Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

e360.yale.edu

High-profile initiatives to plant millions of trees are being touted by governments around the world as major contributions to fighting climate change. But scientists say many of these projects are ill-conceived and poorly managed and often fail to grow any forests at all.

BY FRED PEARCE • OCTOBER 6, 2022

It was perhaps the most spectacular failed tree planting project ever. Certainly the fastest. On March 8, 2012, teams of village volunteers in Camarines Sur province on the Filipino island of Luzon sunk over a million mangrove seedlings into coastal mud in just an hour of frenzied activity. The governor declared it a resounding success for his continuing efforts to green the province. At a hasty ceremony on dry land, an official adjudicator from Guinness World Records declared that nobody had ever planted so many trees in such a short time and handed the governor a certificate proclaiming the world record. Plenty of headlines followed.

But look today at the coastline where most of the trees were planted. There is no sign of the mangroves that, after a decade of growth, should be close to maturity. An on-the-ground study published in 2020 by British mangrove restoration researcher Dominic Wodehouse, then of Bangor University in Wales, found that fewer than 2 percent of them had survived. The other 98 percent had died or were washed away.

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Is there a way to bridge the US political divide?

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Is there a way to bridge the US political divide? | Vantage Point Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera English – 11/9/2022

A culture war is raging in the United States. Every issue seems to be a matter of identity – left or right, liberal or conservative. It’s getting louder — and violent. Is there a way out? Or is the U.S. culture war its new forever war? Malika Bilal looks at the issue for #AJVantagePoint.

US Energy Association’s Virtual Press Briefing: A New Day For Nuclear Power

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Four major factors are coinciding that will affect the future of nuclear power: a recognition that achieving net-zero by 2050 requires nuclear in the energy mix; an availability of federal money due to the infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act; an urgent need to increase base load for utilities; and a plethora of new, safer, easier-to-build small modular reactors coming to market. There is a quickening of the pace throughout the nuclear establishment as product and mechanism appear to be aligned. But, there have been false starts in the past for nuclear. Is this the start of a nuclear revival, and will it be characterized by modified reactors of the past utilizing advanced fuel and safety – or radical new designs? Will utilities buy reactors from new companies or from the usual players?

The Tennessee Valley Authority has signed up for two BWRX-300 reactors from GE Hitachi, and Dow Chemical is partnering with X-Energy for process heat and generation technology. Is this the start of a pattern, or will Wall Street seek out private investment opportunities in nuclear generation? These critical questions and more will be addressed in this briefing, which will consist of a panel of experts taking questions from knowledgeable journalists.

USEA Acting Executive Director Sheila Hollis will give opening remarks. Llewellyn King, nationally syndicated newspaper columnist and broadcaster, organized this briefing and will moderate. The general audience can submit questions using the Zoom Q&A function, but members of the media will be given preference. A recording will be made available after the briefing.

Panelists: Jon Ball, Executive VP, Market Development, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Scott Strawn, VP, Burns & McDonnell Bud Albright, President & CEO, U.S. Nuclear Industry Council Doug True, VP & Chief Nuclear Officer, Nuclear Energy Institute

Journalists: Ken Silverstein, Forbes Jennifer Hiller, The Wall Street Journal Markham Hislop, Energi Media Rod Kuckro, Freelance

Đà Nẵng ngập lụt lịch sử, vì sao?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Nhiệt Băng – 16/10/2022 16:17

baodautu.vn

Đà Nẵng vừa trải qua trận lụt lịch sử. Nhiều người dân Thành phố phải thốt lên rằng, đây là trận ngập lụt chưa từng thấy. Vậy, trận ngập lụt kinh hoàng này đến từ những nguyên nhân nào?

TIN LIÊN QUAN

Người dân Đà Nẵng
Đà Nẵng vừa trải qua trận mưa lụt lịch sử, gây thiệt hại không nhỏ về người và tài sản. Ảnh: K.O

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Marjorie Taylor Greene’s success demonstrates Trumpism’s hold over the Republican Party

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
October 17, 2022 New York Times newsletter
By German Lopez

Marjorie Taylor Greene in Michigan this month.Brittany Greeson for The New York Times
A political revival
In February 2021, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was dealt what would typically be considered a knockout blow in Washington politics: She lost her seats on House committees, where Congress does much of its work, because she had supported the QAnon conspiracy theory and spread other dangerous misinformation on social media.
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‘Walled-in’ China under Xi Jinping poses long-term global challenges

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này
Steven Jiang, Beijing Bureau Chief   ‘Walled-in’ China under Xi Jinping poses long-term global challenges     ----------
Analysis by Steven Jiang, Beijing Bureau Chief, CNN
Updated 4:54 AM EDT, Mon October 17, 2022

Xi Jinping delivers a report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on behalf of the 19th CPC Central Committee at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 16, 2022. The 20th CPC National Congress opened on Sunday.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in China newsletter, a three-times-a-week update exploring what you need to know about the country’s rise and how it impacts the world. Sign up here.

BeijingCNN — 

During China’s National Day holiday in early October, several expatriate friends and I took our young children – who are of mixed races and tend to stand out in a Chinese crowd – to the Great Wall on the outskirts of Beijing.

As we climbed a restored but almost deserted section of the ancient landmark, a few local families on their way down walked past us. Noticing our kids, one of their children exclaimed: “Wow foreigners! With Covid? Let’s get away from them…” The adults remained quiet as the group quickened their paces.

That moment has lingered on my mind. It feels like a snapshot that illustrates how China has changed since its strongman leader Xi Jinping took power a decade ago – it’s become an increasingly walled-in nation physically and psychologically – and such transformation will have long-term global implications.

Understanding the big picture is timely as Xi is poised to break convention to assume a third term as the head of the Chinese Communist Party – the real source of his power instead of the ceremonial presidency – at the ruling party’s twice-a-decade national congress, which opened in Beijing on Sunday.


The view of the Great Wall of China on October 7, 2022.
The view of the Great Wall of China on October 7, 2022.
Steven Jiang/CNN

The Great Wall, a top tourist attraction that normally draws throngs of visitors during holidays, stood nearly empty when we went thanks to Xi’s insistence – three years into the global pandemic – on a policy of zero tolerance for Covid infections while the rest of the world has mostly moved on and reopened.

China’s borders have remained shut for most international travelers since March 2020, while many foreigners who once called the country home have chosen to leave.
With the highly contagious Omicron variant raging through parts of the country, authorities had discouraged domestic travel ahead of National Day holiday. They are also sticking to a playbook of strict quarantine, incessant mass testing and invasive contact tracing – often locking down entire cities of millions over a handful of cases.
Unsurprisingly, holiday travel plummeted during the so-called “Golden Week” along with tourism spending, which fell to less than half of that in 2019, the last “normal” year.

And it’s not just one industry: Pessimism blankets other sectors, from automobile to real estate, as the world’s second-largest economy falters.


Children visit the Great Wall of China on October 6, 2022.
Children visit the Great Wall of China on October 6, 2022.
Steven Jiang/CNN

Xi’s biggest challenge

The Chinese economic slowdown poses a massive political challenge for Xi, whose party’s legitimacy in the past few decades has relied on rapid growth and rising incomes for 1.4 billion people. It’s also a harsh reality check for the international community: the world’s longtime growth engine is sputtering, just as the prospect of a global recession emerges.

But Xi’s costly “zero-Covid” intransigence is a natural outcome of the unprecedented amount of power he has amassed. For many Chinese officials, this policy is less about science and more about political loyalty to the country’s most powerful leader in decades.

Online videos abound of local health workers swabbing fruits, animals and even shoes for Covid testing despite the absence of sound scientific basis. China’s only Covid-related deaths in September were 27 people who were killed when their bus crashed on its way to a quarantine facility. Still, officials nationwide have doubled down on enforcing draconian rules, especially ahead of the party congress, helped by the world’s most sophisticated surveillance technologies.

China had boasted more security cameras than any other country even before Covid. Now, in the age of smartphones, mandatory apps allow the government to check people’s Covid status and track their movement in real time. Authorities can easily confine someone to their home by remotely switching the health app to code red – and they did just that on several occasions to stop potential protesters from taking to the streets.

Whether physical lockdowns or digital manipulation, these measures born out of “zero-Covid” have proven such effective means of control in a system obsessed with social stability that many worry Xi and his underlings will never ditch the policy.
A series of recent articles published by the party’s mouthpieces had reinforced such concern by stressing the policy’s “correctness” and “sustainability,” even before Xi hailed “zero-Covid” as a resounding success story in his two-hour speech Sunday. And state media fills its coverage with depictions of the “grim reality” in foreign countries where leaders supposedly turn a blind eye to mass fatalities and suffering caused by Covid – in contrast to China’s apparent triumph in saving lives with “minimal overall cost.”

For years, Xi’s cyber police have been fortifying the country’s so-called “Great Firewall” – perhaps the world’s most extensive internet filtering and censorship system that blocks and deletes anything deemed “harmful” by the party. Now supported by artificial intelligence, censors quickly scrub clean any posts seen as contradicting the party line – including on Covid.

This potent mix of propaganda and control under Xi appears to have had its desired effect on a large segment of Chinese society, creating a buffer for the leadership by convincing enough people of the superiority of China’s system even as millions of their fellow countrymen grow resentful of “zero-Covid.” But this approach, combined with prolonged border closure and escalating geopolitical tensions, also provides fertile ground for xenophobia.

The local child’s remarks on the Great Wall reflected that. But the true danger of the “blame the foreigners” sentiment comes when adults in powerful positions take advantage of it in the face of mounting pressure on the domestic front.
screengrab xi speech 2021

Here’s Xi Jinping’s vision to make China great again
03:04 – Source: CNN

Make China great again?

Since his ascent to the top in 2012, Xi’s ruling philosophy has become increasingly clear: Only he can make China great again by restoring the party’s – thus his – omnipresence and dominance, as well as the country’s rightful place on the global stage.

With China’s increasing economic and military might, coexistence with the West has given way to confrontation with the United States and its allies. Gone are the days of “hiding your strength and biding your time” – Chinese diplomats under Xi are proud warriors training fire on anyone who dares to question their government.

Underpinned by rising nationalism, China has started flexing military muscle beyond its shores. Tensions over Taiwan poses a real threat of war in Asia, as few doubt that “reunification” with the self-governed democratic island – long claimed by the Communist leadership despite having never ruled it – would be seen as the crown jewel of Xi’s legacy.

That outward power projection goes hand in hand with China’s sense of besiegement in a US-led world order, which Xi has made no secret of trying to reshape along with other autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin. Until that happens, though, the Chinese strongman’s instinct and demand for total control at home seem to have meant the erection of ever-higher barriers – in the real world and cyberspace – to keep out pesky outsiders, the perceived source of dangerous viruses and ideas.

A history paper released recently by a government-run research institute has gone viral as it, like Xi, upended a long-held consensus. Instead of denouncing the isolationist policy adopted by China’s last two imperial dynasties as a cause of their backward turn and eventual collapse, the authors defended its necessity to protect national sovereignty and security when faced with Western invaders.

The emperors of those dynasties, who also rebuilt parts of the Great Wall, failed to reverse their country’s decline back then. But the tools at their disposal were no match to the high-tech ones in the hands of China’s current ruler. Xi seems confident that his “walls” – among other things – will help him realize his oft-cited ultimate goal: the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Whether or not he succeeds, the world will feel the impact for years to come.

Giáo dục giới tính và tình dục toàn diện là gì?

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

UNESCO.org

Chuỗi bài Giáo dục giới tính và tình dục toàn diện (GDGTTDTD)

Đặc điểm của các chương trình GDGTTDTD hiệu quả

Vai trò của ngành giáo dục trong GDGTTDTD

Khung tiêu chuẩn cho GDGTTDTD

Triển khai GDGTTDTD ở cấp khu vực và quốc gia

Các rào cản đối với việc thực hiện GDGTTDTD

Giáo dục giới tính và tình dục toàn diện (GDGTTDTD) là một quá trình dạy và học tích hợp trong chương trình giáo dục về các khía cạnh nhận thức, tâm lý, thể chất và xã hội của giới tính và tình dục. GDGTTDTD hướng tới trang bị cho trẻ em và thanh thiếu niên các kiến thức, kỹ năng, thái độ và giá trị cần thiết để giúp các em: nhận thức được sức khoẻ, lợi ích và giá trị con người của bản nhân mình; hình thành các mối quan hệ xã hội và quan hệ tình dục trên cơ sở tôn trọng lẫn nhau; nhận thức được lựa chọn của mình ảnh hưởng tới bản thân và người khác như thế nào; nhận thức cũng như đảm bảo việc bảo vệ các quyền của mình trong suốt cuộc đời.

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Phỏng vấn Ngô Thế Vinh – người đi dọc 4.800km sông Mekong

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

NĐT –  10:05 | Chủ nhật, 15/05/2016 0

LTS. Gần 20 năm tâm huyết với các vấn đề trên dòng Mekong cũng như đồng bằng sông Cửu Long (ĐBSCL), bác sĩ Ngô Thế Vinh không chỉ là một nhà văn với hai tác phẩm Cửu Long cạn dòng, Biển Đông dậy sóng và Mekong – dòng sông nghẽn mạch, ông còn là một nhà hoạt động môi trường bền bỉ. Ông đã có những chuyến đi dọc dòng Mekong dài 4.800km, từ Tây Tạng đổ xuống Biển Đông. Người Đô Thị có cuộc phỏng vấn ông Ngô Thế Vinh về các vấn đề nóng bỏng hiện nay trên dòng Mekong và ĐBSCL.

Thưa, dù đã 17 năm trôi qua, từ những chuyến đi dọc dòng sông Mekong dài 4.800km, bức tranh sống động mà ông “phác họa” về những tác hại khủng khiếp do các con đập thủy điện gây ra cho đời sống người dân lưu vực sông Mekong đến nay vẫn nóng hổi tính thời sự. Từ những dự cảm rất sớm về những hậu quả do các đập thủy điện gây ra trên dòng Mekong và cho ĐBSCL nói riêng, ông nhận định gì về thực trạng hiện nay?

Năm 2000, khi nói “Cửu Long cạn dòng”, nhiều người xem đó là phát biểu “nghịch lý” bởi đó là năm có lụt lớn ở miền Tây. Một vị tu sĩ đang tất bật lo việc cứu trợ, mới nghe tên cuốn sách đã phát biểu: “Đang lũ lụt ngập trời với nhà trôi người chết mà lại nói “Cửu Long cạn dòng” là thế nào?” Nhưng cần hiểu rằng lũ và hạn tương ứng với mùa mưa và mùa khô là chu kỳ tự nhiên đã có hàng ngàn năm trên dòng Mekong và các vùng châu thổ, và đến nay thì mức độ càng trầm trọng và gay gắt.

Chúng ta không thể đổ lỗi hết cho “thiên tai”, mà cần can đảm gọi cho đúng tên những yếu tố “nhân tai” bởi do chính con người gây ra qua suốt quá trình phát triển không bền vững và có tính tự hủy từ nhiều thập niên qua, đã làm gãy đổ sự cân bằng của cả một hệ sinh thái vốn phức tạp nhưng cũng hết sức mong manh của dòng Mekong.

Băng qua Biển Hồ đến khu Bảo tồn sinh thái Tonle Sap (nguồn: tư liệu Ngô Thế Vinh)

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Hệ sinh thái thiện nguyện tại Việt Nam: Những điều trông thấy…

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

NĐT –  16:55 | Thứ bảy, 21/05/2022 0

“Thách thức quan trọng với sự phát triển bền vững của Việt Nam hiện nay là công nhận và coi trọng vai trò cũng như đóng góp của các tác nhân phi lợi nhuận, thiện nguyện và các tác nhân khác cho khối xã hội và xã hội nói chung”, bà Tôn Nữ Thị Ninh, Chủ tịch Quỹ Hòa bình và Phát triển TP.HCM, nhận định.

Hình ảnh người dân xếp hàng nhận gạo tại cây “ATM gạo” đầu tiên trên đường Vườn Lài, quận Tân Phú. “Ông chủ ATM gạo” là doanh nhân Hoàng Tuấn Anh. Sau mô hình “ATM gạo”, “ATM khẩu trang”  trong đợt dịch lần thứ 4 này, Hoàng Tuấn Anh tiếp tục phát động mô hình “ATM Oxy” nhằm kịp thời hỗ trợ cho những bệnh nhân COVID-19 cách ly tại nhà trở nặng, phải cần đến máy thở. Ảnh: Trung Dũng

Quỹ Hòa bình và Phát triển TP.HCM (HPDF) vừa công bố Báo cáo Khảo sát thực tiễn hệ sinh thái thiện nguyện tại Việt Nam(*) . Báo cáo được thực hiện trong bối cảnh Việt Nam đang thiếu nhận thức chung và hiểu biết cơ bản về toàn bộ hệ sinh thái thiện nguyện, trong đó có sự hiện diện đa dạng của một loạt chủ thể và các bên liên quan trải rộng khắp toàn khối cộng đồng thiện nguyện – một chuỗi các loại hình hoạt động, từ hình thức thiện truyền thống đến thể chế thiện nguyện lớn nhỏ, cho đến trách nhiệm xã hội doanh nghiệp (CSR) và thiện nguyện doanh nghiệp, đến kinh doanh vì xã hội, và đầu tư tạo tác động cho xã hội, môi trường. Điều này dẫn đến một thực tế là vai trò của khối xã hội/ phi lợi nhuận chưa được các cơ quan nhà nước và dư luận nói chung nhìn nhận một cách thích đáng như một yếu tố then chốt vào sự phát triển bền vững của Việt Nam.

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Cambodian mega dam’s resurrection on the Mekong ‘the beginning of the end’

~ Phạm Thu Hương ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

mongabay – by Gerald Flynn, Nehru Pry on 15 September 2022

  • Cambodian authorities have greenlit studies for a major hydropower dam on the Mekong River in Stung Treng province, despite a ban on dam building on the river that’s been in place since 2020.
  • Plans for the 1,400-megawatt Stung Treng dam have been around since 2007, but the project, under various would-be developers, has repeatedly been shelved over criticism of its impacts.
  • This time around, the project is being championed by Royal Group, a politically connected conglomerate that was also behind the hugely controversial Lower Sesan 2 dam on a tributary of the Mekong, prompting fears among local communities and experts alike.
  • This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — A long-dormant plan to build a mega dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River in Cambodia’s northeastern Stung Treng province appears to have been revived this year, leaving locals immediately downstream of the potential sites worried and experts confounded.

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What Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com

Four years ago, I traveled around America, visiting historical archives. I was looking for documents that might reveal the hidden history of climate change – and in particular, when the major coal, oil and gas companies became aware of the problem, and what they knew about it.

I pored over boxes of papers, thousands of pages. I began to recognize typewriter fonts from the 1960s and ‘70s and marveled at the legibility of past penmanship, and got used to squinting when it wasn’t so clear.

What those papers revealed is now changing our understanding of how climate change became a crisis. The industry’s own words, as my research found, show companies knew about the risk long before most of the rest of the world.

Surprising discoveries

At an old gunpowder factory in Delaware – now a museum and archive – I found a transcript of a petroleum conference from 1959 called the “Energy and Man” symposium, held at Columbia University in New York. As I flipped through, I saw a speech from a famous scientist, Edward Teller (who helped invent the hydrogen bomb), warning the industry executives and others assembled of global warming.

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Around the Halls: Assessing the 2022 National Security Strategy

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Brookings Institute

Shadi Hamid, Daniel S. Hamilton, Ryan Hass, Bruce Jones, Patricia M. Kim, Suzanne Maloney, Amy J. Nelson, Michael E. O’Hanlon, Natan Sachs, Bruce Riedel, Melanie W. Sisson, Mireya Solís, Constanze Stelzenmüller, and Andrew Yeo Friday, October 14, 2022

ORDER FROM CHAOS

On October 12, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration released the 2022 National Security Strategy (NSS). Brookings experts reflect on the document and what it reveals about the United States’ security trajectory.

SHADI HAMID (@shadihamid)
Senior Fellow, Center for Middle East Policy

In the past, I have been critical of the administration’s tendency to instrumentalize democracy by suggesting that its strength and value hinges on its ability to produce “good” outcomes. As I argue in “The Problem of Democracy“, this way of thinking about the democratic idea can easily lead to incoherence. Policymakers have little choice but to be incoherent, some of the time; the world is complicated. Still, identifying these tensions is worthwhile, in anticipation of when they might cause problems for U.S. foreign policy. In this case, they almost certainly will, because they already have.

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The Massive Gas Field That Europe Can’t Use

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Earthquake risks in the Netherlands have locals unwilling to plug the Russia-related energy shortfall.

The gas Megafield Europe Can’t use

By Cagan Koc and Diederik Baazil

11:01 GMT+7 6 tháng 10, 2022, Bloomberg

Beneath the windmill-dotted marshlands of the Netherlands lies Europe’s largest natural gas reserve. The sprawling Groningen field has enough untapped capacity to replace, as soon as this winter, much of the fuel Germany once imported from Russia.

Instead the field is in the process of shutting down, and the Netherlands is rebuffing calls to pump more, even as Europe braces for perhaps its toughest winter since World War II. The reason: Drilling has led to repeated earthquakes, and Dutch officials are loath to risk a backlash from residents by breaking promises.

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As the US-Saudi oil spat intensifies, what are Biden’s options?

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Analysis by Nadeen Ebrahim and Abbas Al Lawati, CNN

Updated 11:20 AM EDT, Fri October 14, 2022

Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, center, speaks during a news conference following a meeting of OPEC+ countries in Vienna, Austria, on October 5.

Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, center, speaks during a news conference following a meeting of OPEC+ countries in Vienna, Austria, on October 5.Akos Stiller/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.Abu DhabiCNN — 

The Saudi-American relationship appears to have hit rock bottom.

After a move by the Saudi-led OPEC+ oil cartel to cut oil production, which could see inflation in the United States soaring just weeks ahead of the midterm elections, President Joe Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper that it’s time for the US to rethink its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

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