane season that pummeled the Gulf Coast, climate change is gaining importance within the Democratic Party…. That leaves Texas Democrats with the unenviable position of having to choose between one of their state’s largest employers and their party’s newly elected leader.” They are “caught in the middle of a climate catastrophe.”
Tags: Atlantic, Burning, Climate change, Democrats, Gulf Coast, Hurricane season, Record, Texas, West Coast, Wildfires
WARC (December 3)
With the “coronavirus in check,” China’s economy “is showing increasing signs of recovery.” This now extends to alcohol sales. “As social distancing rules and dining out restrictions are eased, brewers and distillers report increased demand, and the Chinese consumer, it seems, has a thirst in particular for premium brands.” The “growing penchant for premium products” is happily in step with the Government, which is promoting them as “a key driver of the country’s economic recovery.”
Tags: Alcohol, Brewers, China, Consumer, Coronavirus, Demand, Dining out, Distillers, Eased, Economy, Recovery, Restrictions, Sales, Social distancing
LA Times (December 2)
“Los Angeles County recorded a dramatic one-day rise in coronavirus cases Tuesday, shattering the single-day record and confirming some of the most dire forecasts about infections spreading ferociously as the holiday season gets underway.”
Tags: Cases, Coronavirus, Dire, Dramatic, Forecasts, Infections, Los Angeles, Record, Shattering, Spreading
