Conscious Decoupling – Geopol’s Goop Divorce. Things You Didn’t Know Were Cool – Mining! And Inspirational CEO Town Hall Moments – Plus More! #161
Grüezi! I’m Adrian Monck, and welcome to this newsletter featuring seven things that caught my attention this week.
Also in this edition – gas-powered data and stressed out plants and how to fool AI.
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1️⃣ Conscious Uncoupling, Geopol-style
Who gets the kids when great power relationships go sour?
“We do not seek to decouple from China,” said a US Treasury official last week.
Just back from Beijing, geopol’s celebrity agony aunt Tom Friedman has a big essay on the US-China split.
TL;DR? His conciliatory appeal to both sides will go down like a bullet train to the brain inside the beltway.
Awed by China’s ‘Disney-like Tomorrowland,’ Friedman chronicles the collapse of trust between China and the US, and rattles off what Beijing has done to dent confidence.
Washington has done its part: failures in Iraq and Afghanistan; Trumpism; the loss of trust within America itself.
Friedman stands for a liberal ‘flat world’ that – whilst not disappearing – has seen its liberalism become unfashionable with politicians, pundits and – increasingly – the public.
His optimistic claim from the 90s – that no two countries with a McDonald’s have ever gone to war – rings hollow as Ukrainians shelter from Russian air attacks.
Over a century ago, another journalist made a similar argument to Friedman about financial interdependence. His book got rave reviews in Germany:
“The book will, I hope, convince everyone that in our time the attempt to settle industrial and commercial conflicts by arms is an absurdity.”
The First World War followed quickly after. Meanwhile, off the coast of China, military manoeuvring continues.
⏭ US investment into Chinese tech could be facing tough new restrictions.
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2️⃣ Mining is Back Baby!
Copper replaces carbon as our favourite thing to dig up.
Oil historian Daniel Yergin writes for the WSJ on metals mining.
The not-so-crude subtext?
Make mining easier or the energy transition dies!
“Two countries mine about 40% of world’s copper supplies—Peru, where the government is in disarray ... and Chile, whose government is struggling...”
“Copper production has fallen by half in the US in recent decades, and dependence on imports continues to grow.”
The US smelts 4% of world copper – China 47%.
Decoupling copper supplies? Not so simple.
(Also, an excuse to re-run one of the greatest job adverts of all time...)
⏭ Want to know more? A new global history of copper is just out.
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3️⃣ How Waco’s Whackos Rewired America
The cult siege wrote the conspiracy script before social media.
Watching the Waco siege unfold in 1993, as a journalist, I immediately thought it was another Jonestown, one more crazy American cult deluding and destroying its own.
Jonestown happened in Guyana. Perhaps this drama unfolding in Texas would bring home to Americans the dangers of armed religious fanatics. How wrong I was.
Phil Tinline has a great piece on how Waco became a defining moment for modern American populism.
David Koresh’s personality cult had come under the media spotlight for accusations of sexual abuse and coercion.
One thing was different. Koresh loved guns. Legal and illegal. When the siege of his compound ended in a botched FBI operation that killed over 80 people, it split America.
Waco’s cultists became god-fearing off-grid Americans living their lives, targeted by an anti-gun elite trying to impose a sinister agenda.
Conspiracy theorists poured gas on the bonfire. In the days before social media, video cassettes (today – ironically – available on YouTube), shortwave radio broadcasts and cheap paperbacks carried the message.
One of those who showed up at Waco was former soldier Timothy McVeigh, angry at the government’s attempt to disarm fellow citizens.
Two years later, McVeigh became America’s most murderous domestic terrorist.
⏭ Who made his name campaigning for a Waco memorial? Why Alex Jones.
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4️⃣ Want to Dump Polystyrene?
This Indian start-up has a neat solution involving rice.
⏭ Over 15 million tonnes of styrofoam are produced each year. Less than 10% gets recycled.
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5️⃣ Cloud Computing on Gas
Powering your data with the oil industry’s nasty by-products.
⏭ Methane worsens global warming. But not quite so much as we thought.
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6️⃣ If You’re a Plant, No One Can Hear You Scream
Until now. Think about it next time you wield the secateurs.
⏭ Not just garden clippers, more flash droughts could be stressing plants.
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7️⃣ Inspirational CEO Moments
When you’re a multimillionaire messaging about money...
“Treat people well. Talk to them. Be kind. And get after it!”
MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen was actually doing great on an employee Town Hall until... she wasn’t. It’s what in TV we call a gear change.
Mind you, Ms Owen is an amateur compared to this guy.
⏭ No gear changing reading on Bea’s book club podcast.
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If you enjoy this newsletter – please recommend it!
Best,
Adrian
