With pressure mounting in some quarters for a return to “normal,” there can be no delay in planning for the post-pandemic future. Unless the world’s leading businesses commit to rebuilding on an entirely new foundation, another global crisis will be inevitable. Project Syndicate
The U.S. is slated to become the largest oil and the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter in just a few years. The federal numbers are out, and U.S. oil and natural gas exports boomed once again last year to record heights. Forbes
Social distancing is here to stay for much more than a few weeks. It will upend our way of life, in some ways forever. To stop coronavirus we will need to radically change almost everything we do: how we work, exercise, socialize, shop, manage our health, educate our kids, take care of family members. MIT Technology Review
This once-in-a-century pandemic is hitting a world economy saddled with record levels of debt. New York Times
The COVID-19 outbreak seems to have raised the odds of a global recession dramatically. But even if no downturn materializes in the near term, the outbreak, together with US President Donald Trump’s trade policy, may herald the end of the era when steadily rising international trade buttressed global peace and prosperity. Project Syndicate
For decades, economists have been wrestling with how best to weigh the current cost of emissions reductions against costs that will come years or even centuries from now. But a consensus has proved to be elusive, because traditional economic models don’t treat atmospheric carbon like an asset. Project Syndicate
Republicans used the pretense that they cared about fiscal responsibility to engage in de facto economic sabotage as long as a Democrat was in the White House. Then they abandoned the pretense and opened up the spending taps as soon as one of their own was in power. And far from paying a price for their duplicity, they are being politically rewarded. New York Times
UN climate negotiations alone are unlikely to result in the rapid decarbonization that is needed. Now is the time for a new international treaty to get to the root of the problem, by addressing fossil fuel supply—with wealthy nations moving first and fastest. Drawing on the model of the nuclear treaty, a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, like the nuclear treaty before it, would be constructed around three main pillars: non-proliferation, disarmament, and peaceful use. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
Together the 22 power plants would emit almost as much carbon dioxide annually as all the passenger cars sold each year in the United States. The construction stands in contrast with Japan’s effort to portray this summer’s Olympic Games in Tokyo as one of the greenest ever. New York Times
The promise of AI is that it could serve as an extension of our minds and become a meta-solution. In the same way that the telescope revealed the planetary dynamics that inspired new physics, insights from AI could help scientists solve some of the complex challenges facing society today—from superbugs to climate change to inequality. My hope is to build smarter tools that expand humans’ capacity to identify the root causes and potential solutions to core scientific problems. The Economist
© Stefan P. Schleicher 2019
