Indeed plenty of other news still happening -- from locust plagues in East Africa to 65% oil price drops to continued Trumpian shenanigans.
All that said, *shouldn't *Covid refocus the sort of stuff we are, in fact, following? I realize all of us experience Covid-19 rather differently -- full disclosure: I'm married to an NYU Langone/Bellevue doc, a place that'll get swamped with thousands of cases in the coming days. But I'd think up to ~30% US unemployment this quarter, ~50% quarterly GDP drop, etc. etc. -- to say nothing of, well, people dying -- would surely change what we do. There's the immediate term: None of us should pretend to be epidemiologists -- that's what Twitter is for -- but all of us have some relevant skills. E.g. a couple enviro/natural resource economist colleagues just wrote a paper within a week <https://twitter.com/GernotWagner/status/1241484673458593793> on critical child care needs of medical staff. Their prior medical/child care expertise: none. They just had the idea and knew how to get and analyze the data. Then, of course, there's the longer term. We've all heard the Milton (& Rose!) Friedman quote around how actions taken in a crisis “depend on the ideas that are lying around.” Well, that Friedman quote doesn't go the other way. I trust there'll be plenty of ideas generated B.C. (Before Covid) that will withstand the test of time. Many won't. We won't all agree what that means. In fact, I trust very few of us have spent much time on that so far (see: saving lives, now). But e.g. science denial might look rather different A.C., after millions having experienced some of the effects first-hand. I realize it's easier to teach sunk cost to undergrads than to go through it oneself and purge that multi-year research project, but I'd venture to say that, say, the B.C. results of that perfectly designed cross-country survey on attitudes toward revenue-neutral carbon taxes will feel more like a historical case study A.C. *Gernot Wagner, **New York University* gwagner.com *Keep in touch: *gwagner.com/#newsletter On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 9:36 PM Pam Chasek <[email protected]> wrote: > And for those of you focused on domestic environmental issues: > https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-environment-coronavirus_n_5e755cf7c5b63c3b6490a703?fbclid=IwAR3k--1qKMx-PzdUgqjedVCyrm3aeb2TBTA2v9ahOPp6p456qzrWXy6LYk4 > > Pam > > On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 8:32 PM DG Webster <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> BBC and al Jazeera are slightly better at tracking other news, but not by >> much. >> >> On Sun, Mar 22, 2020 at 5:08 PM Wendy Jackson <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >>> To answer your second question, I think it depends on the government >>> department in question. I work for a foreign ministry (NZ), and almost all >>> hands are on deck for COVID-19 response. Most countries are having massive >>> consular emergencies, trying to get nationals back home, responding to >>> questions from in-country non-nationals, navigating all of the border >>> complexities (think of people transiting countries, families with mixed >>> residency status, etc.). I cannot speak for all governments, but here this >>> effort is requiring resource from across the business. This has an impact >>> on all work being done; we have people backfilling, and backfilling the >>> backfilling, but some work is indefinitely postponed. Every govt department >>> will be affected in its own way (sorting economic packages for business; >>> dealing with tourists who are still here; sorting out school policy; >>> ensuring food and other supply chains are stable; etc.). >>> >>> I work on a multilateral desk (UN relationship management), and BAU has >>> slowed to a trickle. As Pam noted, UN meetings are being scaled down, >>> postponed, or cancelled. Some processes related to those meetings (e.g., >>> informals, regional consultations) are happening, although at a slower >>> pace. Multilats are also shifting their focus to COVID-19 matters - how >>> this manifests will vary by each agency. >>> >>> Apologies for writing in haste but hopefully a view from a government is >>> helpful. >>> >>> Wendy >>> >>> On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 12:38 PM Peter M Haas <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Has anyone got any suggested feeds that cover all the other issues that >>>> we used to study? Has the media become corona obsessive, or have >>>> governments and other actors stopped business as usual? >>>> >>>> I regularly follow the FT, NYT, WP, FP, and nada. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Peter M Haas >>>> >>>> Professor & Graduate Program Director >>>> >>>> 514 Thompson Hall >>>> >>>> Department of Political Science >>>> >>>> UMASS Amherst >>>> >>>> Amherst MA 01003 >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "gep-ed" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/1d1b01d600a2%24f1b98ea0%24d52cabe0%24%40polsci.umass.edu >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/1d1b01d600a2%24f1b98ea0%24d52cabe0%24%40polsci.umass.edu?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>>> . >>>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "gep-ed" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to [email protected]. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAKu%3Do17%2BTdZS7ucQLSXiNHqgK6xYVwGCJdbE%3D8F9cjWaYKZHaQ%40mail.gmail.com >>> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAKu%3Do17%2BTdZS7ucQLSXiNHqgK6xYVwGCJdbE%3D8F9cjWaYKZHaQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >>> . >>> >> >> >> -- >> D.G. Webster >> Associate Professor >> Environmental Studies Program >> Dartmouth College >> 6182 Steele Hall >> Hanover, NH 03755 >> phone: 603-646-0213 >> http://sites.dartmouth.edu/websterlab >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "gep-ed" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To view this discussion on the web visit >> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAKPQqY6DAEWG1Qs9k%3DdKVAHFtzXCirU20x%2BnhTM1b0VyG948Zw%40mail.gmail.com >> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAKPQqY6DAEWG1Qs9k%3DdKVAHFtzXCirU20x%2BnhTM1b0VyG948Zw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> >> . >> > > > -- > > *Pamela Chasek, Ph.D.* > > > *Professor and Chair, Political Science DepartmentManhattan College* > 4513 Manhattan College Parkway > Riverdale, NY 10471 USA > > Phone: +1-718-862-7248 > Fax: +1-718-862-8044 > > [email protected] > www.manhattan.edu > > > > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "gep-ed" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAH09KvFdAnB1JYv5y7Ve-9EnFhjXStcUhGJr8z1-F7prPUd5pg%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/gep-ed/CAH09KvFdAnB1JYv5y7Ve-9EnFhjXStcUhGJr8z1-F7prPUd5pg%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "gep-ed" group. 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