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Kay Bradley

The Challenges of A Transnational Organization - 3 views

www.ieee.org/...index.jsp

EU

shared by Kay Bradley on 15 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 15 Oct 10
     
    An interesting perspective on what transnational means from the IEEE, world's oldest association of electrical engineers!
  • ...3 more comments...
  • Nick Petru on 17 Oct 10
     
    I really appreciate the IEEE's philosophy and I think this is the proper outlook that our military should follow in Pakistan- not taking matters into our own hands so actively and instead conforming to the Pakistani's laws.
  • Rachel Katzoff on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think it is interesting how many difficult questions must be asked when trying to understand how a transnational organization should act ethically. A transnational organization has to pay close attention to all of the different countries that it works with and understand all of the customs and laws. When trying to work with 100+ countries this is a difficult task. If you think about all of the trouble domestic companies have with laws, permits, etc., I can only imagine how much work it would take to run a transnational organization.
  • Catherine Binder on 18 Oct 10
     
    I think that the writer touches on the theory of transnational organizations perfectly - that its members should adhere to the transnational vision but remain sensitive to nations' interests and needs. But this is, after all, a theory. I'm doubtful as to whether transnational organizations will ever operate as they are supposed to. Many claim to work ethically with transnational organizations, but the reality is that everyone has egos and political agendas.
  • Harrison Lee on 18 Oct 10
     
    This article intelligently reveals the difficulties of bridging many different countries, which vary politically and culturally, under one goal or line of thought. The specific laws within each country (and each region of each country) must hinder uniform implementation to a notable extent, but I admire the organization's dedication to its vision. However, I wonder if, with the various global regions and political orientations into which the IEEE is divided, interpretations, and not just implementations, of the organization's vision may be different. With that in mind, can implementations change not only according to local laws, but also according to personal biases?
  • Amara Plaza-Jennings on 19 Oct 10
     
    I found the part about regulations in certain countries especially interesting. It seems ridiculous that a country would ban the import a technical journal. The fact that the author never gives specifics about which country he is referring to further backs his points about what it means to maintain a transnational organization. And while I'm sure that the IEEE is committed to its goal, I am not sure how committed its members might be and if they might bring about international disputes despite the IEEE's best efforts.
Gregory Freiberg

The cracks in China's engine - 0 views

theweek.com/...the-cracks-in-chinas-engine

China

shared by Gregory Freiberg on 22 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • Gregory Freiberg on 22 Oct 10
     
    When I normally think of China's vast economic growth, I have a negative image ingrained in the back of my mind. This image surrounds the ideas of the environmental degradation, the unsafe working conditions, and the fact that they are by far surpassing the United States. However, China's economic prowess has lifted 500,000,000 people out of poverty. But, it is still not perfect: China's economy depends heavily on exports to global economies thus, when these markets experience recessions China is affected. The 2008 United States Recession had a significant impact on China's fiscal success. It is suggested that China is not yet stable. Because the Communist Party is largely in-control of the government, the nation is experiencing political, social and strain. The workers are also beginning to speak out. It is interesting to watch as China rapids morphs more and more of itself into a massive economic and industrial powerhouse.
Kay Bradley

MIT engineers develop a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air | MIT News | Massachu... - 0 views

news.mit.edu/...remove-carbon-dioxide-air-1025

climate change technology

shared by Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 22 - No Cached
  • Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 22
     
    "The process could work on the gas at any concentrations, from power plant emissions to open air."
Thomas Peterson

Obama's New Majority - 1 views

www.theamericanconservative.com/...obamas-new-majority

Conservative Pat Buchanan Coalition

shared by Thomas Peterson on 17 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Thomas Peterson on 17 Jan 13
     
    I was surprised by how measured this article was and how much I agreed with the analysis expressed in it, given that it was written by Pat Buchanan, whose views I find reprehensible. He offers a smart and historically conscious analysis of the political moves Obama is making right now, moves he believes might allow the president to create a Democratic coalition that will outlast his tenure. Buchanan says that Obama presented the Fiscal Cliff negotiations in such a way as to divide the Republicans and make them look bad whatever they did, and that he has engineered similarly divisive and damaging strategies for the upcoming fights over the Chuck Hagel nomination, gun control, and the debt ceiling.
gtjunur

Technology behind China's crash / A case for MagLev in California - 3 views

Explaining the causes behind China's catastrophe: http://truthdive.com/2011/10/03/Chinese-engineers-failed-to-understand-imported-high-speed-rail-network-components-working.html and an argument f...

MagLev China

started by gtjunur on 27 Oct 11 no follow-up yet
Kay Bradley

US foreign aid is worth defending now more than ever - 0 views

www.brookings.edu/...h-defending-now-more-than-ever

shared by Kay Bradley on 19 Nov 19 - No Cached
  • he U.S. government is giving short shrift to international development goals and American values, China appears poised to eclipse America’s economic dominance, and the climate crisis is now an existential threat to us all.
  • current U.S. administration will almost assuredly continue to favor transactional deals and brinksmanship over preserving America’s role as a transformational leader in foreign assistance.
  • we need a new narrative.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • With U.S. leadership adrift and progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) halting at best, what can motivate the community of nations to redouble their efforts to realize a better world?
  • aid delivery is being reshaped thanks to citizen-driven social movements, multinational companies motivated to be socially responsible, and powerful foundations backing experimental approaches.
  • The climate crisis, which is hitting developing countries hard, was a central topic at our roundtable, since its effects are already transforming development prospects and confounding those who track long-term environmental and social trends
  • Thus, climate-based migration may soon create one of the greatest sources of insecurity and conflict in the latter part of the 21st century.
  • Developing countries also face a youth bulge; unless we equip youth for the workforce of the future, unemployment will skyrocket and an entire generation will lack purpose and hope for the future, making them particularly vulnerable to radicalization strategies of extremist movements.
  • These individuals need both soft skills and competency in science, technology, engineering, and math if they are to be successful in the economy of tomorrow.
  • Today, China oversees major financial assets and development via the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), its ambitious strategy to broaden and deepen its economic relationships and build and fund infrastructure worldwide.
  • Chinese focus on infrastructure lending presents an alternative to grant aid offered by the U.S. and like-minded donors who traditionally promoted human rights and democratic governance.
  • policymakers would do well to find areas around which they can cooperate—for example, on pollution reduction, anti-poverty programs in South Asia, or the prevention of health pandemics
  • Opinion polls clearly highlight that Americans care deeply about doing good in the world.
  • Put simply, American values are alive and well, despite increasing U.S. government disengagement on these issues.
  • The city of Pittsburgh just signed a partnership agreement with Aarhus, Denmark, to work together to transform their old industrial areas into thriving and equitable urban spaces running on clean energy. Another example is Hawaii—a U.S. state that is sharing its experiences in creating innovative partnerships to advance sustainable development with islands such as Palau,
Kay Bradley

COP26: Key Outcomes From the UN Climate Talks in Glasgow  | World Resources I... - 0 views

www.wri.org/...comes-un-climate-talks-glasgow

shared by Kay Bradley on 01 Dec 21 - No Cached
  • The world still remains off track to beat back the climate crisis.  
  • ministers from all over the world agreed that countries should come back next year to submit stronger 2030 emissions reduction targets with the aim of closing the gap to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees
  • Ministers also agreed that developed countries should urgently deliver more resources to help climate-vulnerable countries adapt to the dangerous and costly consequences of climate change that they are feeling already —
  • ...46 more annotations...
  • curb methane emissions,
  • halt and reverse forest loss,
  • align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050
  • ditch the internal combustion engine
  • accelerate the phase-out of coal,
  • end international financing for fossil fuels,
  • “Not nearly enough” to the first question, “yes” to the second. 
  • 151 countries had submitted new climate plans (known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs)
  • To keep the goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees C within reach, we need to cut global emissions in half by the end of this decade.
  • these plans, as they stand, put the world on track for 2.5 degrees C of warming by the end of the century.
  • If you take into account countries’ commitments to reach net-zero emissions by around mid-century, analysis shows temperature rise could be kept to around 1.8 or 1.9 degrees C.
  • some major emitters’ 2030 targets are so weak (particularly those from Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Russia) that they don’t offer credible pathways to achieve their net-zero targets.
  • a major “credibility gap”
  • To fix this problem, these countries’ must strengthen their 2030 emissions reduction targets to at least align with their net-zero commitments. 
  • as well as ramping up ambition
  • the pact asks nations to consider further actions to curb potent non-CO2 gases, such as methane, and includes language emphasizing the need to “phase down unabated coal” and “phase-out fossil fuel subsidies.”
  • This marked the first time negotiators have explicitly referenced shifting away from coal and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies in COP decision text.  
  • this COP finally recognized the importance of nature for both reducing emissions and building resilience to the impacts of climate change,
  • Did Developing Countries Get the Finance and Support They Need? 
  • In 2009, rich nations committed to mobilize $100 billion a year by 2020 and through 2025 to support climate efforts in developing countries
  • developed countries failed to meet that goal in 2020 (recent OECD estimates show that total climate finance reached $79.6 billion in 2019).
  • The Adaptation Fund reached unprecedented levels of contributions, with new pledges for $356 million that represent almost three times its mobilization target for 2022. The Least Developed Countries Fund, which supports climate change adaptation in the world’s least developed countries, also received a record $413 million in new contributions.
  • COP26 also took steps to help developing countries access good quality finance options.
  • For example, encouraging multilateral institutions to further consider the links between climate vulnerabilities and the need for concessional financial resources for developing countries — such as securing grants rather than loans to avoid increasing their debt burden. 
  • COP26 finally put the critical issue of loss and damage squarely on the main stage
  • Climate change is already causing devastating losses of lives, land and livelihoods. Some damages are permanent — from communities that are wiped out, to islands disappearing beneath the waves, to water resources that are drying up.
  • Countries also agreed to operationalize and fund the Santiago Network on Loss and Damage, established at COP25 in Madrid, and to catalyze the technical assistance developing countries need to address loss and damage in a robust and effective manner.  
  • International Carbon Markets.
  • negotiators agreed to avoid double-counting, in which more than one country could claim the same emissions reductions as counting toward their own climate commitments.
  • his is critical to make real progress on reducing emissions.
  • Common Time Frames. In Glasgow, countries were encouraged to use common timeframes for their national climate commitments. This means that new NDCs that countries put forward in 2025 should have an end-date of 2035, in 2030 they will put forward commitments with a 2040 end-date, and so on.
  • Transparency. In Glasgow, all countries agreed to submit information about their emissions and financial, technological and capacity-building support using a common and standardized set of formats and tables.
  • 100 high-level announcements during the “World Leaders Summit"
  • including a bold commitment from India to reach net-zero emissions by 2070 that is backed up with near-term targets (including ambitious renewable energy targets for 2030), 109 countries signing up to the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions by 30% by 2030, and a pledge by 141 countries (as of November 10) to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030 (backed by $18 billion in funding, including $1.7 billion dedicated to support indigenous peoples).  
  • Glasgow Breakthroughs, a set of global targets meant to dramatically accelerate the innovation and use of clean technologies in five emissions-heavy sectors:
  • power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture.
  • 46 countries, including the U.K., Canada, Poland and Vietnam made commitments to phase out domestic coal,
  • 29 countries including the U.K., Canada, Germany and Italy committed to end new direct international public support for unabated fossil fuels by the end of 2022
  • Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, led by Costa Rica and Denmark — with core members France, Greenland, Ireland, Quebec, Sweden and Wales — pledged to end new licensing rounds for oil and gas exploration and production and set an end date that is aligned with Paris Agreement objectives
  • Efforts were also made to scale up solar investment
  • new Solar Investment Action Agenda by WRI, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Bloomberg Philanthropies that identifies high-impact opportunities to speed up investment and reach ISA’s goal of mobilizing $1 trillion in solar investment by 2030.
  • Non-state actors including investors, businesses, cities and subnational regions also joined collective action initiatives aimed at driving economic transformation.
  • Over 400 financial firms which control over $130 trillion in assets committed to aligning their portfolios to net-zero by 2030
  • banks, asset managers and asset owners fully recognize the business case for climate action and the significant risks of investing in the high-carbon, polluting economy of that past.
  • 11 major automakers agreed to work toward selling only zero-emission vehicles globally by 2040, and by no later than 2035 in leading markets.  
  • In the year ahead, major emitters need to ramp up their 2030 emissions reduction targets to align with 1.5 degrees C, more robust approaches are needed to hold all actors accountable for the many commitments made in Glasgow, and much more attention is needed on how to meet the urgent needs of climate-vulnerable countries to help them deal with climate impacts and transition to net-zero economies.
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