Data sources

I keep running across new websites offering access to data. Here are a few.

Opportunity Insights social mobility, based on US Census data

Data Commons environmental & climate change data

March News: Fracking, poverty, lithium and milk

While it would be quite a feat if I could actually make these three topics actually connect, those are just the issues that caught my eye recently.

First, on fracking for natural gas: I assigned Gasland and FrackNation in my Resource Economics class and they were not impressed. That's not a strange response, but it's rather new: I think before the pandemic, and before Trump, people were surprised to see journalists playing fast and loose with the facts, but today it's well known, even expected. Sort of heartbreaking, but maybe I don't need to make such a point about that anymore. Anyway, students recommended instead this BBC piece as an intro to fracking, and the 2012 movie Promised Land as better showcasing the dilemma. I will need to watch that one!

Second, milk: last year I assigned a variety of YouTube clips about meat and milk production, and while I'm letting that topic go this semester this Washington Post article caught my eye. It seems that milk protein is already being made without cows: yeasts and fungi can produce it without putting cows through the misery of repeatedly giving birth and then separation from their calves. I assume it's not quite cost effective yet, but hopefully the engineers will keep working on that front.

Third, lithium. As electric vehicles increasingly add market share, you'd think that the raw materials needed to produce them would be on the rise. In the case of lithium, you'd be wrong. Not sure that the low prices will continue, but for now prices are down a bit.

Finally, as we go into the public goods portion of the course, poverty reduction is often overlooked. We tend to think that people should take care of themselves, and that handouts are not sustainable. Just a reminder from someone who sees homeless people on the streets every day: it helps everyone if we can make people self-sufficient, including recognizing systems that keep people on the streets. WaPo link, for the article that reminded me...