πͺ W39 - π’ How the supply chain crisis can blow the world economy off its course
How the supply chain crisis can blow the world economy off its course, Are millions of CO2 sucking machines enough to save the climate crisis? & Why you should eat all the colours of the rainbow
Hi,
and welcome to the 8th edition of your favourite Wednesday bite, with a few bite-sized articles to drive dinner conversations or bar chats.
In this edition:
How the supply chain crisis can blow the world economy off its course
Are millions of CO2 sucking machines enough to save the climate crisis?
Why you should eat all the colours of the rainbow
And some additional π Crumbs & π§ Brain game
Happy reading.
Regards,
Steven
Btw, building an audience for this newsletter requires effort, so by sharing this newsletter you can enlighten others and help me grow. Thanks in advance for your help.
β Grab a coffee, take a bite πͺ
6 min to chew through this one.
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β π’ How the supply chain crisis can blow the world economy off its course
Youβve undoubtfully heard of chip shortages causing production cuts at major car factories. Or when buying a bike, your order gets delayed up to 1 year.
How did we get into this supply chain crisis?
With a supply chain, you have demand versus supply.
Looking at demand, we are buying more stuff than ever before.
On the supply side, on the other hand, itβs not looking that bright and most of this is caused by COVID-19. To combat virus outbreaks, many factories, particularly in Asia, have been closed. With upstream suppliers being impacted, the effects spread through the whole chain. Similarly, to contain the virus, harbour ports downsized impacting products to arrive on time.
With a lot of cargo being transported via air, but due to no or limited flights, cargo had to be transported via other ways. And that brings us to the βEver givenβ, the containership that blocked the Suez Canal. Cargo has to be shipped via big containerships, but as demand is too high, cargo is reaching its destination too late and the Drewryβs shipping index, which measures the cost of containers, is up 291% compared with a year ago.
On top of that, you have the energy crisis in China. As China mostly runs on coal, the government is rationing production to remain within the energy and emission targets.
βHigher demand and restricted supply equals inflation: thereβs no way out of it. You put all these things together and its a perfect storm.β
Central banks will need to move quickly to raise interest to counter inflation to ensure economies are not grounded and cause widespread unrest.
Who knows whatβs the come but do already expect to pay more for what you but while waiting longer to get it. If I were you, start your Christmas shopping early.
Source: The Guardian - 4 min read
β‘ βοΈ Are millions of CO2 sucking machines enough to save the climate crisis?
In one of my previous newsletters, I mentioned a startup focusing on capturing CO2 and making cement-making more sustainable.
π π Using seawater and renewable energy to decrease CO2 levels and greenhouse gas emissions
In a similar way, a lot of other initiatives are popping up to do something about the rising CO2 levels in our atmosphere with a focus on direct air capture (Dac). In short, removing CO2 from the atmosphere and capturing it in a permanent way.
Some initiatives:
Absorbing CO2 in solid material, heating it up to 100Β°C to release a pure stream of CO2, which is then put underground with water to solidify into rock
Capturing and burying the CO2 in depleted oil and gas reservoirs in the US and the North Sea
Heating agricultural and forestry waste, that if would rot emit CO2, to create bio-oil
Creating low-CO2 jet fuel
Capturing CO2 for drinking purposes, which is now generated via fossil fuels
See the video of Carbon Engineering on Direct Air Capture.
Can all of these initiatives make a difference?
First of all, all of them are very nice in concept but are still too expensive to be used at mass scale. Ranging from 300$ to 600$/tonne and knowing that humans emit 36billion tonnes per year, β¦ Well, you can do the math.
But taking solar panels as an example, they were very expensive at launch, but due to subsidy support and mass rollout have now dropped 80% in cost. So via a subsidy phase, Dac could become more affordable.
Additionally, a market for CO2 needs to be created, as jet fuel or soda streams will not create a large enough volume to reduce the billions of CO2 we create each year.
βUnless affordable and environmentally and socially acceptable CO2 removal becomes feasible and available at scale well before 2050, 1.5C-consistent pathways will be difficult to realise, especially in overshoot scenarios.β
Full stop for fossil fuels
Today, CO2 levels are still rising, so it would seem the biggest and most urgent task to be able to reach the internationally agreed 1.5Β°C targets is to stop burning fossil fuels. And to put a price on CO2, because if there is none, itβs going to be extremely difficult to establish these technologies.
Negotiations over rules for an international CO2 market will be one of the main issues at the Cop26 summit in November, and the backers of Dac will be hoping for success.
This could provide the necessary push to become more mainstream and get the required funding. In order to be successful, Dac needs to grow a thousand times larger while costs should be reduced by 80%.
βCurrent global capacity for Dac is about 12,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Each year, human activities release 40bn tonnes. So, right now, Dac is like trying to bail out the Titanic using an eyedropper.β
It doesnβt surprise you that many trillions of dollars have been invested in oil and gas infrastructure, which is the source of much of the climate crisis, so the only way to solve the climate problem is an industry of the same magnitude.
Source: The Guardian - 8 min read
β’ π Why you should eat all the colours of the rainbow
Often when youβre in the store you would be looking at the βhealth ratingβ labels to decide whether to buy something or not. However, in buying βhealthyβ food, do you know youβre getting all the necessary nutrients?
It's widely accepted that we need a varied diet and that one way to do this is by eating all the colours of the rainbow. But is this really the best approach to get all the necessary nutrients?
Looking at diets, the Mediterranean diet is considered as one of the healthiest, as itβs high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, beans, cereals, grains, fish, and unsaturated fats such as olive oil, and includes a low intake of meat and dairy foods.
So itβs no coincidence that the Mediterranean diet contains a lot of different colours.
Eating lots of colours may lower your risk of missing out on all vital nutrients.
For example:
Blue and purple foods, including blueberries, containing anthocyanin, which lowers the risk of heart disease and type two diabetes.
Oranges, peppers, celery and grapefruit contain flavones (which give food a yellow colour) that reduce cognitive decline, dementia and the risk of heart diseases.
Making the right choices
So on daily basis, try to focus as much on different colours but donβt overthink too much if youβre missing out on one. Also eat other food groups like protein, to get all the macronutrients you need.
And donβt focus on fruits and vegetables only. Other natural foods have to be considered as well, such as herbs, spices, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and even tea. And when you want to incorporate white food in your diet, consider tofu, containing isoflavones which are associated with lowering the risk of heart disease and some cancers, as well as cognitive decline.
Source: BBC - 5 min read
π Crumbs
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A team of musicologists and computer scientists completed Beethovenβs unfinished 10th Symphony
TikTok Shopping Is Now Official
DeepMindβs AI predicts almost exactly when and where itβs going to rain
Google Working on Indexing Instagram & TikTok Videos
Google pushes back the testing of new cookie approach FLoC to Q1 2022
Unlike other car manufacturers, Tesla delivers a record-breaking number of vehicles in the third quarter
HBO just released the first trailer of the Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon.
π§ Brain game
Do you know how many searches are done on Google every minute of the day, or how many photos are shared on Instagram?
See the illustration at large at Social Media Today.
Google searches: 5.7M
Instagram photo shares: 65k
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