Fast Five

SWC’s Fast Five

A fascinating, if not slightly unnerving, guide to all the sectors touched by Amazon; your neighborhood restaurant’s grease pit did great on a flight testing it for fuel; palm trees are so yesterday; and those spendy MBA degrees – turns out they pay off, literally, while undergraduate enrollment continues to tank.

So, here’s this week’s Fast Five:

1 Amazon is taking over everything: The complete A-to-Z guide

No industry is safe from Amazon’s relentless ambition. Pick any industry and chances are Amazon is having an impact on it right now. Retail is obvious, other sectors might surprise you such as medical care, ocean freight shipping, gaming and hair salons.

2 Florida is ditching palm trees to fight the climate crisis

When you think of Florida, beaches and palm trees come to mind. But what if those palm trees were replaced with other trees? Due to climate change this could happen as communities in South Florida are trying to save the world from the climate change crisis, one tree at a time.

3 Fuel made from plants, not petroleum, could make flying cleaner

United Airlines ran a 90-minute test flight, without passengers, earlier this month. One engine burned standard aviation fuel, the other sustainable fuel produced entirely from leftover cooking oil and grease. Each created about the same carbon emissions, but the sustainable fuel has a carbon footprint that’s about 70 percent smaller.

4 A graduate degree that pays off: The M.B.A.

One master’s degree appears to pay off for many who finance their education: the M.B.A. At about 98 percent of universities that offer Master of Business Administration programs, graduates typically made more money two years out of school than they borrowed.

5 College enrollment two-year decline largest in 50 years

The news for undergrad is not so good. As the pandemic’s economic impact continues, college enrollment is down for the second year in a row at two- and four-year schools. Nationwide, more students opted out, dragging undergraduate enrollment down.