Diamond sunscreen for the planet — #81

Good morning!

Another week, another trend suggests the world is upside-down.

At a time when the planet gently asks us to buy less new *stuff* and instead love what we have a bit longer, the concept of "faux ageing" is getting popular on Pinterest. It means you still buy *stuff* new but make it look old using different DIY hacks.

On Pinterest, this mainly applies to home decor. But we can see a similar tendency in fashion, with the current Y2K-inspired style looking a lot like something you could find at a thrift store. Some brands even sell new jeans and call the models "vintage", and hip vintage stores launch special collections with items produced new.

We all want to look as we dress second-hand and decorate our homes with flea market finds. We just don't want to spend time scavenger hunting for home decor or – god forbid – wear something someone else wore before us. So instead, we invent "faux ageing" and shop until we drop.

Human stupidity, in a nutshell.

Anna

We have more women at the top, but an empty pipeline of future female leaders

BUSINESS

More women are reaching the top of the leadership ranks. Great, but women are also acutely underrepresented in the middle management tiers, putting future female leadership at risk, according to the third issue of a bi-annual study from IBM Consulting, which surveyed 2,500 individuals across twelve countries and ten industries.

The report also shows how organisations identified as "gender equity leaders" reported 19% higher revenue growth and that more organisations recognise that enabling gender equity and inclusion is good for business. But overall, more companies must act as if their continued growth might depend on it. Also, respondents estimate their industry will see gender parity in leadership in 10 years, compared to 2019, when the average industry estimate was 54 years. In reality, it is still decades away at the current rate of change.

The percentage of women transferring from junior professional to senior professional showed a significant drop (10 percentage points) between 2021 and 2023. While 2023 shows a slight uptick from 2021's steep, pandemic-driven fall of female senior vice presidents, vice presidents, and directors, it has not returned to 2019 levels.

And with nearly a third of women saying they may leave their jobs this year, attracting and retaining top female talent will only get harder.

Additionally, the attributes needed for promotion to a leadership role are different for women and men. 'Strategic visionary' and 'Open and transparent communicator' rank as the top two attributes for women but only seventh and eleventh for men. Men should instead be 'Innovative and creative' and 'Analytical, logical, objective, results oriented' to get promoted, which only ranks ninth and sixth for women.

China builds six times more new coal plants than the rest of the world combined

CLIMATE CHANGE / ENERGY

China suffers from ongoing droughts and had a historic heat wave last summer— two events scientists say are connected to climate change. The heat wave increased the demand for air conditioning and led to problems with the power grid. In addition, the heat and drought led rivers to dry up, which meant less hydropower.

As a "solution" to the issues, China permitted more coal power plants last year than at any time in the previous seven years, according to a new report—about two new coal power plants per week. Quadrupling the number of coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021.

"Everybody else is moving away from coal, and China seems to be stepping on the gas," says Flora Champenois, coal research analyst at Global Energy Monitor and one of the report's co-authors. "We saw that China has six times as many plants starting construction as the rest of the world combined."

According to the report, China also leads the world in constructing new solar and new wind. However, the researchers believe the surge in permits last year could be China's coal industry seizing upon a last chance to get financing for new coal plants, which are increasingly uneconomical compared to renewables.

"We see it as a door opening, maybe one for one last time," says Champenois. "If you're a power company, you're gonna try to put your foot in that door."

Apple keep a tight leash on apps wanting to implement ChatGPT

TECHNOLOGY

The email client BlueMail, an app using AI to write emails and manage people's calendars, was planning to release an update using OpenAI's popular ChatGPT-engine. At first, Apple rejected the feature during a review due to concerns over the AI chatbot technology showing age-inappropriate content to younger users.

According to BlueMail, Apple said: "Your app includes AI-generated content but does not appear to include content filtering at this time." Citing ChatGPT's ability to spew out nearly any kind of text imaginable, Apple was concerned that BlueMail's app could generate text that would be offensive or unsuitable for minors and stopped the app maker from publishing the update without content restriction filters. 

The email provider had set the age restriction for its iOS app to four years and older, suggesting the product contains no objectionable material. However, to get the ChatGPT-powered feature released, Apple advised BlueMail to set the age restriction to age 17 and higher, which might undermine the product's reach. After proving that content monitoring was in place, Apple allegedly released the update on Saturday. Still, BlueMail's developer has protested the move, saying Apple was stifling its innovation efforts. 

Apple's caution comes at a time when industries and institutions deal with the rapid changes that generative AI brings to content creation tools. And the debate over how to use AI will likely intensify as big tech companies weigh in.

Double-check the headlines

Just making sure you didn’t miss any major world events this week.

• A train crash in Greece killed 57 people when a passenger train carrying 350 people collided with a freight train after they ended up on the same track.

• Taiwanese iPhone maker Foxconn plans a $700 million India plant as part of Apple’s strategic shift from China.

• Hungary further delays their vote on Sweden and Finland joining NATO.

• Last year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ales Bialiatski, has been sentenced by Belarus to 10 years in prison.

• Dozens of girls in at least 26 schools across Iran reportedly fell ill in what has been reported to be a wave of poisonings, possibly with toxic gas.

• The United States President, Joe Biden, and Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, met to discuss Ukraine and China.

• The FBI say they believe Covid-19 most likely originated in a Chinese government-controlled lab — a controversial claim that other US government agencies disagree with.

• Disgraced ex-lawyer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering his wife and son in a case that shocked the United States.

• Two American men were arrested in Kansas City on charges of illegally exporting aviation technology to Russia.

• SpaceX launched four new crewmembers on a journey to the International Space Station.

• A large fire spread from a fuel storage depot in Jakarta, Indonesia, and killed at least 18 people with more than a dozen missing and thousands evacuated.

One long

Jonathan Haidt

Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here’s the Evidence.

Commenting on recent findings on teenage girls’ mental health struggles, researcher Jonathan Haidt urges journalists to stop saying that the evidence is just correlational. Spelling out causation with data.

Five short

1. Watch

This week, Netflix released the 2022 documentary Merkel about the former German chancellor. Interviews and archival materials paint a fascinating portrait of a greatly missed world leader. Take note of how to lead with integrity.

2. Listen

Block the sun, save the earth? This episode of Vox Today Explained goes into the crazy and dangerous ideas around geo-engineering — concepts that share storytelling with both doomsday movies and conspiracy theories, gaining traction in similar communities. This is likely where Elon Musk will find his next venture. The rest of us need to organise a resistance movement sooner rather than later.

3. Remember

The baseline in life is not being perfect 24/7.

4. Change

This week I have been reflecting on what happens after we change. For example, how to make the new version of ourselves a bit more rigid and ensure it holds over time and in additional contexts. And how helpful it is when people around us let us change, updating their ideas of who we are to match who we've become.

5. Try

I had an unexpected conversation with a friend who described the Astro-tech trend as a "randomiser for new perspectives" rather than having anything to do with planets and stars. Enlightening. So, sign up and get some random new perspectives. The Pattern and Co—Star is my favourites.

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