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.

Policy: Four gaps in China’s new environmental law

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Bo Zhang & Cong Cao

21 January 2015

Implementation and accountability will remain challenging, especially at the local level, warn Bo Zhang and Cong Cao.

Subject terms:Law Government Conservation biology

STR/AFP/Getty

Nature – A resident of China’s Hubei province clears the Fuhe river of dead fish, thought to have been poisoned by high levels of ammonia.

On 1 January, a new environmental protection law (EPL) took effect in China. It is the nation’s first attempt to harmonize economic and social development with environmental protection.

The EPL is perceived as the most progressive and stringent law in the history of environmental protection in China. It details harsher penalties for environmental offences — for example, for acts of tampering and falsifying data, discharging pollutants covertly and evading supervision. It contains provisions for tackling pollution, raising public awareness and protecting whistle-blowers. It places more responsibility and accountability on local governments and law-enforcement agencies and sets higher standards for enterprises. Tiếp tục đọc “Policy: Four gaps in China’s new environmental law” →

Sustainable cities: The changing role of businesses

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Corporate Citizenship senior researcher Jayesh Shah explores some of the trends in the development of cities, focusing on how this changes the role of businesses.

songdo aerial view

Eco-business: Songdo, South Korea. Buildings here have automatic climate control and computerised access. Furthermore, roads, water, waste and electricity systems are built with electronic sensors to enable the city’s brain to track and respond to the movement of residents.Image: Panya K / Shutterstock.com

By Jayesh Shah
Tuesday 8 September 2015
As we draw closer to September’s summit on the SDGs – the universal set of goals, targets and indicators that will frame the development agenda over the next 15 years – it could be argued that there will not be a sustainable world without sustainable cities.

Trends in urban development

Cities have for some time been recognised as the frontier for global development. This is due first and foremost to over half the global population now living in urban areas, but also to them harbouring most of the world’s economic activity. Tiếp tục đọc “Sustainable cities: The changing role of businesses” →

“Local Start-ups Hold the Key to Transforming Africa’s Seed Industry”

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

September 2, 2015

Author: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Agricultural Innovation in Africa; Science, Technology, and Globalization; Science, Technology, and Public Policy

The seed industry in sub-Saharan Africa is informal in nature, with approximately 80% of farmers saving and replanting seeds from year to year. This gives them security of access. But improved varieties — including high-yielding and hybrid crops — will increase productivity and income.

To get these seeds into the hands of farmers, a better marketing and distribution system is needed. Local small and medium-sized seed enterprises have a comparative advantage in reaching this underserved market due to their size and market reach.

There has been considerable concern over the potential control of Africa’s seed sector by large corporations. While such firms continue to operate in most countries, it notable that Africa’s seed sector is currently dominated by local start-ups.

The firms are well positioned to promote food security and improve livelihoods among marginalised rural communities. They could help grow the fledgling seed industry, but need better access to credit, research facilities and human resources to achieve their full potential.

What’s holding back the sector in Africa Tiếp tục đọc ““Local Start-ups Hold the Key to Transforming Africa’s Seed Industry”” →

Google lays bare overlooked deforestation ‘hotspots’

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Last updated on 2 September 2015, 1:25 pm

Search giant and researchers map emerging clusters of tropical forest loss in Southeast Asia, South America and Africa

Deforestation in Bhutan. Forests are vital stocks of carbon and water resources (Flickr/ World Bank)

By Alex Pashley

Forests are being cut down at a rapid clip in previously spared territories, data from the University of Maryland and Google reveals.

RCCT – New hotspots are appearing in Southeast Asia’s Mekong Basin, South America’s Gran Chaco region and Madagascar, high-resolution satellite mapping released by Global Forest Watch shows.

The world lost more than 18 million hectares of forest in 2014, an area twice the size of Portugal.

Over 2012-14, the three-year average was the worst since records began in 2001, in a troubling trend as rates reverse after years of decline.

An interactive map shows advances in tree cover loss and gain worldwide between 2001-2014 (Credit: Global Forest Watch)

Carbon-rich forests hacked down for cash crops, such as beef, soy and palm oil, together with weak governance, are the main drivers of tree cover loss, said Nigel Sizer at the World Resources Institute. Tiếp tục đọc “Google lays bare overlooked deforestation ‘hotspots’” →

Large-scale illegal trade in hundreds of wild-collected ornamental plants in Southeast Asia

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Date:September 14, 2015

Source:National University of Singapore

Sciencedaily – Southeast Asia is a widely recognised centre of illegal wildlife trade — both as the source region for species ranging from seahorses to tigers, and as a global consumer of ivory carvings, wild pets, and traditional Chinese medicinal products.

While there are mounting efforts to tackle illegal wildlife trade, including within Singapore to reduce demand for wildlife products, the illegal trade in some species still remains undocumented.

Associate Professor Edward L. Webb, from the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and NUS PhD graduate Dr Jacob Phelps, have uncovered a previously little recognised Southeast Asian wildlife trade — the illegal sale of wild-collected ornamental plants, especially orchids.

Their findings were recently published in the journal Biological Conservation in June 2015.

Uncovering the “invisible” orchid trade

The researchers conducted extensive surveys of wildlife markets across Thailand, including border markets with Laos and Myanmar, and identified more than 400 species of ornamental plants in illegal trade — species widely prized by plant enthusiasts for their beauty, fragrance and/or rarity. Over 80% of these plants traded at the markets are wild orchids. Some of these were even listed in published literature as threatened. Tiếp tục đọc “Large-scale illegal trade in hundreds of wild-collected ornamental plants in Southeast Asia” →

Professionalism and Ethics in the Public Service: Issues and Practices in Selected Regions

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Executive Summary

Scandals involving public officials have captured world attention these days. Precipitated by shady privatization deals, the diversion of aid, wide- spread public sector patronage, crony capitalism, and campaign financing abuses, people are debating outright corruption and unprofessional behaviour in government. Are public officials held to higher standards of performance and conduct than others? If so, why? With the advent of the modern state, government officials have been and are seen as stewards of public resources and guardians of a special trust that citizens have placed in them. In return for this confidence, they are expected to put public interest above self- interest.
The public service, made up of those employees of the state who are covered by national and sub- national civil service laws, plays an indispensable role in the sustainable development and good governance of a nation. It is an integral part of democracy because it serves as the neutral administrative structure which carries out the decisions of elected representatives of the people. It not only serves as the backbone of the state in implementing a strategy for economic growth of a nation but also runs the programmes that function as the safety net for the most vulnerable segments of a society. Given these crucial roles, a country expects its public service to demonstrate high standards of professionalism and ethics. Tiếp tục đọc “Professionalism and Ethics in the Public Service: Issues and Practices in Selected Regions” →

Sustainable Consumption and Production: a Handbook for Policymakers

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has published a new guidebook entitled, ‘Sustainable Consumption and Production: A Handbook for Policy Makers’, containing data on both the impact of unsustainable consumption and production, and the efficiency gains to be made by mainstreaming Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) patterns.

Follow the link to download the guidebook as a PDF

More information

Extreme Weather and Food Shocks

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

09 September 2015

Rob BaileyRob Bailey Research Director, Energy, Environment and Resources
Tim Benton Professor of Population Ecology, University of Leeds
Taking smart and practical steps to ease the impact of the changing climate on food supplies is vital to ride out the droughts and storms that will impact food prices.
The US midwest was hit by its worst drought in over 50 years in 2012. Photo via Getty Images.The US midwest was hit by its worst drought in over 50 years in 2012. Photo via Getty Images.

chathamhouse – Recent events highlight concerns about the risks to global food security posed by changing patterns of extreme weather affecting the world’s ‘breadbasket’ regions such as the American midwest, South America’s southern cone, the Black Sea and the Yangtze River valley. In 2012, the worst drought to hit the US midwest in half a century sent international maize and soybean prices to record levels. In 2011, wheat prices nearly doubled after an unprecedented heat wave devastated the Russian harvest. The global food price crisis of 2007-08 had its roots in a run of poor harvests in previous years.

Tiếp tục đọc “Extreme Weather and Food Shocks” →

The BRICs Hit the Wall: Emerging economies are a long way from eclipsing the West.

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

GUY SORMAN

Summer 2015

Getty Images

City-journal – At the beginning of the new millennium, it became fashionable to proclaim the West’s economic decline and the rise of a new global leadership. In 2001, Goldman Sachs analyst Jim O’Neill captured the trend by coining the soon-to-be-famous acronym BRIC, referring to the leading economically emerging nations—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—that would constitute that new leadership. Eventually, South Africa was added to the group, making them the BRICS, but many people still think first of the original four, and refer to them as the BRICs. Tiếp tục đọc “The BRICs Hit the Wall: Emerging economies are a long way from eclipsing the West.” →

World must avert devastating flood of climate refugees

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

kosovo-refugees-UNphotoservice

A senior British politician says we face a humanitarian crisis on an immense scale if millions of people have to flee the impacts of global warming.

By Alex Kirby

Global-net – LONDON, 8 September, 2015 – The former leader of one of the UK’s main political parties says the world will undergo more resource wars and huge movements of desperate people unless it tackles climate change effectively.

Lord Ashdown, who was leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats for 11 years, describes the present flight of refugees from Syria and other conflict areas as a “rehearsal” for the vast humanitarian disaster he believes will soon unfold. Tiếp tục đọc “World must avert devastating flood of climate refugees” →

Germany claims success for elite universities drive

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Report praises US$5-billion scheme for making leading universities more competitive — but some smaller institutions have done just as well.

04 September 2015 Article tools

Heike Zappe/ Humboldt University

Humboldt University in Berlin, one of the ‘elite’ institutions favoured by Germany’s Excellence Initiative.

Nature – For a decade, Germany’s government has tried to explode the myth that all the country’s universities are equal. In 2006, it launched an 11-year, €4.6-billion (US$5-billion) programme that aimed to make the best German universities more competitive with the likes of Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard. The campaign, called the Excellence Initiative, led to 14 institutions gaining the common — although unofficial — label of ‘elite’. Tiếp tục đọc “Germany claims success for elite universities drive” →

Eat in style – Know the origin: A joint mission to better Vietnam’s environment and consumers’ health

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WWF – August 14th – 24th 2015, seafood certified as responsibly farmed in Vietnam will be officially available for the domestic market at many eateries. The certification denotes the seafood has met strict standards that ensure food safety and minimize environmental impact. This is part of Sustainable Seafood Week 2015, organized by WWF-Vietnam, to introduce the world’s newest trend in stylish dining: sustainability.

In support of responsible production and products, which have gained worldwide popularity and become a significant indicator of a modern, healthy and positive lifestyle, the Sustainable Seafood Week with the message “Eat in style – Know the origin”, is urging Vietnamese consumers to join the international call for products from responsible sources.

Participating restaurants in Sustainable Seafood Week 2015, serving responsibly produced seafood (certified by ASC eco-label)

During the 10 days, besides introducing Vietnam’s responsibly farmed seafood to the domestic market, the program will engage consumers in an array of exciting activities to raise awareness about sustainable seafood, through a display of informative artworks, a theme-inspired flash mob and exciting mini-games at Crescent Mall, District 7, Ho Chi Minh city. Consumers can visit www.cabenvung.vn to find the full list of restaurants participating in the program, and also pledge their support online to the demand for sustainable seafood in Vietnam. Tiếp tục đọc “Eat in style – Know the origin: A joint mission to better Vietnam’s environment and consumers’ health” →

Sustainable Fishing in Vietnam

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

WWF– Tram Chim National Park is one of the most important remaining expanses of wetlands in Vietnam. While most fishing in the park is forbidden, some locals exercise traditional rights to fish for food and a living. WWF works in Tram Chim to restore natural water flows, fisheries and wildlife.

New centre promotes clean technology for Asia-Pacific

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

wind island asia

Eco-business: Building renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar is among the projects governments can implement to reduce carbon emissions. Image: Shutterstock

SciDev Net Tuesday 8 September 2015
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened (1 September) its first Asia-Pacific regional hub to promote clean technology.The UNFCCC Regional Collaboration Centre (RCC), formed in partnership with the non-profit Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan, will help developing countries in the region to identify and develop clean development mechanism (CDM) projects to help limit damage from climate change. Tiếp tục đọc “New centre promotes clean technology for Asia-Pacific” →

Innovation: The Uber of solar power?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
R. Kress | Sep 04, 2015

EnergyBiz – The peer-to-peer sharing economy is finding its way into every industry. From Uber to Airbnb, companies are doing all they can to take advantage of crowdsourcing to create a large-scale, paying consumer base. Now, solar start-up Yeloha thinks it has found a way to apply this new, social way of doing business to clean energy.

Solar energy, of course, is becoming an increasingly viable way of powering the home. Over the last decade alone, the cost of installing solar power has dropped by more than 73% according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. Residential solar costs alone have plummeted by 45% in just the last five years and there is currently enough solar electricity generated in the U.S. to run more than 4 million homes. So why are fewer than 1% of American households running on solar energy?

Yeloha Co-founder and CEO Amit Rosner says the problem is simple: access. Tiếp tục đọc “Innovation: The Uber of solar power?” →