3 charts for you today:
This week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released their landmark report on global warming and its potential consequences. At a little over 1300 pages the full report is not exactly a light or easy read, but its conclusions can be summed up pretty succinctly — we're in trouble.
More extreme, more often
Of the many powerful charts and graphics in the shorter 39 page summary, this data struck us the most.
In a world where humans had never influenced the climate, we'd still expect to have extreme weather events. Heavy precipitation, extreme temperatures and droughts were all possible back in 1850, before our modern consumption habits warmed the planet. But as global warming continues, events that used to happen roughly once every 10 years become way, way more common.
With global temperatures now around 1°C warmer than they were 150 years ago, extreme precipitation events are now 1.3 times as likely as they used to be. Droughts in agricultural and ecological regions are now estimated to be 1.7 times as likely and extreme high temperatures are now 2.8 times as likely — and that's just where we are today. If global warming hits 1.5°C, 2°C or, in a worst case scenario, 4°C, those rare once-in-a-decade events come way more often, and with more intensity.
For more from the IPCC report, we recommend checking out the much shorter summary, or this solid write-up from the BBC.
Property listing websites have long been hot property themselves as getting people to browse pictures of homes they can, or (even better) can't afford, has turned out to be a hugely lucrative venture.
The business model for property sites is usually pretty straightforward, with some combination of advertising, marketing and commission fees keeping the website lights on. For years, those kinds of services turned Zillow into a billion dollar business, and the largest property site in the US. Then, a few years ago, Zillow decided it wanted to get into a new line of business — house flipping.
Huge scale house flipping
Armed with more data than probably any other institution has ever had on homes in the US, Zillow began buying homes in 2018, hoping to make modest renovations and sell the houses on later for a higher price — a classic house flipping technique more common with individuals who have watched too many home renovating TV shows.
Last week Zillow gave an update on its home flipping side hustle, revealing that they had bought more than 3,800 homes in the last 3 months, as well as detailing what they spent, and made, on a typical transaction. According to Zillow the company spent an average of $322k on each home, spent $10k renovating it, $16k on selling, marketing and holding costs and sold each home for $370k — profiting just over $20k per home.
So if Zillow wants to buy your house, ask for a bit more.
There are now more than 10 million job vacancies going in the US, a record high as managers and businesses continue to struggle to fill positions.
Can't get the staff
Companies have been using higher wages, signing bonuses and perks like working-from-home to try and entice would-be employees, with 41% of employers in a recent poll saying that they have offered enhanced benefits.
There are of course two sides to every market, and the flip side of the labor equation is people looking for work — of which there are about 8.7 million currently in the US. That means that there are more available jobs than there are people who want jobs — an unusual phenomenon if you look back at the last ~20 years of US data.
Fewer people chasing a relatively large number of jobs should be, if you're a job seeker, a good thing... if you're fortunate enough to be able to negotiate a higher wage.
1) The US Senate has passed a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill which includes $110bn for new roads and bridges, $65bn for broadband investments, $15bn for electric vehicles and much more.
2) Scientists in China have created a new type of glass that could be 50%+ harder than a natural diamond.
3) Elon Musk has claimed that his primary home and current residence is a 375-square-foot prefab which costs just $50k and is essentially just a studio apartment in a box.
4) Over 2,000 businesses around the world rely on Sisense for game-changing business insights. Find out why they trust Sisense to go beyond business intelligence to infuse analytics everywhere.**
5) A university student has used artificially generated faces to prove to social media giant Twitter that its image cropping algorithm was biased towards lighter, slimmer and younger faces. The student claimed the $3,500 in prize money Twitter put up for grabs to anyone who could prove it.
**This is sponsored content.
