Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank; a co-founder of POTATO - potato.edu.vn, working on outdoor education programs for kids in Vietnam. My English blog: hangbelu.wordpress/. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus Christ. I practice mindful living including meditation. I play table tennis as a hobby.

China moves to suspend some history tests for U.S. college credit by 2020

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(Reuters) – Beijing on Thursday ordered a suspension of history exams run by a U.S. non-profit for students seeking credit at American colleges, as the ruling Communist Party cracks down on educational material it deems unfriendly.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-education-exams/china-moves-to-suspend-some-history-tests-for-u-s-college-credit-by-2020-idUSKCN1TM0BS?cid=gn

FILE PHOTO: Students study ahead of the entrance exam for postgraduate studies, at a library in Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China December 13, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

The suspension of Advanced Placement (AP) tests will hit secondary school students looking to ease the academic workload at U.S. universities by earning credit for some college courses, enabling them to graduate faster.
Continue reading “China moves to suspend some history tests for U.S. college credit by 2020” →

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Too little, too late for US ‘recommitment’ to Mekong countries? China’s already there

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scmp

  • As Beijing floods the Mekong with much-needed cash, the US finds itself pushing back against the tide to retain influence
  • But some nations in the region think the competition can work to their advantage
Jitsiree Thongnoi

Published: 8:00am, 16 Jun, 2019

The Greater Mekong Subregion is a 2.6 million sq km area that covers five Asean countries as well as China’s Guangxi region and Yunnan province. Photo: AFP
The Greater Mekong Subregion is a 2.6 million sq km area that covers five Asean countries as well as China’s Guangxi region and Yunnan province. Photo: AFP

US officials say Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will “recommit” the United States to supporting the five countries along Southeast Asia’s longest river, the Mekong, when he makes his first duty visit to Bangkok in July. Continue reading “Too little, too late for US ‘recommitment’ to Mekong countries? China’s already there” →

The World Health Organization’s decision about traditional Chinese medicine could backfire

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nature.com

Traditional therapies have been included in a global diagnostic compendium. That comes with risks.
 PDF version
A man wearing 'walnut' glasses is treated with smoking wormwood to relieve his oculomotor paralysis.

There is little substantial evidence for the efficacy of many treatments in traditional Chinese medicine.Credit: VCG/Getty

Donkeys are a hot item in Africa. In the past few years, prices for the animals and their hides have jumped so high that people have been stealing them. Some countries, including Niger, Tanzania and Botswana, have resorted to banning exports to preserve their donkey populations. And last month, Nigeria’s government moved to make the killing and export of donkeys illegal there. Continue reading “The World Health Organization’s decision about traditional Chinese medicine could backfire” →

A Fake Zuckerberg Video Challenges Facebook’s Rules

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nytimes.com

By Cade Metz

SAN FRANCISCO — Two weeks ago, Facebook declined to remove a doctored video in which the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, seemed to drunkenly slur her speech. Over the weekend, two British artists released a doctored video of Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, as a sly comment on the spread of false information online.

Posted to the Facebook-owned social network Instagram, the video shows Mr. Zuckerberg speaking directly into the camera, boasting of nefarious motives behind his online empire.

“Imagine this for a second: one man, with total control of billions of people’s stolen data, all their secrets, their lives, their futures,” he appears to say. “I owe it all to Spectre. Spectre showed me that whoever controls the data controls the future.”

The video is easily recognizable as a fake, in part because the voice paired with the image sounds only marginally like Mr. Zuckerberg. And Spectre is a reference to a fictional, evil organization in James Bond lore. But it serves both as a piece of digital commentary and as a test of the way Facebook handles the spread of false information on its social network.

Continue reading “A Fake Zuckerberg Video Challenges Facebook’s Rules” →

Update to New Draft Policy on Feed-in-Tariffs Post-30 June 2019 for Solar Power Projects in Vietnam

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bakerMackenzie

Recent developments

On 22 February 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam (MOIT) released an updated draft (the New Draft) of the Decision of the Prime Minister on the mechanism for encouraging the development of solar power projects in Vietnam (the Draft Decision). Significantly, the Draft Decision provides for a 2nd Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) at rates varying by location for application from 1 July 2019. Compared to the first draft, released on 29 January 2018 (First Draft), there have been certain revisions to, among other parts, the proposed tariff rates and irradiance regional classifications.

Given that the current Decision 11 of the Prime Minister providing for the FiT of 9.35 US cents per kWh is in effect only until 30 June 2019, the Draft Decision would provide for a new FiT program for an additional 2 years from 1 July 2019 through 30 June 2021, for solar power projects in Vietnam.1
Continue reading “Update to New Draft Policy on Feed-in-Tariffs Post-30 June 2019 for Solar Power Projects in Vietnam” →

Training a Single AI Model Can Emit As Much Carbon As Five Cars

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Futurism.com 

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, found that training large artificial intelligence models produces an astonishing amount of carbon emissions — an unexpected cost to the environment.

The process puts out the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide as five lifetime emissions of the average American car, as calculated by MIT Technology Review. That’s more than 626,000 pounds of carbon dioxide — as much as flying from New York to London and back every week for nearly three years.

Carbon Footprint

Continue reading “Training a Single AI Model Can Emit As Much Carbon As Five Cars” →

As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home

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theconversion.com 

Plastic waste from Australia in Port Klang, Malaysia. Malaysia says it will send back some 3,300 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries including the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. AP Photo/Vincent Thian

Less than two years after China banned most imports of scrap material from abroad, many of its neighbors are following suit. On May 28, 2019, Malaysia’s environment minister announced that the country was sending 3,000 metric tons of contaminated plastic wastes back to their countries of origin, including the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Along with the Philippines, which is sending 2,400 tons of illegally exported trash back to Canada, Malaysia’s stance highlights how controversial the global trade in plastic scrap has become. Continue reading “As more developing countries reject plastic waste exports, wealthy nations seek solutions at home” →

Roman amphitheaters act like seismic invisibility cloaks

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technologyreview.com

The discovery may explain how these buildings have survived for so long in earthquake zones.

by Emerging Technology from the arXiv
May 29, 2019

Roman amphitheaters are among the most ancient human constructions on Earth. These structures are remarkably well preserved in various places across the ancient Roman empire.

That’s especially remarkable because much of this territory is seismically active: it sits on the tectonic boundary between the Eurasian and African plates and has experienced numerous earthquakes that have destroyed other types of buildings. So just how these amphitheaters have survived for 2,000 years is something of a puzzle.

Today we get a potential answer thanks to the work of Stéphane Brûlé and colleagues at Aix-Marseille University in southern France. These guys have studied the way that certain structures buried in the ground, or sitting on top of it, can modify the way seismic waves travel through the Earth. In particular, they have studied “seismic invisibility cloaks” that can steer seismic waves around specific regions and thereby protect them.

Continue reading “Roman amphitheaters act like seismic invisibility cloaks” →

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Fossil fuel subsidies and reform on the rise

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IISD

May 23, 2019 | Laura Merrill , Nina Quintas
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Fossil fuels

During the past decade, there has been widespread agreement about the benefits of reforming subsidies to fossil fuels, as endorsed by international commitments and discussions within international forums. Encouragingly, between 2012 and 2016, fossil fuel subsidies (FFS) to consumers almost halved, from USD 504 billion to USD 260 billion. This reduction was due to a combination of reform efforts alongside a decrease in international prices for crude oil, which provided a window of opportunity for action and allowed governments to implement long-awaited reform plans. Continue reading “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Fossil fuel subsidies and reform on the rise” →

In Vietnam’s booming energy sector coal reigns, but renewables play catch-up

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Reuters

HANOI/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Vietnam has become a hot spot for energy investors eying a spend of up to $150 billion over the coming decade to meet surging power demand, with coal set to dominate despite signs of a government effort to go green.

FILE PHOTO: Power-generating windmill turbines are pictured at a wind park in Bac Lieu province, Vietnam, July 8, 2017. REUTERS/Kham/File Photo

With a population nudging 100 million and annual GDP growth around 7%, Vietnam has forecast power generation will need to rise from about 47,000 megawatts (MW) currently to 60,000 MW by 2020 and 129,500 MW by 2030.

Reuters Graphic

To meet these targets the country will need to add more than neighbor Thailand’s total installed capacity by 2025 and its electricity sector will likely be bigger than Britain’s by the mid-2020s.

“Vietnam is a big growth story for the coal industry. Coal demand will be extremely strong,” said Pat Markey, Managing Director of Sierra Vista Resources, a Singapore-based commodity advisory.
Continue reading “In Vietnam’s booming energy sector coal reigns, but renewables play catch-up” →

The number of low birthweight babies stayed almost constant in Viet Nam over 15 years.

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1 in 7 babies worldwide born with a low birthweight – The Lancet Global Health, UNICEF, WHO

UNICEF
17 May 2019
Lo Van Tuyet, 34 years, and his premature birth baby boy born at the 30th week in the Kangaroo room at Dien Bien General Hospital.
UNICEF Viet Nam\Truong Viet Hung
Lo Van Tuyet, 34 years, and his premature birth baby boy born at the 30th week in the Kangaroo room at Dien Bien General Hospital.

NEW YORK/ LONDON/ GENEVA/HANOI, 16 May 2019 – More than 20 million babies were born with a low birthweight (less than 2500g; 5.5 pounds) in 2015 – around one in seven of all births worldwide, according to the latest research undertaken by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization (WHO), published in The Lancet Global Health journal. Data from the report showed that Viet Nam has had the lowest low-birthweight rate in South East Asia & Oceania at 8.2 per cent in 2015. “This figure is most encouraging”, said Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative in Viet Nam, “however as a national average, it does not give us the complete picture and is likely to hide important disparities, for example among the poorest mothers, 28 per cent of whom do not have institutional deliveries, and their newborn’s weight is not usually recorded”, she added. Continue reading “The number of low birthweight babies stayed almost constant in Viet Nam over 15 years.” →

Singapore banks move to end Southeast Asia’s coal addiction

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asia.nikkei.com

DBS and OCBC plan to quit coal power financing

KENTARO IWAMOTO, Nikkei staff writer

Coal is still the cheapest power source for most Southeast Asian nations, with power generation by coal expected to double by 2030. (Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — A push to end Southeast Asia’s addiction to fossil fuels is gathering pace after the region’s two biggest banks said they would stop funding coal-fired power plants.

Singapore’s DBS Group Holdings said last month that it would cease financing new coal power projects from 2021 following the completion of existing projects in Indonesia and Vietnam, and will instead tilt toward renewable energy projects such as solar power. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. announced that it would also quit coal.

The move is “a major game-changer for energy finance in the ASEAN region,” said Julien Vincent, executive director at Australia-based environment advocacy group Market Forces.

Continue reading “Singapore banks move to end Southeast Asia’s coal addiction” →

Từ hoang mạc Ninh Thuận thành tổ hợp điện mặt trời lớn nhất Đông Nam Á 330 MW

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vnexpress.net

Việt Nam sở hữu đường bờ biển dài, khí hậu nhiệt đới gió mùa, nền kinh tế nông nghiệp mạnh, nhờ đó tạo ra điều kiện đa dạng, dồi dào cho khai thác, sản xuất điện gió, điện mặt trời, nhiên liệu sinh học. Cùng với hàng loạt chính sách, cơ chế hỗ trợ cụ thể từ Chính phủ, danh sách các tỉnh thành có dự án năng lượng tái tạo mở rộng: Tây Ninh, An Giang, Đăk Lăk, Quảng Ngãi, Quảng Trị, Ninh Thuận… với sự tham gia của các nhà đầu tư trong và ngoài nước.

Trong đó, Ninh Thuận kỳ vọng trở thành trung tâm năng lượng tái tạo quốc gia. Hiện tỉnh có 8 dự án điện gió và điện mặt trời đã vào vận hành thương mại. Điện gió có ba dự án, công suất 116MW. Điện mặt trời có năm dự án với tổng công suất 631MW. Dự kiến đến tháng 6 đạt 13 dự án điện mặt trời, nâng tổng công suất lên 1.317MW.

Sáng 27/4 tại huyện Thuận Nam, tỉnh Ninh Thuận khánh thành tổ hợp ba nhà máy điện mặt trời lớn nhất Đông Nam Á, công suất 330MW của liên doanh BIM Group – AC Energy. Trong đó BIM 1 công suất 50MW, BIM 2 công suất 250MW và BIM 3 công suất 30MW.
Continue reading “Từ hoang mạc Ninh Thuận thành tổ hợp điện mặt trời lớn nhất Đông Nam Á 330 MW” →

Two-thirds of Earth’s longest rivers no longer free-flowing

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by  on 8 May 2019

mongabay.com
  • Just one-third of the planet’s 242 longest rivers still flow uninterrupted along their entire length, most of them located in remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin, and the Congo Basin, according to a study to be published in Nature tomorrow.
  • The international team of researchers behind the study, led by Günther Grill of Canada’s McGill University, determined that, of the 91 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers (about 600 miles) that once emptied out into an ocean, only 21 are still unobstructed from their source to the sea.

    • Continue reading “Two-thirds of Earth’s longest rivers no longer free-flowing” →

China, EU, US trading with Brazilian firms fined for Amazon deforestation: report

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by  on 6 May 2019

mongabay.com