Autism disdain, Jane Bodie and me, sustainability investment progress
This week:
➳Me on COVID + Climate parallels
➳Reflection on autism story, X+Y / Beautiful Young Minds
➳Why is Basel so rich and a story on dye patents
➳NetZero investing framework is launched
➳Jane Bodie and Me in conversation on art
➳Active Ownership with HSBC on fossil fuel financing
➳Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation
➳Word origins: smart alecs and clever clogs
Progress in sustainable investing was quite notable this week. Pretend sustainability - greenwashing - comes about because bad faith actors realise there is a genuine force, demand / trend and want to benefit from it.
So in some ways it’s a good thing if you support sustainability ideas because it means there’s real substance somewhere. Let me note two items of substantive progress this week.
First, the IIGCC lead collaboration that has led to a net zero Paris Aligned investment framework. Many asset owners and investors support the framework and it’s a very significant step in harmonising efforts on what net zero for companies might mean. Still much work to do, but worth noting this step. You can view the framework here.
Second, a collaborative investor engagement has led to HSBC aligning its financing commitments to a low carbon world. You can view their letter here.
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In my irregular video chat series, amazing playwright and mentor, Jane Bodie and myself talk about art, life and writing. There’s a transcript and video.
Jane Bodie and Ben Yeoh talk about creative processes, how they have ended up as makers, the impact of the pandemic, what does or doesn’t make great art. For Ben the importance of travel (having travel agents as parents) and his early work as a photographer (when the photo world was analogue - see some here). For Jane, on teaching, family - having a mother as a brilliant artist, and understanding what makes for a brilliant writing day.
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The virus has taught us that our way of life is vulnerable. It shows us why we need to invest now, to prevent predictable future risks. Virtually all countries are failing to reduce their carbon emissions.
If we wish we had been more prepared for the pandemic and had placed preventative measures to insure against the worst of it, the same thinking must apply to climate. Today, I sit under the shade of a tree because someone planted a seed 25 years ago. The best time to plant may have been 25 years ago. The next best time is today.
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There is a debate on some corners of the internet on patents (COVID patents) and on copyright (how long or not). This might seem very esoteric to you but it can have massive real world ramifications and, I argue in this blog, is an important factor in why Basel (and perhaps Switzerland overall) is so very wealthy today.
Why is Basel (Switzerland) one of the richest places in the world
Why the WWF would not exist without pharmaceuticals
The fallout from a national patent monopoly
Answer: the French patent monopoly of the fuschine dye (1856) lead to manufacturing moving to Basel, leading to modern pharmaceuticals which are a pivotal part of the economic history of Switzerland. Fritz Hoffman (1868 - 1920) was a founder of Hoffman-La Roche which today is Roche, a leading pharmaceutical company. Luc Hoffman (1923 - 2016) was Fritz’s grandson and co-founded the WWF.
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I don’t get round, nowadays, to watching much tv/movies but I made some time to watch X+ Y and the documentary that the film was based on. This was partly because James Graham is one of the most admired British playwrights and partly because the film dealt with an autistic spectrum character.
Of note are the parts of the film directly inspired by the documentary. The mother character is well written and portrayed with great humanity (if that’s the word) by Sally Hawkins. It also has a sympathetic ASD character as well as a less sympathetic AS character although even there the less sympathetic character has some redemption (in the audience eyes, at least) with an entirely cringe-worthy and socially inappropriately timed Monty Python skit - he can’t fit in socially - he seems to not even like maths and you have an impression his “gift” as perhaps as much curse as gift.
If you’ve met one person with autism then you’ve met one person with autism.
This adage is popular as it hints at the truism that all humans are individual and knowing one label won’t necessarily tell you anything much about that person. It riffs on that idea as many of us fall into stereotype thinking - quick pattern formation that can turn out wrong.
What unites us is greater than what divides us
We’re all different, all unique, and all equal. No one in our societies should be left behind or pushed aside because of who we are, or where we come from. Yet some of us are still treated differently and unfairly simply because of who we are.
And so the counter point is that many characteristics on the autistic spectrum are shared and can be understood together.
“People possess different points in an N dimensional space where N is a reasonable large and positive integer.”
This - to me - is hilarious and true and tragic and comes from the original documentary. People with a reasonable sympathy with a certain level of maths will understand that language but the average person is lost. This makes the phrase coming from someone atypical in social interaction as partly profound and partly tragic. He describes a truth of the world in a logical language to a typical audience who do not understand.
In England, “being clever, you are rejected” - this is another comment from the documentary partly echoed in the film.
Interestingly, I find this is reflected in directly in the English language. English has so many phrases for being “too clever”:
Smart Alec
Clever Dick
Too clever by half
Clever clogs
Smarty pants
know-it-all
Boffins, nerds, eggheads
And even crafty, sly, cunning - come with dark overtones
Is this a jealousy of “otherness” or this type of intelligence and knowledge ? Is it a fear of characters or things we can not understand - the unknown ?
To me, it’s likely a mix - a spectrum - of these items we fear and disdain things we do not understand and we belittle them to make ourselves feel better.
The documentary and hence the film suggests that the Chinese do not have this same disdain of cleverness, nor the same disdain of maths. The film has this as a small sub-theme.
The film ends on a romantic high. True life has not followed such a straight path, where the real girl has left back to China and not stayed married, although as of recently the boy seems to be happily with another.
While the documentary and film only looks as a small slice in the rich humanity of autism, it’s an accessible and charming slice and it is a part of our untold stories.
Coda, my maths grasp is enough that if I recall correctly scored about a bronze (it might even have been silver) back in 1995 in the Junior Mathematical Challenge (the easier competition before the BMO0 - this was a score in the order of 10-20 out of 50 in maths problems that look a little like this.
Details on X + Y.
The Youtube of the documentary Bright Young Minds.
A look at smart alec words.
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Me on COVID + Climate parallels
Reflection on autism story, X+Y / Beautiful Young Minds
Why is Basel so rich and a story on dye patents
Jane Bodie and Me in conversation on art
Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation
Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation, I still use FB on occasion but it’s useful to understand how the emphasis on growth really fosters polarisation via engagement. That’s because anger/extreme/emotion = more engagement = more growth = more sales.
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➳Lankelly Chase has £30K grants for reimagining media: “We have small-scale core funding in mind – up to £30,000 per grant – which would enable us to resource a group of partners over the next 8 months or so. This should give you the time and space to think, act, and reflect on renewing and reimagining the news and media system”
➳I do some green impact investing via UK Green Angel Syndicate. If interested let me know and I can introduce you.
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➳ >12,000 years ago, 8 miles worth of artwork painted on rock. What do we really know of what it means to be human? Story here.
Mi'kmaq is a first nation language and could become one of the (thousands?) of langauges we have lost over time. What do we really know about what it means to be human?
➳Bill Gates thinking on Fossil Fuel divestment.
➳Where we are on climate. Wallace-Wells (a former?) climate alarmist (now just not as extreme) looks at the evidence that the central case is for 3 deg warming by 2100 (down from 4c but not 2c).
➳Grant competition for best ideas to improve Los Angeles
➳Interstitial times, on the difficulties of endings (autism awareness)
➳Lorenzo Evans: ThenDoBetter Grant winner.
I chat with Rebecca Giggs on her new book looking at humanity through the lens of the whale. There is video and a transcript. Self-recommending.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to forward this letter to anyone you think might be interested in signing up.
Archive and repeat words below. Stay well, Stay safe, Ben
Micro-grants. £10K for positive impact people.