Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. 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. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation. 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. My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/. I play table tennis as a hobby.

Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theguardian.com 

New data shows how fossil fuel companies have driven climate crisis despite industry knowing dangers

by  and 

The Guardian today reveals the 20 fossil fuel companies whose relentless exploitation of the world’s oil, gas and coal reserves can be directly linked to more than one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the modern era.

New data from world-renowned researchers reveals how this cohort of state-owned and multinational firms are driving the climate emergency that threatens the future of humanity, and details how they have continued to expand their operations despite being aware of the industry’s devastating impact on the planet.

The analysis, by Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in the US, the world’s leading authority on big oil’s role in the escalating climate emergency, evaluates what the global corporations have extracted from the ground, and the subsequent emissions these fossil fuels are responsible for since 1965 – the point at which experts say the environmental impact of fossil fuels was known by both industry leaders and politicians. Tiếp tục đọc “Revealed: the 20 firms behind a third of all carbon emissions” →

13 Facts About the Controversial Massive Chinese Dam That Slowed the Earth’s Rotation

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

interestingengineering.com

The Three Gorges Dam is one of the most ambitious and equally controversial projects on the planet.

By  Donovan Alexander

January 28, 2019

13 Facts About the Controversial Massive Chinese Dam That Slowed the Earth's Rotation

putneymark/Flickr

How much do you know about the Three Gorges Dam? You have probably come across dams through your travels, or there may even be a dam near your home town.

SEE ALSO: 12 OF THE WORLD’S MOST FASCINATING DAMS

Dams can be awe-inspiring, human-made feats of engineering, powering the lives of the surrounding communities.

Yet, in the same breath dams are the subject of notable and significant national, regional or international controversy. And, no dam has garnered as much notoriety as the 3 Gorges Dam; a dam that is so massive in scale that it has actually slowed down the earth’s rotation.

For the uninitiated, a dam is a large barrier built across rivers and streams to confine and utilize the flow of water for human purposes such as irrigation and the generation of hydroelectricity.

So, if you have always wanted to hear the story behind the Three Gorges Dam and what makes it so controversial, it is your lucky day. An efficient man-made monument to innovation, or a destructive monstrosity? Today you will decide. Here are thirteen facts about Three Gorges Dam.

The Dam Was Originally Sun Yat-Sen’s Idea

Often considered the father of modern China, Sun Yat-sen originally proposed the idea of the Three Gorges Dam all the way back in early 1919. Overthrowing China’s Manchu dynasty in 1922,  Sun Yat-sen sparked the revolution that would plant the seeds of what would eventually become the Republic of China.

In an article titled, “A Plan to Development Industry”, Sun Yat-Sen proposed the idea of constructing a dam that not only would help control the flooding of the Yangtze River, but also embody China’s “new might.”  However, it would be a while before the project would come into fruition.

Three Gorges Is Massive

Though some claim the Three Gorges Dam is viewable from space, this is not true. Nevertheless, the dam is massive.  Made of steel and concrete, the steel dam is 7,661 feet long, almost 600 feet high.

Engineers needed 510,000 tons of steel to construct the massive dam. To put that in perspective, with the same resources you could build sixty different Eiffel Towers.

Tiếp tục đọc “13 Facts About the Controversial Massive Chinese Dam That Slowed the Earth’s Rotation” →

Vietnam needs to choose the path less traveled

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

vnexpress.net

By Nguyen Dang Anh Thi   January 26, 2020 | 07:27 am GMT+7

Vietnam has been repeating the goal of “industrialization and modernization” like a mantra and has treated these goals as a given without critical thought applied to what it really means

In copying other countries’ development mistakes, Vietnam has paid a heavy price for not deploying due foresight. Now, we cannot ignore hindsight wisdom.

Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

Nguyen Dang Anh Thi

When he was 18, my eldest brother faced a tough decision – should he go to university or take up vocational training?

Although he wanted to persist with his academic pursuit, he deferred to the family’s economic needs and decided to join the workforce to support the family.

So, instead of going to university, he decided to go to Tay Loc District in my home province, Thua Thien Hue, and learn tailoring.

One year, with a sudden surge in the need for making windcheaters in HCMC, my brother left home and headed for the southern metropolis in search of better work opportunities. He boarded the crammed bus, not daring to look behind at his sobbing family.

Tiếp tục đọc “Vietnam needs to choose the path less traveled” →

UN’s top court orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Momentous pronouncement at Hague rejects Aung San Suu Kyi’s defence of her country’s military

 Legal affairs correspondent and  South-east Asia correspondent

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh take part in prayers to mark the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar
 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh take part in prayers to mark the second anniversary of their exodus from Myanmar. Photograph: Rafiquar Rahman/Reuters

Myanmar has been ordered by the United Nations’ highest court to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya Muslim minority and preserve any evidence of past crimes.

In a momentous and unanimous decision, the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague imposed emergency “provisional measures” on the country – intervening in its domestic affairs by instructing the government of Aung San Suu Kyi to respect the requirements of the 1948 genocide convention.

Declaring that there was prima facie evidence of breaches of the convention, the court warned that the estimated 600,000 Rohingya remaining in Myanmar were “extremely vulnerable” to attacks by the military. Tiếp tục đọc “UN’s top court orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya from genocide” →

Coronavirus Exposes Core Flaws, and Few Strengths, in China’s Governance

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

nytimes

While China can mobilize a huge national response to the outbreak, its response to the crisis is also a lesson in how the country’s political weak points can carry grave consequences for world health.

Health care workers at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital on Saturday.Credit…Hector Retamal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Image

  • Published Jan. 25, 2020Updated Jan. 26, 2020, 12:45 a.m. ET

It was the initial news reports that first suggested China’s political system might be getting in the way of its ability to confront the coronavirus outbreak.

The outbreak seemed to already be a full-blown crisis, infecting dozens in China and even some abroad, by the time it became widely reported. Tiếp tục đọc “Coronavirus Exposes Core Flaws, and Few Strengths, in China’s Governance” →

China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

pv-magazine.com
The Chinese government will extend duties on U.S. and South Korean polysilicon for another five years from today despite committing to buy $200 billion more American goods and services in the trade deal signed on Wednesday. Poly manufacturer REC Silicon says it expects polysilicon to form part of that trade agreement.

 

China’s latest trade tariff announcement appears to be at odds with the deal just signed with the U.S.

Image: Nathan Hughes Hamilton/Flickr

China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has announced the anti-dumping duties applied to U.S. and South Korean-made polysilicon will remain in place for another five years from today.

Norwegian poly producer REC Silicon, which manufactures almost all of its current output of the solar module raw material in the U.S., said this morning the extension of duties announced yesterday was expected as part of a pre-planned tariff review independent of the trade deal thrashed out by President Trump and China on Wednesday. Tiếp tục đọc “China holds firm on strategy to build self-sufficient domestic polysilicon industry” →

World Consumes 100 Billion Tons of Materials Every Year

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
An open pit mine in Russia.

An open pit mine in Russia. RINAT GAREEV/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

The amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100 billion tons every year, a report has revealed, but the proportion being recycled is falling.

The climate and wildlife emergencies are driven by the unsustainable extraction of fossil fuels, metals, building materials, and trees. The report’s authors warn that treating the world’s resources as limitless is leading towards global disaster.
Tiếp tục đọc “World Consumes 100 Billion Tons of Materials Every Year” →

5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

weforum.org

  • Oxfam’s Time To Care report looks at wealth inequality and how it’s partly driven by the burden placed on women to provide unpaid – and underpaid – care work.
  • The charity proposes six solutions to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite”.

“Governments around the world can, and must, build a human economy that is feminist and benefits the 99%, not only the 1%.”

That’s the message from Oxfam, the aid and development charity, in its latest report on the state of global inequality, Time To Care.

It focuses on the impact that unpaid and underpaid care work has on the prospects and livelihoods of women and girls across the world – and how that’s driving growing inequality.

Oxfam lists six recommendations to “close the gap between care workers and the wealthy elite who have profited most from their labour”, from ending extreme wealth to challenging harmful norms and sexist beliefs. Tiếp tục đọc “5 shocking facts about inequality, according to Oxfam’s latest report” →

A clean energy world would support millions of new jobs

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

5pv-magazine

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

 

Solar will support 22 million jobs in 2050, according to the study.

Image: skeeze/Pixabay

Tiếp tục đọc “A clean energy world would support millions of new jobs” →

TP.HCM phát hiện 2 người Trung Quốc dương tính với virus corona

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

news.zing.vn

Hai cha con người Trung Quốc đến từ thành phố Vũ Hán, Trung Quốc, nhiễm virus corona gây bệnh viêm phổi cấp, đang được cách ly tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM.

Thứ trưởng Bộ Y tế nói về 2 ca nhiễm carona đầu tiên ở TP.HCM Thứ trưởng Y tế Nguyễn Trường Sơn và đoàn công tác kiểm tra và xác nhận 2 cha con người Trung Quốc nhiễm virus corona đang được cách ly tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM.

Ngày 23/1, Thứ trưởng Y tế Nguyễn Trường Sơn kiểm tra công tác chống dịch viêm phổi cấp mới tại Bệnh viện Chợ Rẫy, TP.HCM. Theo báo cáo của bệnh viện, hai bệnh nhân được cách ly vì dương tính với virus corona.
Tiếp tục đọc “TP.HCM phát hiện 2 người Trung Quốc dương tính với virus corona” →

Oldest Confucius Institute in U.S. to Close

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

 

Chronicle.com 

The oldest Confucius Institute in the United States is closing. In a letter to students and faculty and staff members at the University of Maryland at College Park, President Wallace D. Loh said the 15-year-old Chinese language and cultural center would shut down because of 2018 legislation that made colleges with the institutes, which are supported by the Chinese government, ineligible for certain Defense Department funding. Maryland is among nearly two dozen American colleges to close their Confucius Institutes in the last two years. And it’s the second in little more than a week —– the University of Missouri also will shutter its center. Colleges have faced pressure over Confucius Institutes from lawmakers who say the agreements lack transparency and amount to Chinese-government propaganda on American campuses. In his letter, Loh said Maryland remained committed to education and scholarship in Chinese language and culture.

CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX 2019

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

While often seen as an engine of the global economy, in terms of political integrity and governance, the region performs only marginally better than the global average. Many countries see economic openness as a way forward, however, governments across the region, from China to Cambodia to Vietnam, continue to restrict participation in public affairs, silence dissenting voices and keep decision-making out of public scrutini
 

transparency.org

CPI 2019: ASIA PACIFIC

Thủ tướng gặp mặt đại diện các tổ chức chính trị – xã hội và hội quần chúng

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

hanoimoi.com

Chiều 17-1-2020, Thủ tướng Nguyễn Xuân Phúc có cuộc gặp mặt đại diện các tổ chức chính trị – xã hội và hội quần chúng.

Thủ tướng Nguyễn Xuân Phúc hoan nghênh các đại biểu tới dự buổi gặp mặt. Ảnh: Thống Nhất/TTXVN

Cùng dự có Ủy viên Bộ Chính trị, Bí thư Trung ương Đảng, Trưởng ban Dân vận Trung ương Trương Thị Mai; Bí thư Trung ương Đảng, Chủ tịch Ủy ban Trung ương Mặt trận Tổ quốc Việt Nam Trần Thanh Mẫn; cùng các thành viên Chính phủ, đại diện các bộ, ngành.

Theo báo cáo, những năm gần đây, Mặt trận Tổ quốc, các tổ chức chính trị – xã hội, các hội quần chúng đã chủ động tham mưu cho lãnh đạo cấp ủy, chính quyền tăng cường tiếp xúc, trực tiếp đối thoại với đoàn viên, hội viên, các nhóm đối tượng khác nhau trong nhân dân. Tiếp tục đọc “Thủ tướng gặp mặt đại diện các tổ chức chính trị – xã hội và hội quần chúng” →

Festive air muted as violence-hit village limps back to normalcy

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 1 bình luận 
VNexpress.net
By Hoang Phuong, Gia Chinh, Vo Hai   January 21, 2020 | 11:08 am GMT+7

The gloomy aftermath of a fatal clash between police and civilians in a Hanoi village is casting a pall over locals’ Tet preparations.

Ten days after resentment over a land dispute erupted into a deadly clash that left three policemen and a civilian dead in Dong Tam Commune, My Duc District, villagers are wearily and warily returning to life as usual.

Offices in Vietnam are closed on weekends, but the committee’s office as well as the commune’s police station were open Sunday.

On Friday, barriers that had cordoned off and restricted entry to the commune were taken down, but the pall of gloom over locals is evident.

The deadly clash between protesters and law enforcement officers took place a week after some units of the Ministry of National Defense, in collaboration with local authorities, began building a fence for the Mieu Mon Military Airport at Hoanh Village in Dong Tam.

The encounter was the first time in decades that violence over a land dispute had claimed the lives of both law enforcers and civilians.

The incident disrupted normal life and preparations for the Lunar New Year, Tet, as they have begun much later than usual.

The country will enjoy a seven-day holiday for the Tet festival this year, staring January 23.

Work on the fence for the Mieu Mon Military Airport has been completed. The steel wire fence carries no trespassing signs in Vietnamese and English.

As life returns to normal, strangers to the commune are still eyed with some suspicion by the locals.

Tiếp tục đọc “Festive air muted as violence-hit village limps back to normalcy” →