Weekend Box: Cop to Talking Shop, Can’t Get Kenough of Barbie & more
Welcome to The Weekend Box, Audley’s weekly round-up of interesting or obscure political, business and cultural news from around the world.
Image credit/The President's Office, Maldives/License
FROM COP TO TALKING SHOP
After two weeks of discussion and debate over how the world tackles the ever-urgent issue of climate change, COP28 finally came to a close this week.
In what the UAE will put down as a victory, the global stocktake text, which outlines how countries can accelerate action to meet the goals of the landmark Paris Agreement, was agreed 18 hours later than it should. In a first agreement of its kind, it enjoins countries for the first time to embark on a de facto phase-out of fossil fuels, but the text is not without its critics.
Although it’s the first time fossil fuels have been included in a UN climate agreement, countries walked away from the talks frustrated at the lack of a clear call for a phase-out this decade and at a “litany of loopholes” in the text that might enable the production of coal, oil, and gas to continue. This is not helped by allegations that the UAE intended to use COP28 to in fact further oil and gas deals.
Most vocal in their criticism is the Alliance of Small Island States, who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels. They have lashed out at organisers, claiming they were not in the room when the deal was made. Climate activists have also criticised developed countries like the US, who have side-stepped their responsibility and are falling short of the $100bn promised to developing nations to help them switch to clean power.
While one cannot underestimate how difficult it is to reach a consensus between 200 nations, COP28 will not be remembered for its radical action. It’s no doubt an inch forward, but will take more than a mile to limit global warming to the all-important 1.5C.
For more on COP28 and how the UK stacks up on climate policy, read our investigation here.
TAKING UP SPACE
While COP28 brought world leaders together to reckon with the human impact on our planet, scientists say we should be thinking about our footprint somewhere else, where you might least expect it. That’s right: the moon.
In an article recently published in Nature Geosciences, scientists Justin Allen Holcomb, Rolfe David Mandel, and Karl William Wegmann argue that it is time to discuss whether the moon has entered an ‘age of humans,’ characterised by our influence on its environment. The scientists have coined the term ‘Lunar Anthropocence’ for this new epoch.
The ‘Anthropocene’, as the authors note, is a non-official term given by scientists Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer to our current era of geologic history, in which “our species [has become] the main driver of Earth-surface change.” While Crutzen and Stoermer put it forward over twenty years ago, the term has yet to be formally adopted. Nonetheless, some scientists feel that it is necessary to think about this moment in geological history in terms of our impact on our world.
While we are still struggling to grapple with the enormity of this impact, the authors of the article note that humans have already begun to alter the lunar landscape, starting with Soviet Luna 2 producing the first human-made crater in 1959. Since then, “humans have caused surface disturbances in at least 58 additional locations,” in the form of “human footprints, rovers and rover tracks, landers, and various scientific equipment.”
The authors note the ‘Lunar Anthropocene’ only becomes more pertinent as we enter an era of space tourism driven by private companies and even lunar mining.
As if my carbon footprint wasn’t already enough to worry about, I have to think about my lunar footprint too…
Image credit/Presidential Executive Office of Russia/License
PUTIN STANDS - IS IT HIS LAST?
Is Vladimir Putin back on top? He would like us to think so, having announced last week that he will run for a fifth term as President and conducted an often-bizarre end-of-year press conference.
Having previously changed the constitution to allow him to potentially stay in power until 2036, 71 year-old Putin announced that he would run again in March via a hastily choreographed medal ceremony, where a pro-Russia separatist military commander begged him in front of TV cameras to remain as Russia’s leader. Putin said he had considered retirement, but the imperative for victory in Ukraine meant that he had to stand: there was “no other way.”
The war has been Putin’s core political device ever since he initiated it, and he seems to have smelt the opportunity to revive his power again through it, redoubling Russian offensives ahead of his announcements (despite their losses being estimated at around 1,000 killed a day) and mobilising the entire economy. He will have been buoyed by Hungary’s Victor Orban scuppering a €55bn EU aid package to Ukraine yesterday, following Ukrainian President Zelensky’s failure to secure additional US military aid on his recent trip to Washington.
Yet his media conference, which allowed Russian citizens to pose questions online, demonstrated that many Russians reject Putin’s proposition. “I'd like to know, when will our president pay attention to his own country? We've got no education, no healthcare. The abyss lies ahead...” ran one message. Such domestic problems will not go away, and Putin’s efforts to silence all opposition are unlikely to work entirely. There should be no doubt that Putin threatens the security of Europe, but his doubling down for victory in Ukraine may yet be his own undoing.
WE CAN’T GET KENOUGH OF BARBIE!
In a first for Netflix, this week the streaming behemoth released their viewing statistics, not only revealing the most watched show but revealing that, collectively, their some 247 million subscribers watched nearly 100 billion hours of televisual delights this year. The coveted top spot was secured by political thriller The Night Agent, which had a whopping 812m viewing hours alone. Comedy-drama Ginny & Georgia and Korean thriller The Glory were vying for second place, with the former pipping The Glory to the post with an additional ~45m views.
The release, and the promise of six-monthly reports going forward, are in response to criticism the streaming giant has faced over lack of transparency, a key bone of contention during the recent writers’ strikes. As part of the deal laid out in September, Netflix agreed to be more transparent on their viewership numbers, and as part of that, agreed to pay a bonus to writers of top-performing shows.
In related news, tech giant Google released the ‘most searched searches’ of the year, revealing what had keyboards aflutter across the pond. In the news category, the War in Israel and Gaza was the most searched topic, followed by the Titan submarine in second, and Hurricane Hillary in third. Barbie and Oppenheimer went head-to-head for most-searched for film, with Barbie securing the top spot; unsurprising given it comfortably grossed over $1bn, a mark Oppenheimer was unable to surpass. According to Google, such was the inescapable fervour for Gerwig’s film that it went on to inspire other top searches like ‘Barbie nails’ and ‘Barbie outfits.’
With the appetite for the film showing no sign of abating in the run up to Christmas (the dolls are on track to be a Christmas sell-out) and rumours of a second Barbie movie on the horizon, it seems glitter manicures, barbie dreamhouses, and hot pink outfits may be here to stay…
Image credit/Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK/License
INDHU TAKES THE STAGE
The National Theatre has had six directors since the creation of the role in 1962. Before the incumbent, Rufus Norris, these included Peter Hall, Richard Eyre, Trevor Nunn, Nicholas Hytner, and Laurence Olivier. Spot a pattern?
Well, no longer. From spring 2025, the most prestigious role in British theatre will not be held by a white man, since Indhu Rubasingham was announced the institution’s next director earlier this week.
Rubasingham, born in Sheffield to Sri Lankan Tamil parents, is no stranger to smashing the glass ceilings of the creative world. When appointed to her current role as artistic director of the Kiln Theatre in 2012, she was the first woman of colour to run a big London theatre. She is a champion of new writing and defined the company’s mission as to “bring unheard voices into the mainstream.”
Her time at the Kiln has been wildly acclaimed, overseeing a rebrand and the opening of a new building, as well as numerous successful collaborations on stage. These include work with Zadie Smith on White Teeth and The Wife of Willesden, which transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York earlier this year, and Ayad Akhtar’s play The Invisible Hand, which was twice nominated for an Olivier award.
On her appointment, she said: “It’s a huge honour… for me, this is the best job in the world… Theatre has a transformative power – the ability to bring people together through shared experience and storytelling, and nowhere more so than the National.”
And that’s it for this week, and for 2023. I hope you found something of interest that you might want to delve into further. If so, please get in touch at cwilkins@audleyadvisors.com.
We wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a relaxing festive season. For now, that’s The Weekend Box officially closed.