News stories come and go with the 24-hour news cycle, but 2021 has a few stories that will expand well beyond a single day. With a new president in the United States and the winding down of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are seeing the kind of stories that will affect their lives in both the short and long term. Read on for the top four headlines to watch in 2021.
Infrastructure Is Center Stage
In California, a 150-foot stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway near Big Sur slid into the ocean in January. Changing weather patterns exposed the extreme age and unreliability of the electrical grid. In February, Texans lost electricity which led to the loss of power, heat and clean water for millions of people, killing over 150. That’s only this year.
Over the last two decades Americans have seen rolling power outages, failing bridges and crumbling roads, so interest in a new infrastructure package proposed by President Biden is natural. Suzanne Clark, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, sees renewed infrastructure as one of the keys to global competitiveness for the U.S. Keep an eye out to see what parts of the infrastructure deal will pass and whether the increasingly acrimonious factions in Congress can get the deal done.
Everyone Wants Out
The pandemic saw the closing down of life outside the home. While the pandemic is finally winding down, it continues to be a story to watch. Scientists predicted that anywhere from 70% to 90% of the population would have to be immunized for herd immunity to be reached. That included people who had already had the disease so that they could increase their ability to fight new variants that seem to be responding well to the vaccine.
Unfortunately, it appears that the U.S. will not reach that level of immunity due to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccines are still in the testing stages for children, so it will be interesting to see if the ability to vaccinate the young will push the U.S. into herd immunity territory. People who are immunocompromised and can’t receive the vaccine will certainly be looking forward to the day they can safely leave their homes again.
Olympians Wait For Their Moment
Like so many things, the Olympics were a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. The summer games which are scheduled every four years were set to take place in Tokyo in 2020. Now they will begin July 23, 2021. The Olympics are always a story in themselves, but this year look for stories on mandatory COVID testing and how the Olympic Village and venues will deal with policing vaccination verification, masking and distancing requirements. It’s also still up in the air whether spectators will be allowed at the games and whether Tokyo will allow all the potential tourists to use public transportation.
Climate Change Continues
One positive outcome of the global pandemic was a marked decrease in carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, by April of 2020 CO2 emissions had dropped by 17% compared to the prior year. The world had well over a year to bring those greenhouse gas emissions down and it did a great job, but that was under duress. As the world reopens and travel once again becomes an option, will countries take the lessons of the pandemic to see how they can keep emissions at lower levels?
Other scientists are looking at the psychological aspects of the pandemic to determine how humans might respond to the dangers of a changing climate like extreme storms and rising water levels. They have determined that too much emotional appeal can backfire, claiming that people have a “finite pool of worry” with which to work. When people have more things to worry about, there’s only so much worry to go around, so those trumpeting the dangers of climate change may need to change their approach in appealing for help from the global audience.
These four stories are likely to have an impact well beyond the close of the year. Keep an out to see how they develop.
