Identifying Opportunities in Economic & Regulatory Trends

1) Source: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/menasource/what-the-abqaiq-attack-should-teach-us-about-critical-infrastructure/
Economic trend #1 - Recent drone strikes on oil refinery in Saudi Arabia cause rising gas prices.

These drone strikes could have a large impact on the worldwide oil industry as it points towards increasing tensions in the Middle East where more than half of the world's oil supply is produced. Rising tensions will cause gas prices to increase around the world as overall gas production is slowed.  Consumers will see this as a negative long-term investment and will begin moving from gas-powered to electric powered vehicles. Because of this I see an opportunity for investment in electric powered vehicles as more people turn away from gasoline. The customers of this opportunity are going to be gas-powered drivers who switch to electric vehicles. I saw this opportunity because I believe that the future in travel lies in electric vehicles and increasing gas prices creates an opportunity in the industry.

2) Source: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/15-07-2019-world-hunger-is-still-not-going-down-after-three-years-and-obesity-is-still-growing-un-report
Economic trend #2 - World hunger continues to be a problem yet obesity is still growing

This trend shows the economic disparity in the world is at a place where some people can afford to feed themselves to the point of obesity while some can't afford enough food to survive. This problem also seems to stem from our societal eating habits. Most humans eat a diet consisting of meat and dairy products  which is extremely resource intensive. We currently produce enough calories to feed 10-11 billion people worldwide, however, the majority of this food goes to feed livestock, not humans. I saw this as an opportunity to offer a solution to the world huger problem. By decreasing the world consumption of meat and dairy products, more land could be used to produce food for us instead of animals. There are already many people who adopt a vegan lifestyle and as more people embrace it hopefully more food is available for human consumption. I saw this opportunity because I have been well aware about the impacts that animal agriculture has on our society and after doing some research I was able to see how the hunger problems around the world could be decreased by becoming less reliant on meat and dairy.

3) Source: https://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/global-warming/science-and-impacts/global-warming-impacts
Regulatory trend #1: The consequences of climate change are here and one of the most pronounced effects will be more frequent and intense heat.

As someone who lives in Florida I can vouch that summers over the past few years have seemed to consistently get hotter. As the Earth continues to warm, it is bringing unprecedented health risks for people and communities across the country. Over the next 50 years cooling technology will become more and more valuable as cooling will be a necessity in most areas during the summer to prevent massive human losses to heat waves. Because of this I saw an opportunity in cooling technology as the next big cooling revolution will be essential as the earth continues to warm. While researching this topic I ran across an article talking about how researchers at Stanford have begun using a solar material - an optical film 1.8 microns thick, made of quartz and silicon carbide, which not only reflects heat from the sun but also uses radiative cooling - to reflect as much as 97 percent of sunlight while emitting the thermal energy of the building it is placed on. This technology could revolutionize the way we cool houses and investing in it and creating a product based on this technical breakthrough would be extremely profitable in the future as people look for cooling solutions in the future. The rising temperatures of our planet is inevitable and using radiative cooling to cool houses could be a future multi-billion dollar industry as the world begins to boil. I saw this opportunity because I have always been aware of climate change and rising temperatures. By identifying this as a regulatory trend occurring in our world, I identified an unmet need of much of the population as our current cooling systems will not be viable options for cooling everyone affordably which must be done in the near future. 

4) Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/04/michigan-bans-sales-of-flavored-e-cigarettes-restricts-vaping-marketing.html
Regulatory trend #2: The US government has begun banning sale of flavored e-cigarettes

The US government has become concerned with vaping and feel that the flavors are mainly marketed to young adults/children and cause them to become addicted to nicotine. As a result of this ban the e-cigarette industry is going to take a hit as a whole. An opportunity that arises from this is a buyback program of e-cigarettes for consumers who are worried about their health. These e-cigarettes could be bought back and stripped for their parts/battery. These e-cigarettes could be bought for close to nothing as it could be marketed as an environmentally friendly way to dispose of the batteries so people will be fine with handing them over for a small price. The profit margins on these buy-backs could be huge as batteries are extremely valuable and people will sell their e-cigarettes for a small amount of money. I saw this opportunity because of the recent ban on e-cigarette flavors and thought this was an unmet need in society. People need a way to dispose of them properly and why not profit off of disposing of them.