We’re taking a look at present problems, future problems and a problem we wish we had this week.
As COVID-19 cases remain stabilized, we find ourselves wondering what it will be like when the COVID-19 pandemic is declared over. However, those imaginations have been tempered by recent reports that while case numbers remain stable, the locations of them are changing. Notably, and perhaps worrisome, are increasing cases in the North and Mountain West, in some states with the highest vaccination rates. We'll continue to monitor these headlines, and we hope news that Pfizer-BioNTech asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve booster shots for all adults, could help change the course of the upcoming months.
The future is difficult, if not impossible to fathom, but if the world is going to slow down climate change, aggressive action has to start to day. Otherwise, many other regions will share the same fate as one small village off the Irish Sea.
Amid all that, the labor shortage intensifies as more offices try to lure workers back to the office through even more amenities. We're fans of houseplants and s'mores, but we're not sure how to feel about indoor greenspaces and firepits at work.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Post-Pandemic Life
We’ve all been talking (and perhaps collectively hoping) about post-pandemic life. But what does that look like, practically speaking?
New York Times journalist Gina Kolata explores what will happen when the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determines that COVID-19 is no longer a pandemic. For guidance, she consulted health experts and historians who have studied past pandemics.
Kolata easily weaves past and present and helps elucidate what we have been feeling for nearly two years. “As the pandemic drags on, days merge into each other as time seems to blur and slow down with no forward momentum,” she writes.
While the future is uncertain, one thing is clear: COVID-19 and its accompanying grief, suffering and trauma will be with us for decades to come. It can be helpful to acknowledge that and reflect on other shared experiences as we try to move forward with our own lives.
Read the full story here.
Climate Change Refugees
As previously reported, the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) wraps up today in Glasgow, Scotland. But there’s another story from the United Kingdom that caught our attention this week.
The Associated Press published a story about Fairbourne, Wales. Officials identified it back in 2014 as the first coastal community in the U.K. to be at high risk of flooding due to climate change.
“Predicting faster sea level rises and more frequent and extreme storms due to global warming, the government said it could only afford to keep defending the village for another 40 years. Officials said that by 2054, it would no longer be safe or sustainable to live in Fairbourne.”
Fairbourne’s roughly 700 residents, who have been dubbed the U.K.’s first “climate refugees,” are still searching for answers about what to do and what comes next. Residents don’t want to leave; they like their tight-knit community, and tourists still flock there in the summer.
Across the U.K., an estimated 500,000 properties are at risk of coastal flooding, according to the independent advisory body the Climate Change Committee. That estimate will triple to 1.5 million by th end of the 2080s.
Read the full story here.
Inside Greenery
The latest attempts for companies to lure their workers back to the office? So-called trophy offices.
These modern, amenity-rich buildings offer features many people don’t even have at home. We’re talking game rooms, apps that employees can use to order a burger from the company cafeteria and outside dining with fire pits.
"It's all about how do we as landlords create an environment that gives their tenants and their employees no excuses not to show up," said Jeff Eckert, the head of JLL's U.S. office landlord representation business, to The Wall Street Journal.
While there are still office vacancies and prices are lower than pre-pandemic, it’s possible that the office real estate space will start to see a rebound as more high-end clients once again use office space as a way to appeal to new employee and retain existing talent in a tight labor market.
Read the full story here.
