In the News
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November 19, 2021
“Consumers, flush with money they did not spend last year, want to splurge. This is the classical bullwhip effect that ceases to stabilize as the supply chain is being subjected to multiple shocks,” said Ravi Anupindi, professor of operations research and management. Demand has been faster than anticipated, he says, as many countries recover.
Detroit Free Press -
November 19, 2021
“It’s a weird spike. It’s not very spikey; it’s much more gradual. Usually, you have kind of an exponential rise and then an exponential fall. This one’s been kind of linear. It’s been slowly climbing,” said Marisa Eisenberg, associate professor of epidemiology, complex systems and mathematics, on Michigan’s current COVID-19 surge.
WDET Radio -
November 19, 2021
“We must divorce ourselves and our economies from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and for reasons that go beyond the climate chaos and deadly air pollution that fossil fuels cause. … The countries that move the fastest will be the true leaders of the rapidly expanding clean energy economy of the 21st century,” wrote Jonathan Overpeck, professor and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability.
The Hill -
November 18, 2021
“The federal (infrastructure) funding is probably a once-in-a-lifetime lifeline, and it certainly is going to move the needle. But Michiganders need to understand that we have a long-term challenge. This federal money will last for a while, it will improve infrastructure in a number of ways, but when it’s done, we’re still facing a shortfall of our own making,” said Tom Ivacko, executive director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy.
The Detroit News -
November 18, 2021
Brian C. Weeks, assistant professor of environment and sustainability, says a recent study on birds in the Amazon and his own research on migratory birds reinforce the idea that birds may be changing shape due to a warming climate — changes that should concern us all: “All around the world, people depend on natural systems. Intact natural systems provide more economic benefits to humanity than the entirety of the world’s GDP, so they matter to you whether or not you know it.”
National Public Radio -
November 18, 2021
“I don’t think people realize that when you contract COVID, even if you are asymptomatic … you’re generating millions of viral particles that are sitting in your respiratory tract that you can then pass on to other people,” said Meilan Han, professor of internal medicine in pulmonary and critical care. “The other general misconception that frustrates the heck out of me is that the general public thinks, ‘If I’m not old and I don’t have a chronic condition, I’ll be OK.'”
Salon -
November 17, 2021
A reversal of Roe v. Wade would require Michiganders seeking abortions to travel further to legally obtain them — about 260 miles compared to the current 13 miles. “We would definitely expect to see the largest impacts on low-income individuals. Someone who is low income may not be able to take time off work to do that, they might not have the income to do that,” said Joelle Abramowitz, assistant research scientist at the Institute for Social Research.
WXYZ/Detroit -
November 17, 2021
A new bipartisan bill would ensure that political donors-turned-ambassadors are qualified for the job. “There were some really embarrassing nominations during the previous administration. The fact remains, however, that it is the right of the president to nominate any person to be an ambassador,” most of whom are rarely rejected by the U.S. Senate as “blatantly unqualified,” said Melvyn Levitsky, professor of international policy and practice.
The Detroit News -
November 17, 2021
“The fact that it is a phasedown, not a phaseout, and that there are qualifying adjectives around coal and fossil fuel subsidies doesn’t take away from the fact that it is … a clear recognition by all the parties of the critical role fossil fuels have played in the problem,” said Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute, on the historic mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of climate change — in the Glasgow climate pact.
The Hill -
November 16, 2021
“It is fanciful to think that (political) campaigns will cease to be built, in some significant measure, on lies and appeals to the less rational elements of human cognition, but to the extent that the persuasive value of deceitful messaging can be diminished by alerting people to signs of psychological manipulation and by effective counter-messaging, the country and its voters will be better off,” wrote Richard Lempert, professor emeritus of law and sociology.
The American Prospect
