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.

Who is in charge? A key question for human rights impact assessments

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Damiano de Felice Co-Founder and Co-Director, Measuring Business & Human Rights

Co-authored by Sarah Zoen, Senior Advisor, Private Sector Department at Oxfam America.

2016-02-24-1456332056-5228871-ExcavatorOpenPitMining.jpg
Photo by Rene Schwietzke (CC BY 2.0)

huffingtonpost – Numerous companies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and human rights practitioners have conducted human rights impact assessments in recent years. For instance, in 2012 Kuoni partnered with TwentyFifty Limited and Tourism Concern to assess its human rights impacts in Kenya. More recently, NomoGaia piloted a tool for evaluating the human rights implications of the Disi Water Conveyance Project in Jordan.

A Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) is a process that identifies the potential and actual human rights impacts of a corporate project and recommends how to prevent, mitigate and/or address these impacts. HRIAs are different from Environmental Impact Assessments because of their holistic approach. Based on the inter-relatedness and indivisibility of human rights, they cover both environmental and social issues. HRIAs are different from Social Impact Assessments because their standards are anchored in binding national and international legal frameworks. This is important because these frameworks clearly identify duty-bearers and rights-holders. Tiếp tục đọc “Who is in charge? A key question for human rights impact assessments” →

Greenpeace launches high tech investigation into radiation impacts of Fukushima disaster on Pacific Ocean

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Press release – 25 February, 2016

greenpeace – Tokyo, 25 February 2016 – Greenpeace Japan today announced it is conducting an underwater investigation into radiation contamination from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. The survey will be conducted from a Japanese research vessel using a one of a kind Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), fitted with sensitive gamma radiation spectrometer and sediment sampler.

On the opening day of the investigation, Mr Naoto Kan, the former Prime Minister of Japan and leader at the time of the nuclear accident, joined the crew of the Greenpeace flagship, the Rainbow Warrior. As the country nears the fifth anniversary of the Fukushima disaster Mr. Kan called for a complete phase out of nuclear power.

“I once believed Japan’s advanced technology would prevent a nuclear accident like Chernobyl from happening in Japan. But it did not, and I was faced with the very real crisis of having to evacuate about 50 million people at risk from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. I have since changed my mind,” said Mr. Kan on board the Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior. “We do not need to take such a big risk. Instead we should shift to safer and cheaper renewable energy with potential business opportunities for our future generations.”

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has produced over 1.4 million tonnes of radioactive contaminated water in an effort to cool the hundreds of tonnes of molten reactor fuel in Fukushima Daiichi reactor units 1, 2 and 3 [1]. In addition to the initial releases of liquid nuclear waste during the first weeks of the accident and the daily releases from the plant ever since, contamination  also flows from land, particularly the forests and mountains of Fukushima, and will continue to contaminate the Pacific Ocean for at least 300 years.(2)

“The Fukushima disaster is the single largest release of radioactivity into the marine environment in history. There is an urgent need to understand the impacts this contamination is having on the ocean, how radioactivity is both dispersing and concentrating and its implications,” said Shaun Burnie, Senior Nuclear Specialist with Greenpeace Germany.

“TEPCO failed to prevent a multiple reactor meltdown and five years later it’s still an ongoing disaster. It has no credible solution to the water crisis they created and is failing to prevent the further contamination of the Pacific Ocean.”

Tiếp tục đọc “Greenpeace launches high tech investigation into radiation impacts of Fukushima disaster on Pacific Ocean” →

“We might give them a few.” Did the US offer to drop atom bombs at Dien Bien Phu?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Analysis
21 February 2016
Fredrik Logevall

Editor’s note: It was 1954, and the surrounded French garrison was facing defeat in what would become known as the First Indochina War. What happened next has been a source of controversy for decades. The author of a 2013 Pulitzer Prize-winning book on Vietnam gives his view, drawing on the array of materials that have slowly emerged.

thebulletin – It is one of the most tantalizing questions of the long and bloody struggle for Vietnam: Did US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles in the spring of 1954 offer French foreign minister Georges Bidault two atomic bombs for use against Viet Minh positions near the beleaguered French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in remote northwestern Vietnam? For decades historians have investigated the matter, with no consensus emerging. But what does the evidence actually say? The time is right for a fresh look.

At first glance, it might seem odd that the United States would even contemplate providing large-scale military aid to the French army; after all, what did America care if imperial France lost one of its colonies in remote Asia? But this was the depths of the Cold War. Anxious to prevent the “fall” of another Asian nation to communism soon after the so-called “loss of China” and a bloody three-year stalemated war against communist forces in Korea, the United States was willing to send weaponry to aid the French—even if there was considerable doubt among experts as to how committed Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh really was to advancing the cause of global communism. (“Isn’t he first and foremost a nationalist?” many analysts speculated.) Ultimately, the United States had gambled on staying with the imperial status quo and propping up a repressive French regime in Indochina, to the point that by early 1954 Washington covered the lion’s share of the cost of the war effort. Tiếp tục đọc ““We might give them a few.” Did the US offer to drop atom bombs at Dien Bien Phu?” →

Crisis Response: When Trees Stop Storms and Deserts in Asia

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
by Kathleen Buckingham Kathleen Buckingham – February 23, 2016

This is the first installment of our Restoration Global Tour blog series. The series examines restoration success stories in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and North America. Tune in over the coming months for additional installments, or check out our Restoration Diagnostic for more information.

Mangrove forest in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Mangrove forest in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. Photo by Jonas Hansel/Flickr

WRI – A history of deforestation has made Asian nations like Vietnam, China and South Korea especially vulnerable to coastal storms, floods and sandstorms. Yet just as these nations have experienced similar crises, they’re also all pursuing a solution—restoring degraded landscapes.

In fact, reforestation, afforestation and changing agricultural policies have played a large role in bringing these countries from the brink to prosperity. WRI recently analyzed Asia’s restoration practices to inform the design of our Restoration Diagnostic, a method for evaluating existing and missing success factors for countries or landscapes with restoration opportunities.  Here’s a look at how these countries overcame disasters by restoring degraded land: Tiếp tục đọc “Crisis Response: When Trees Stop Storms and Deserts in Asia” →

Five ways China’s overseas investments are impacting African forests

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

1. Most African timber exports go to China.

2. Investments have mixed impacts on local communities and environment.

3. Investment is mainly coming from harder-to-regulate small and medium enterprises.

4. Investments are moving upstream in the timber supply chain

5. African logging bans are ineffective thus far

Written by

Bo LiYaxin Yan

qz.com – China’s investments in Africa have exploded in recent years, with outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) stock growing from $1 billion in 2004 to more than $ 30 billion in 2014. Investment in forests—particularly the timber sector—is no different. China’s overseas forest project investments grew from eight in 2007 to 84 in July of 2015. Today, Chinese forest investment can be found in 25 African countries.

Tiếp tục đọc “Five ways China’s overseas investments are impacting African forests” →

Obama’s budget and hypocrisy on nukes

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

thehill – Earlier this month, President Obama released a budget proposal for 2017, which includes billions of dollars for controversial modernization programs for each leg of the nuclear triad — land-based, sea-based and aircraft missiles — and cuts to nuclear nonproliferation programs. This is troubling for a number of reasons, never mind the irony that this spending spree comes from the same man who delivered a 2009 speech in Prague pledging “America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

Of top concern are requests to allocate $95.6 million for the research and development of a new nuclear-tipped cruise missile, replacing the current air-launched cruise missile whose mission has long-since faded into irrelevance. The plan would also nearly double our cruise missile collection to around 1,000 missiles. These additions have been denounced by a chorus of military experts and former national security advisors, including the father of the nuclear-armed cruise missile, former Secretary of Defense William Perry.

Other nuclear modernization programs in the budget request include:

  • $25.7 million for a nuclear capability for the new F-35A Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
  • $113.9 million for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program, a replacement for the current Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile system.
  • $137.9 million for a new guided tail-kit for the B61 tactical nuclear weapon life-extension program.
  • $1.36 billion for the Long-Range Strike Bomber, which is planned to replace the current B-52 and B-2 bomber aircraft.

Tiếp tục đọc “Obama’s budget and hypocrisy on nukes” →

UN warns of nuclear material falling into terrorist hands

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Associated Press

VIENNA (AP) — The head of the U.N. nuclear agency warned Monday of the dangers of nuclear material falling into the hands of terrorists and urged world nations to apply an agreement meant to minimize such dangers.

Two-thirds of the 89 countries agreeing with the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material must ratify it for it to enter into force. Yukiya Amano of the International Atomic Energy Agency says ratification by 11 more nations is needed.

Its application would “reduce the likelihood of terrorists being able to detonate a …’dirty bomb,'” which can spread radioactivity over a wide area and also reduce the risk of an attack on a nuclear power plant, said Amano.

 He noted that nearly 2,800 incidents of radioactive material going missing have been reported to his agency since 1995.
 Some are of serious concern. Moldovan police working with the FBI last year stopped four attempts by smugglers to sell nuclear material to extremists in the Middle East over the past five years. In one instance a year ago, undercover agents were offered a large amount of radioactive cesium.

In the most recent reported case, the agency said last week that it had been informed by Iraq of the theft of an industrial radiography device in the city of al-Zubair in November.

Experts say the amount of the substance is too small to pose a terrorist threat. But if mismanaged, it could be fatal on exposure over several days, or in some cases as little as a few hours.

Four billion people affected by severe water scarcity

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Date:February 15, 2016

Source:University of Twente
Summary: There are four billion people worldwide who are affected by severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That is the conclusion after many years’ extensive research. This alarming figure is much higher than was previously thought.

FULL STORY

Sciencedaily – There are four billion people worldwide who are affected by severe water scarcity for at least one month a year. That is the conclusion of University of Twente Professor of Water Management, Arjen Hoekstra, after many years’ extensive research. This alarming figure is much higher than was previously thought. His ground-breaking research was published in Science Advances.

Professor Hoekstra’s team is the first research group in the world to identify people’s water footprint from month to month and to compare it to the monthly availability of water. “Up to now, this type of research concentrated solely on the scarcity of water on an annual basis, and had only been carried out in the largest river basins,” says Hoekstra.

He defines severe water scarcity as the depletion of water in a certain area. “Groundwater levels are falling, lakes are drying up, less water is flowing in rivers, and water supplies for industry and farmers are threatened. In this research, we established the maximum sustainable ‘water footprint’ for every location on earth, and then looked at actual water consumption. If the latter is much greater than what is sustainable, then there can be said to be severe water scarcity.”

More than previously thought

Until now, it had always been assumed in the scientific community that 2 to 3 billion people were affected by severe water scarcity. “Previous research looked at the availability of water on an annual basis, but that paints a more rosy and misleading picture, because water scarcity occurs during the dry period of the year,” explains Hoekstra. In his research, he describes for each place the number of months in a year that people are affected by severe water scarcity. That varies from zero to twelve months per year. Tiếp tục đọc “Four billion people affected by severe water scarcity” →

Businesses to feel the heat from slavery scrutiny in 2016

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Author: Alex Whiting

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation – Tue, 16 Feb 2016 00:01 GMT
Field labourers stand in line at a gym turned shelter in Saltillo, Mexico, August 21, 2015. Some 200 people stayed at the gym after they were rescued, along with 63 minors, in an operation headed by the state attorney, from the farms of a livestock company where they were working under conditions of semi-slavery, according to local media. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
Field labourers stand in line at a gym turned shelter in Saltillo, Mexico, August 21, 2015. Some 200 people stayed at the gym after they were rescued, along with 63 minors, in an operation headed by the state attorney, from the farms of a livestock company where they were working under conditions of semi-slavery, according to local media. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril

LONDON, Feb 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Businesses are coming under increased public scrutiny over the use of slavery in their supply chains, making forced labour one of the greatest risks to their brands’ reputation this year, a research firm said on Tuesday. Tiếp tục đọc “Businesses to feel the heat from slavery scrutiny in 2016” →

Mobilising finance for a renewable and sustainable future

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
solar wind hua hin
Solar panels and wind turbines in Hua Hin, Thailand. Solar and wind accounted for 92 per cent of all investment in renewable and fuels worldwide in 2014. Image: iceink / Shutterstock.com
By Yvo de Boer

Friday 12 February 2016

eco-business – Global momentum is building towards greater investment in renewables. Renewable energy is no longer seen as an indulgence that needs to be tolerated. Prospects are looking bright for the renewable energy industry as a growing number of countries, including the United States are realizing that the rapidly increasing use of renewable energy has become a beacon for optimism.

In fact, renewable energy sources are becoming affordable thanks to enhanced infrastructure and policies. Over the next decades, huge investments will be flowing into the energy sector. It is critical to seek ways to green those investments. According to UNEP’s 9th “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2015,” renewables are growing rapidly in both developed and developing countries, with China leading the way. Tiếp tục đọc “Mobilising finance for a renewable and sustainable future” →

Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change Is Found Lacking

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By JOHN SCHWARTZFEB. 11, 2016

Bertha Vazquez, a teacher in Miami, has persuaded colleagues, including those teaching German and art, to talk about climate in class. Max Reed for The New York Times

nytimes – Most science teachers in the United States spend some time on climate change in their courses, but their insufficient grasp of the science as well as political factors “may hinder effective teaching,” according to a nationwide survey of the profession.

The survey, described in the current issue of the journal Science, found that teachers spent little time on the topic — just one to two hours on average over an academic year.

Close to a third of the teachers also reported conveying messages that are contradictory, emphasizing the scientific consensus on human causation and the idea that many scientists believe the changes have natural causes.

The authors of the paper suggested that those teachers “may wish to teach ‘both sides’ to accommodate values and perspectives that students bring to the classroom.” The survey also found, however, that only 4.4 percent of teachers said that they had faced overt pressure from parents, school administrators or the community to teach about climate change.

Tiếp tục đọc “Science Teachers’ Grasp of Climate Change Is Found Lacking” →

Widening wealth gap threatens Vietnam’s stability

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Widening wealth gap threatens Vietnam’s stability

Globalriskinsights.com – A joint report issued earlier this month by the Vietnam General Statistics Office and the World Bank has drawn attention to a growing wealth gap in the Southeast Asian nation. The gap is both economic and geographical, with the majority of the rural community growing increasingly poor in contrast to a wealthier urban populace. If the government does not respond to this growing disparity, political instability could be on the horizon in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese economy has achieved impressive growth in the last two decades, undeniably benefitting large areas of the population with some 30 million people being lifted out of poverty. Today the poverty rate stands at 7.8 percent compared with nearly 58 percent in 1993. This growth, however, has to a certain extent masked the fact that a proportion of the population are being left behind – namely the rural poor and ethnic minorities. Tiếp tục đọc “Widening wealth gap threatens Vietnam’s stability” →

The Next Great GMO Debate

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Biomedicine

Deep inside its labs, Monsanto is learning how to modify crops by spraying them with RNA rather than tinkering with their genes.

by Antonio Regalado August 11, 2015

technologyreview – The Colorado potato beetle is a voracious eater. The insect can chew through 10 square centimeters of leaf a day, and left unchecked it will strip a plant bare. But the beetles I was looking at were doomed. The plant they were feeding on—bright green and carefully netted in Monsanto’s labs outside St. Louis—had been doused with a spray of RNA.
The experiment took advantage of a mechanism called RNA interference. It’s a way to temporarily turn off the activity of any gene. In this case, the gene being shut down was one vital to the insect’s survival. “I am pretty sure 99 percent of them will be dead soon,” said Jodi Beattie, a Monsanto scientist who showed me her experiment.

The discovery of RNA interference earned two academics a Nobel Prize in 2006 and set off a scramble to create drugs that block disease-causing genes. Using this same technology, Monsanto now thinks it has hit on an alternative to conventional genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. It can already kill bugs by getting them to eat leaves coated with specially designed RNA. And if the company succeeds in developing sprays that penetrate plant cells, as it’s attempting to, it could block certain plant genes, too. Imagine a spray that causes tomatoes to taste better or helps plants survive a drought. Tiếp tục đọc “The Next Great GMO Debate” →

The Asia-Pacific Region Is ‘Growing’, but Millions Are Living in Poverty

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
By Kanya D’Almeida
If current urbanisation trends continue, an additional 500 million people could be living in cities in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. Credit: Padmanaba01/CC-BY-2.0

If current urbanisation trends continue, an additional 500 million people could be living in cities in the Asia-Pacific region by 2020. Credit: Padmanaba01/CC-BY-2.0

ipsnews.net – UNITED NATIONS, May 14 2015 (IPS) – Home to an estimated 3.74 billion people, the Asia-Pacific region holds over half the global population, determining to a great extent the level of economic stability, or chaos, in the world. Tiếp tục đọc “The Asia-Pacific Region Is ‘Growing’, but Millions Are Living in Poverty” →

Requiem for a river: Can one of the world’s great waterways survive its development?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

economist – GUO, the driver, pulls his car to a merciful halt high above a crevasse: time for a cigarette, and after seven hours of shuddering along narrow, twisting roads, time for his passengers to check that their fillings remain in place. Lighting up, he steps out of the car and dons a cloth cap and jacket: sunny, early-summer days are still brisk 3,500 metres above sea level. Mr Guo is an impish little dumpling of a man, bald, brown-toothed and jolly. He is also an anomaly: a Shanghainese in northern Yunnan who opted to stay with his local bride rather than return to his booming hometown.

The ribbon of brown water cutting swiftly through the gorge below is rich with snowmelt. With few cars passing, its echoing sound fills the air. In the distance, the Hengduan mountains slump under their snowpack as if crumpled beneath its weight. Mr Guo recalls the drivers who have taken a switchback too quickly and fallen to their deaths in the valley below. He tells of workers who lost their footing or whose harnesses failed while building a bridge near his home town of Cizhong, 20 or 30 kilometres south. He pulls hard on his cigarette. “This river”, he says, “has taken so many lives.”

Tiếp tục đọc “Requiem for a river: Can one of the world’s great waterways survive its development?” →