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.

Food Giants Announce Major New Labeling Initiative

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Most controversially, the label will detailed whether products contain GMOs.

Fortune – Some of the largest food manufacturers and grocers announced today an initiative to provide consumers with “instantaneous access” about detailed information on thousands of products through their smart phones. Shoppers, using their smartphones, will simply scan a code, called a QR code or barcode, according to the initiative by the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

More than 30 food giants, ncluding Pepsi, ConAgra, Hormel, Campbell Soup, Land O’Lakes, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Hershey, and General Foods, have signed on to participate in the SmartLabel Initiative. The SmartLabel will include ingredients, allergens, animal welfare, environmental policies, and, perhaps the most controversial attribute, whether the food contains genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

The information will also be available on the web and, in some cases, at retailers’ customer service desks, so consumers without smartphones also have access to the information. The technology will be available on 30,000 products by the end of 2017. The announcement comes on the heels of the FDA’s approval last month of the first genetically modified animal, a fast-growing salmon, a move that drew many calls for labeling, including from the editorial board of the New York Times. Tiếp tục đọc “Food Giants Announce Major New Labeling Initiative” →

Why the Paris climate deal must put the poorest, lowest emitting and most vulnerable people first

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
The poorest half of the global population are responsible for only around 10% of global emissions yet live overwhelmingly in the countries most vulnerable to climatechange – while the richest 10% of people in the world are responsible for around 50% of global emissions

—

Oxfam – Climate change is inextricably linked to economic inequality: it is a crisis that is driven by the greenhouse gas emissions of the ‘haves’ that hits the ‘have-nots’ the hardest. While COP21 in Paris will see a deal negotiated between governments on the basis of the total emissions produced in their territories, the real winners and losers will be their citizens. The true test of the deal will be whether it delivers something for the poorest people who are both the least responsible for and the most vulnerable to climate change, wherever they live.

In this briefing Oxfam presents new data analysis that demonstrates the extent of global carbon inequality by estimating and comparing the lifestyle consumption emissions of rich and poor citizens in different countries.

See also the technical briefing on the methodology and data sets. DOWNLOAD here

Nuclear waste storage sites in rock salt may be more vulnerable than previously thought

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Date: November 26, 2015

Source:University of Texas at Austin

Summary:Research shows that rock salt, used by Germany and the United States as a subsurface container for radioactive waste, might not be as impermeable as thought.

Research from The University of Texas at Austin shows that rock salt, used by Germany and the United States as a subsurface container for radioactive waste, might not be as impermeable as thought or as capable of isolating nuclear waste from groundwater in the event that a capsule or storage vessel failed.

sciencedaily – A team of researchers from the university has used field testing and 3-D micro-CT imaging of laboratory experiments to show that rock salt can become permeable. Their findings, published in the Nov. 27 issue of Science, has implications for oil and gas operations, and, most notably, nuclear waste storage. The team includes researchers from the university’s Cockrell School of Engineering and Jackson School of Geosciences.

“What this new information tells us is that the potential for permeability is there and should be a consideration when deciding where and how to store nuclear waste,” said Maša Prodanovic, assistant professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. “If it’s an existing nuclear waste storage site, you may want to re-evaluate it with this new information.”

Salt generally blocks fluid flow at shallow depth, a feature that allows oil reservoirs to form. But scientists have long suspected that salt becomes permeable at greater depth. Jackson School professor James E. Gardner confirmed this theory through laboratory experiments with synthetic rock salt. Tiếp tục đọc “Nuclear waste storage sites in rock salt may be more vulnerable than previously thought” →

Communist China’s Barbaric Consistency – Xi Jinping is no reformer.

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Guy Sorman
December 1, 2015

Photo by WPA Pool/Getty Images

city-journal: Western adoration of China is a chronic and profound sickness, proof of which can be found in the non-reaction to the continued incarceration of Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Prize winner imprisoned for his democratic writings. Not a single renowned European or American intellectual has demanded his freedom, and the same goes for our governments. But more damning proof comes from the positive reaction of many in the West to the Chinese government’s recent decision to authorize families to have two children instead of just one. We should decry any government that presumes to decide how many children a family can have. The Chinese people are just like you and me—they are no less concerned than we are with freedom and the right to decide the size of their own families.

There is nothing liberal about China’s new family policy. It simply recognizes the mistake made by Deng Xiaoping, who imposed the one-child policy in 1979. The consequences of this system are being felt today, as aging parents are left without family support in a country with no pension system outside the cities. In the past, children would share the responsibility of caring for their elderly parents. Another tragic consequence is that families only allowed one child have preferred to have boys, which has led to an enormous imbalance between the sexes. China currently “lacks” some 50 million women—victims either of sex-selective abortion or infanticide—which has made marriage impossible for the equivalent number of men. This disequilibrium has in turn led to aggressive competition between men and widespread prostitution. Tiếp tục đọc “Communist China’s Barbaric Consistency – Xi Jinping is no reformer.” →

Laos: Save the Mekong calls for cancellation of Don Sahong Dam citing far-reaching consequences on food & livelihood security

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Author: Save the Mekong, Published on: 30 November 2015

“Save the Mekong Statement Calling for Cancellation of The Don Sahong Dam”, 25 Nov 2015

business-humanrights: The Save the Mekong Coalition urges Mekong governments to take immediate action to cancel the Don Sahong Dam before construction begins at the end of November.

The Government of Laos have announced that they intend to commence construction on the Don Sahong Dam, in Southern Laos, despite strong opposition to the project from local communities across the Mekong region, an absence of regional agreement and no resolution to the 1995 Mekong Agreement’s Prior Consultation process.

The Don Sahong Dam poses a significant transboundary risk to the Mekong’s valuable and irreplaceable inland fisheries. Blocking the Hou Sahong Channel will permanently disrupt fish migration and irreversibly alter the area’s complex ecosystem, with far-reaching consequences for food and livelihood security throughout the region…

Read the full post here

Don’t Panic — End Poverty

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 1 bình luận

Hans Rosling asks: Has the UN gone mad?

The United Nations just announced their boldest goal ever: To eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere, already by 2030.

Gapminder – Looking at the realities of extremely poor people the goal seems impossible. The rains didn’t fall in Malawi this year. The poor farmers Dunstar & Jenet, gather a tiny maize harvest in a small pile on the ground outside their mud hut. But Dunstar & Jenet know exactly what they need to break the vicious circle of poverty. And Hans Rosling shows how billions of people have already managed. This year’s “hunger season” may very well be Dunster’s & Jenet’s last.

Up-to-date statistics show that recent global progress is ‘the greatest story of our time – possibly the greatest story in all of human history. The goal seems unrealistic to many highly educated people because their worldview is lagging 60 years behind reality.

About the film

The visualizations are based on original graphics and stories by Gapminder. The data sources are listed here.

The Dollar Street project, featured in this film, will launch later this year.
Learn more and stay tuned here.

This film follows the previous award-winning BBC productions Don’t Panic – The Facts About Population and The Joy Of Stats.

The film was produced by Wingspan Productions and broadcasted on BBC TWO on September 23, 2015. Director & Producer: Dan Hillman. Executive Producer: Archie Baron. ©Wingspan Productions for BBC, 2015

Obama’s nuclear play

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Allen Greenberg | Nov 29, 2015

Here’s a nice bit of irony:

Energybiz – James Hansen, the scientist who was first to raise the alarm about climate change, fueling calls to shut down coal-fired power plants, will later this week urge the expansion of nuclear power.

In other words, depending on how things work out, utilities that were forced to close down or convert their coal-powered operations because of Hansen’s work, could soon find themselves thanking him for encouraging policymakers and regulators to approve plans to build new nuclear plants.

Hansen will issue his call in Paris, during the two-week climate conference that kicks off Monday. The conference is expected to draw some 20,000 attendees, including President Obama and 120 or so other world leaders.

Also read: First U.S. small modular reactor inches ahead

The hope of the climate talks is to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. Few, however, expect the conference to deliver anything meaningful. That’s because the pledges being made to cut greenhouse gas emissions are voluntary and are unlikely to be enough to stave off environmental catastrophe. Tiếp tục đọc “Obama’s nuclear play” →

How clean is clean coal?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
16 November 2015Articles and blogs
Ilmi Granoff and Sam Pickard

Ilmi Granoff

Ilmi Granoff

ODI – The coal industry argues that more efficient and less polluting ‘advanced coal’ will help reduce carbon emissions and other pollution. What we can’t forget, ahead of next week’s World Coal Association meeting and OECD talks on coal policy, is that there are cheaper and cleaner options.

Burning coal generates about 40% of fossil fuel emissions. Current G7 and Chinese plants, alongside a dramatic expansion of coal power planned in the developing world, stand to blow our carbon budget.

To address this threat, the coal industry proposes replacing the most polluting coal technologies with advanced ‘high-efficiency, low emissions’ coal technologies. It claims that this will reduce emissions enough to keep global mean temperature under two degrees while taking advantage of coal as a cheap energy source.

Some also advocate that ‘climate finance’ should cover the price mark-up from conventional to advanced coal. For this to make sense, advanced coal would either need to be cleaner or cheaper than the alternatives – it is neither.

Advanced coal pollutes far more than alternatives Tiếp tục đọc “How clean is clean coal?” →

Will the SDGs influence domestic policy? Some lessons from the MDGs

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
20 November 2015 Articles and blogs

Paula Lucci

Moizza Binat Sarwar

ODI – With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed, the next big question is: are governments going to use them?

Despite many years of experience implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we still know surprisingly little about how national governments actually use these kinds of international frameworks.

How countries responded to the MDGs

A new qualitative study of five governments finds that they used the MDGs in three ways:

  • They set up new institutions to track progress – for example, since 2012 Nigeria has convened a quarterly committee of over 25 state governors, heads of ministries and other government officials to monitor national progress towards the MDGs;
  • Some, such as Indonesia, referenced the MDGs in national development strategies;
  • They saw the MDGs as an opportunity to show international leadership – Mexican politicians, for example, used them to raise the country’s profile across the region.

However, it took countries up to 10 years to translate the MDGs into domestic institutional commitments – they often waited until they had to renew existing domestic targets before doing so. UN-led efforts, particularly the MDG Acceleration Frameworks established in 2010, may have helped prompt eventual action.

Did the MDGs influence government priorities and budgets? Tiếp tục đọc “Will the SDGs influence domestic policy? Some lessons from the MDGs” →

Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
This publication contains the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights:
Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework”, which
were developed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue
of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises. The
Special Representative annexed the Guiding Principles to his final report to the
Human Rights Council (A/HRC/17/31), which also includes an introduction to the
Guiding Principles and an overview of the process that led to their development.
The Human Rights Council endorsed the Guiding Principles in its resolution 17/4
of 16 June 2011

World Energy Outlook 2015

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
 WEO-2015 cover
Order online here
WEO-2015 Table of Contents
WEO-2015 Acknowledgements
Introduction and ScopeExecutive SummaryArabic | Chinese | English | French | German | Italian | Japanese | Korean | Polish | Russian  | Spanish | ‌Turkish

Press Release
Presentation to the Press
Factsheets

The precipitous fall in oil prices, continued geopolitical instability and the ongoing climate negotiations are witness to the dynamic nature of energy markets. In a time of so much uncertainty, understanding the implications of the shifting energy landscape for economic and environmental goals and for energy security is vital. The World Energy Outlook 2015 (WEO-2015) presents updated projections for the evolution of the global energy system to 2040, based on the latest data and market developments, as well as detailed insights on the prospects for fossil fuels, renewables, the power sector and energy efficiency and analysis on trends in CO2 emissions and fossil-fuel and renewable energy subsidies.

In addition, the WEO-2015 is informed by in-depth analysis on several topical issues:

— A lower oil price future? The decline in oil prices and changed market conditions have prompted a broad debate over how and when the oil market will re-balance. This analysis examines the implications for markets, policies, investment, the fuel mix and emissions if oil prices stay lower for longer. Tiếp tục đọc “World Energy Outlook 2015” →

MOOC: Powering Agriculture—Sustainable Energy for Food

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

poweringag.org – We are happy to announce that the global initiative “Powering Agriculture: An Energy Grand Challenge for Development” (PAEGC) is launching a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in cooperation with TH Köln – University of Applied Sciences. The 8-week course, which will run from Feb. 1 – Mar. 27, 2016, introduces challenges and solutions for sustainable energy use in the agriculture and food industry.

Background

Around one third of the energy used worldwide goes into the production and processing of food from field to table. Given the current energy system mix, the agrifood industry sector is however heavily dependent on fossil fuel inputs for production, transport, processing and distribution, and contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. With a continuously growing world population the need for food and for energy to produce it is increasing. At the same time millions of farmers and processors in developing countries and emerging economies lack access to clean energy technologies for irrigation, drying, cooling, storage and other processes.

How can these needs be met sustainably?

We have to produce more food with less energy, make energy use more efficient, and introduce and upscale more clean energy technologies.

About the Course

This MOOC will introduce participants to the Energy-Agriculture Nexus and introduces approaches for sustainably providing energy throughout all stages of agricultural value chains. Challenges but also solutions will be analyzed, concrete technologies will be examined focusing on their utility to promote access to clean energy. Participants will further be familiarized with relevant external influences such as market conditions, politics, and financing schemes of “powering agricultural” projects. Learning materials, developed by well-known experts, will be available as texts as well as videos on a week-by-week basis and are accompanied by assignments that will require the application of the newly learned skills. Tiếp tục đọc “MOOC: Powering Agriculture—Sustainable Energy for Food” →

China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

By NOV. 3, 2015

See Video

nytimes – BEIJING — China, the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases from coal, has been burning up to 17 percent more coal a year than the government previously disclosed, according to newly released data. The finding could complicate the already difficult efforts to limit global warming.

Even for a country of China’s size, the scale of the correction is immense. The sharp upward revision in official figures means that China has released much more carbon dioxide — almost a billion more tons a year according to initial calculations — than previously estimated.

The increase alone is greater than the whole German economy emits annually from fossil fuels.

Officials from around the world will have to come to grips with the new figures when they gather in Paris this month to negotiate an international framework for curtailing greenhouse-gas pollution. The data also pose a challenge for scientists who are trying to reduce China’s smog, which often bathes whole regions in acrid, unhealthy haze.

Tiếp tục đọc “China Burns Much More Coal Than Reported, Complicating Climate Talks” →

Beijing is currently pushing a rule-of-law campaign, but the reality is drastically different

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

HONG KONG-CHINA-POLITICS-RIGHTS

Philippe Lopez—AFP/Getty Images Protesters holding pictures of detained Chinese human-rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang march to the Chinese Liaison Office in Hong Kong on May 14, 2014, asking for his release

Time.com – In late November, Ren Jianyu, once a budding civil servant in China’s southwest, received his results for China’s National Judicial Examination: a sterling score well above what he needed to pass China’s bar. The triumph was bittersweet: for 15 months, Ren, like tens of thousands of others, had been forced to undergo “re-education through labor,” as time spent in China’s gulags is known.Ren’s offense was to have reposted on his microblog comments critical of China’s government and its leaders. He also purchased online a T-shirt emblazoned with the motto: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.” For these transgressions, the now 28-year-old was never given the courtesy of a proper trial. He spent his days assembling cardboard for boxes and lived 11 people to a room in a camp filled with more than 1,000 inmates. But after a local justice board deemed his case improperly handled, Ren was released early in 2012 and later compensated less than $15,000 for his suffering. “After experiencing so many things all these years,” he says, “I am not afraid anymore.”

Despite — or perhaps because of — this injustice, Ren decided that he needed to familiarize himself with China’s legal system. After he was released, families of other legal victims came to him, asking for counsel. “At the time, I didn’t understand the law,” says Ren. “When I read the piles of materials they showed to me, I didn’t know which parts were useful, which were not.” Tiếp tục đọc “Beijing is currently pushing a rule-of-law campaign, but the reality is drastically different” →

Why Southeast Asia struggles to tackle modern-day slavery

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ 5 bình luận

Officials from three countries are investigating allegations of slavery in Indonesia’s fishing industry. The UN’s Annette Lyth talks to DW about the growing problem of human trafficking in the region.

Indonesien Fischer Skaverei

DW – A week after the Associated Press (AP) published a story about slavery in the seafood industry, delegations from Thailand and Indonesia visited the eastern Indonesian island village of Benjina freeing some 300 migrant workers who had been lured or tricked into leaving their countries and forced into catching fish for consumers around the world.
Tiếp tục đọc “Why Southeast Asia struggles to tackle modern-day slavery” →