Institutional Investor (May 24)
Quants may be able to “fundamentally transform the ability of investors to find companies that embrace ESG principles.” Beyond crunching more widely available ESG data, some hope that unstructured data, ranging “from people’s comments on social media to data mined from online retailers,” can reveal “hard-to-measure issues like corporate culture or a commitment to the environment.”
Tags: Commitment, Corporate culture, Data mining, Environment, ESG, Hard-to-measure, Investors, Quants, Social media, Unstructured data
Bloomberg (December 24)
“Some climate activists worry that Donald Trump’s presidential election will be the death knell for the global environment. That’s almost certainly untrue. Whatever Trump’s attitude toward climate science and energy policy, two big outside factors will be much more important — technological progress and policy in developing nations.
Tags: Activists, Climate, Developing nations, Election, Energy, Environment, Policy, Science, Technological progress, Trump
LA Times (December 4)
China “has been quick to size up the environmental implications of a Trump victory, and officials in Beijing are contriving to cast China in a fresh role, to project the country as a—perhaps the—global leader on climate change.” The U.S. looks “poised to become the new climate-action outcast.” In contrast, “China is betting that clean energy and green technology will be what powers the global economy of the 21st century.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Clean energy, Climate change, Economy, Environment, Global leader, Green technology, Outcast, Trump, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (January 15)
“For too long, carbon dioxide has dominated the discussion of greenhouse gases.” Methane and other short-lived gases need more attention. Methane “is 80 times more potent at trapping heat than carbon dioxide for 20 years after it is released, and 20 times more potent over 100 years.” Reducing methane leaks would not only be good for the environment, it would also boost energy self sufficiency. In the U.S. alone, 6 million homes could be powered by the methane that is currently “lost through wells and leaky pipes.”
Tags: CO2, Energy, Environment, Greenhouse gases, Methane, Self sufficiency, Short-lived gases, U.S.
New York Times (December 27)
A quarter century ago Tiananmen appeared to signal the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Today, “the world’s largest political organization, with 86 million members, seems as robust as ever.” Despite this seeming success, the CCP remains riddled with contradictions and insecurity over everything from protests to environmental catastrophe, a housing bubble and slowing growth. “The dark side of the Chinese dream — the negative fantasy that haunts China’s psyche — explains why Mr. Xi, the strongest Chinese leader since Deng, is so skittish, so ready to jump at shadows.”
Tags: China, Communist party, Contradictions, Deng, Environment, Growth, Housing bubble, Insecurity, Protests, Robust, Tiananmen, Xi
New York Times (November 6)
“The Democratic brand did not fare well” in Tuesday’s elections that broadly swept conservative Republican candidates into office. When asked to vote on policy issues, however, “voters made notably liberal decisions in both red and blue states,” passing liberal initiatives ranging from environmental initiatives and gun control measures to legalizing marijuana. These initiatives “were directly at odds with the positions of many of the Republican winners.”
Tags: Conservative, Democrats, Elections, Environment, Gun control, Liberal, Marijuana, Policy, Republicans, U.S.
USA Today (September 24)
27 years after the Montreal Protocol placed restrictions on chlorofluorocarbons, “the ozone layer is beginning to heal and is on track toward full recovery by the middle of the century.” This suggests hope in the fight against global warming. “Collective international action, even at a time of global tensions, can head off environmental catastrophe. And the sooner action is taken, the better, because the atmosphere can take decades to recover.”
Tags: Atmosphere, Catastrophe, Chlorofluorocarbons, Collective action, Environment, Global warming, Montreal Protocol, Ozone, Recovery, Tension
Institutional Investor (July 30)
“As the planet becomes more crowded and as many of its inhabitants enjoy ever higher standards of living, the stresses on our economy and environment will deepen. The global consumer class is forecast to grow by 3 billion in the next 30 years. To stave off unwanted outcomes affecting global stability, we will have to make fundamental changes in the ways we approach energy, infrastructure, development, agriculture, health care and social safety nets.”
Tags: Agriculture, Consumers, Crowded, Development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Health care, Infrastructure, Planet, Safety nets, Stability, Standard of living, Stresses
Wall Street Journal (July 8)
“Just when the Ukraine crisis makes clear that the need to diversify Europe’s gas supplies couldn’t be greater, Germany wants to ban fracking.” If Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks gets her way, “most forms of hydraulic fracking will be prohibited until 2021,” cutting Germans off from the estimated 2.3 trillion cubic meters of shale gas that lies within their border.
Los Angeles Times (May 1)
California “continues to attract more manufacturers and create more jobs than almost any other. The numbers don’t lie.” Toyota and Occidental Petroleum both announced plans to move their headquarters from California to Texas. Nevertheless, California’s business environment remains vibrant given the state’s unique “ability to incubate new companies and tech innovators, putting its businesses in the vanguard of new industries.”
Tags: Business, California, Environment, Innovators, Jobs, Manufacturers, Occidental Petroleum, Texas, Toyota, Vanguard
