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Benjamin McKeown

A Fijian Village Adapts Tradition to Try to Save Its Ailing Reefs - Facts So Romantic -... - 0 views

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coral coasts oceans

shared by Benjamin McKeown on 19 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Benjamin McKeown on 19 Aug 15
     
    "inducing a "phase shift""
Benjamin McKeown

The End of China's One-Child Policy Isn't Enough | TIME - 0 views

time.com/...china-one-child-policy-rights

population one child policy natalist policies

shared by Benjamin McKeown on 10 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • No government should interfere with the decisions women make about whether or when to have children .voterDiv .ob_bctrl{display:none;} .ob_pdesc IMG{border:none;} .SB_2 .ob_what{direction:ltr;text-align:right;clear:both;padding:5px 10px 0px;} .SB_2 .ob_what a{color:#999;font-size:10px;font-family:arial;text-decoration: none;} .SB_2 .ob_what.ob-hover:hover a{text-decoration: underline;} .SB_2 .ob_clear{clear:both;} .SB_2 .ob_amelia, .SB_2 .ob_logo, .SB_2 .ob_text_logo {display:inline-block;vertical-align:text-bottom;padding:0px 5px;box-sizing:content-box;-moz-box-sizing:content-box;-webkit-box-sizing:content-box;} .SB_2 .ob_amelia{background:url('http://widgets.outbrain.com/images/widgetIcons/ob_logo_16x16.png') no-repeat center top;width:16px;height:16px;margin-bottom:-2px; } .SB_2 .ob_logo{background:url('http://widgets.outbrain.com/images/widgetIcons/ob_logo_67x12.png') no-repeat center top;width:67px;height:12px; } .SB_2 .ob_text_logo{background:url('http://widgets.outbrain.com/images/widgetIcons/ob_text_logo_67x22.png') no-repeat center top;width:67px;height:22px; 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margin-top: -.5em; position: absolute; right: 60%; font-family: time-icons; top: 20px; } .SB_2 .ob_amelia{ background: url('http://widgets.outbrain.com/images/widgetIcons/ob_logo_67x12.png') no-repeat center top; width: 67px; height: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; } .ob_what.ob-hover {display: block;} .SB_2:hover .ob_what .ob_amelia{background-position:center bottom;} .SB_2:hover .ob_what a{text-decoration: underline;} RECOMMENDED FOR YOU Barack and Michelle Obama Both Top TIME 100 Reader Poll **TIME - Video http://traffic.outbrain.com/network/redir?p=vJ6za24LEnWtc9FEU-KR9ZodNHZDseUPh7aHw6-mHuJSCdW6zzwQ-LOUpJZYaDhK8ic6kuXhdZrj6fyp3NqWa_qSkl_XnmerI3B5wdRMkEK37AnD3wsJSF5A1DGisfwOZADIyZFHQ7bBpR1NlhsHD937QOW0bLqAy2lix2DHoh4bv31J17EmJwZQY
  • Such practices have historically harmed poor women and women of color disproportionately around the world.
  • Is this any better? Not if you choose to have three children.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Until China promotes a fully rights-based, voluntary family planning program, it is supporting the continued oppression of Chinese families through coercive reproductive policies.
  • This is true whether the state is trying to limit family size, deny a woman access to birth control, or force her to keep a pregnancy she wishes to end.
  • When women have access to quality health care, they lead more empowered and fulfilling lives. The advantages of a fully voluntary approach to family planning, where individuals and couples make free and informed decisions on how often to have children, are well documented. Studies show, for example, that when a woman is able to voluntarily decide if and when to have children, and how many, she tends to go further in school, and is more adaptable and resilient during times of hardship.
  • advance women’s rights over their own bodie
Benjamin McKeown

Judging the COP21 outcome and what's next for climate action | E3G - 0 views

www.e3g.org/...-whats-next-for-climate-action

COP21 climate change

shared by Benjamin McKeown on 19 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • An enduring, legally binding treaty on climate action which contains emission reduction commitments from 187 countries starting in 2020. The Paris Agreement will enter into force once 55 countries covering 55% of global emissions have acceded to it.
  • commitments for additional action to reduce emissions and increase resilience were made by countries, regions, cities, investors, and companies.
  • signals the end of business as usual for the energy industries. Future investment will need to be compatible with a zero carbon world.
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • all countries make commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and manage the impacts of climate change. It will shape climate action for decades into the future.
  • countries will need to review and increase their emission reduction commitments every 5 years in order to meet the long term goal of greenhouse gas neutrality by the second half of century.
  • ncluding the G20 and the Sustainable Development Goals.
  • renewables will make up 78% of new power generation investment to 2030
  • n major economies.
  • drive down the cost of renewable energy.
  • Paris Agreement beyond $100bn promised up to 2020 will provide support to emerging and developing countries
  • increasing emission cuts every 5 years to meet that goal.
  • ong term goal of greenhouse gas neutrality i
  • rapid phase out of fossil fuels.
  • multilateral diplomacy. I
  • manage an orderly transition away from a fossil fuel
  • G20 has established a taskforce on the implications of climate policy on financial stability
  • adaptation, resilience and response
  • Scenario 1: ‘Le Zombie’ – tactical deal with high potential for collapse. >        Scenario 2: ‘Comme ci, Comme ça’ – modest progress with guarantees on finance. >        Scenario 3: ‘Va Va Voom’ – cements a new enduring regime on climate change.
  • Climate action beyond Paris 2015
Benjamin McKeown

The Quinoa Quarrel - Food and Environment Reporting Network - 0 views

thefern.org/...quinoa-quarrel

quinoa food food security

shared by Benjamin McKeown on 17 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • But at same time, what’s happening to Bolivian potato farmers? They have cheap industrial potatoes dumped into their market, so they can’t compete. They can’t make a living. They have to work in mines or migrate to cities. ”
  • to import useful qualities from the wild varieties, such as heat tolerance and pest resistance.
  • Of course, seeds from Bolivia and other Andean nations would offer a more easily accessible source of genetic diversity—but they’re not available.
  • ...25 more annotations...
  • Must the whole world “start paying the Iranians a premium for every bushel of wheat,” he asks, “because their Iranian ancestors were the ones that domesticated it?”
  • “If you ask for one crop that can save the world and address climate change, nutrition, all these things—the answer is quinoa. There’s no doubt about it.”
  • “When we’re talking about people who die every day because they don’t have enough to eat, then I think that sharing is a must.”
  • While the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a handful of governments around the world hold small, freely shared collections, most varities of quinoa are off-limits. Who is to blame? It’s not the usual suspect— some multinational corporation with a full portfolio of patents and evil intentions. This time, the germplasm is being withheld by the Andean nations themselves.
  • Jellen pictured quinoa granola bars “in every Walmart in America.” But there was no way to meet this demand as long as the Andean nations refused to facilitate production outside their borders while lacking the infrastructure to supply additional demand themselves.
  • she has finally adapted the plant well enough to be able to provide farmers with seed later this year.
  • “Quinoa has been in a nursery kind of environment,” he explains. “Now it’s about to go out into the urban jungle, so to speak. It’s about to land in Times Square, and it’s going to have to fend for itself.”
  • “To think we can take a couple of Chilean quinoa strains and grow them in Iowa—it just doesn’t work that way,” Jellen tells me. “There’s always a disease right around the corner, and the big game in plant breeding is to be one step ahead of that.”
  • which is why Jellen favors the “free and fair” exchange of germplasm. He will gladly share his genetic material with any interested parties—Americans, Moroccans, Bolivians. “I’d give that seed to Monsanto if they wanted to use it.”
  • For decades, Bolivia did share its quinoa germplasm.
  • To make a hybrid, one plant is used to fertilize another. In the case of corn, which naturally cross-pollinates with its neighbors, this is easy. But where corn is promiscuous, quinoa is practically abstinent, what plant breeders call a “selfer”: the female part of the plant is fertilized almost exclusively by the male part of the same plant. In order for the two plants to be mated, then, the “female” must first be emasculated by the removal of its male reproductive organs. Because quinoa flowers are tiny and numerous, this is extremely difficult work.
  • hybrid quinoa,
  • Farmers in Bolivia were furious. The researchers had found the cytoplasm in plants they were growing in Colorado, but their seed had originated on the Altiplano.
  • “all the countries of the world not to recognize this patent because the male sterile plant, the knowledge and maintenance of its genetic diversity, is the property of the indigenous peoples of the Andes.” Read: quinoa belongs to us.
  • If the cytoplasm identified by Ward and Johnson allowed the efficient creation of hybrids, wouldn’t that serve as an incentive for seed companies to invest in improving quinoa? And wouldn’t the primary beneficiaries of that investment be the quinoa farmers themselves?
  • This thinking reflects the modern mind-set of American plant breeding. Until the 1980s, improving crops was a mostly public endeavor; in the United States, it was underwritten by tax-payers. But as public involvement with agriculture waned and intellectual-property rights began to generate much greater profits for seed companies, plant breeding became largely privatized. Today it is ownership, in the form of patents and licensing agreements, that makes the wheels of progress turn.
  • hey see intellectual-property rights as reasonable arrangements that allow those in the plant-breeding industry to recoup the often enormous sums they invest in research and development.
  • General Mills has declined to support the crop’s development until there’s sufficient supply for a cereal line.
  • Maughan has approached his former employers at Monsanto, making personal appeals for research support, but they are not interested. Even with its star on the rise, quinoa is still too small to be a good investment.
  • For instance, they have identified crucial genes that make possible quinoa’s extraordinary tolerance of salt. If that mechanism could be engineered into corn, it could revolutionize food production around the world. The same goes for quinoa’s ability to withstand drought. These innovations could be invaluable to global food security. They could also be stupendously profitable— and almost certainly patentable.
  • cytoplasm had proved of no commercial value.
  • No one I spoke with in Bolivia denied that poor communities around the world could benefit from quinoa. But once the germplasm is shared, there’s no way to ensure that it won’t be made into something that’s patented.
  • he Bolivians needed to own quinoa so that somebody else couldn’t.
  • Even state ownership, meant to protect a crop like quinoa from corporate predation, tends to work against the larger goal of promoting genetic diversity. Take Bolivia’s genetic-conservation program. In a shift mandated by the 2009 constitution, the government nationalized the quinoa gene bank, which had been overseen by PROINPA for more than ten years. Government supporters argue that a public entity is more likely to be a democratic custodian of those resources than is a private organization—especially one that accepts foreign funding. But researchers in Bolivia and around the world question the government’s ability to safe-guard the seeds.
  • “Quinoa doesn’t belong to the Bolivian government or to corporations,” he told me. “Any food, any seeds, they are very sacred—they are for serving humanity. And if you don’t have their diversity stored in other places, you are in trouble. Be
Benjamin McKeown

Japan's Rural Aging Population - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...537375

pop density ageing japan

shared by Benjamin McKeown on 24 Aug 17 - No Cached
  • , young people have been fleeing this rural village, lured by the pull of Japan’s big cities like Tokyo and Osaka
  • Tochikubo’s school now has eight children, and more than half of the town’s 170 people are over the age of 50
  • Japan is slowly becoming something like one big city-state
  • ...40 more annotations...
  • with the majority of the population centered in an urban belt that runs through the cluster of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya,
  • bullet train.
  • n 1950, 53 percent of Japan’s population lived in urban regions; by 2014, 93 percent did.
  • It is mostly young people who move to the cities
  • Bear attacks near settlements in Japan’s north are increasing as humans stop pruning back trees and maintaining their land. Wild boars have been ravaging farmland across the island of Honshu.
  • predicted that 896 cities, towns, and villages would be extinct by 2040. Dozens of towns will see the number of young people drop significantly, as the share of elderly people grows, he predicted. Overall, Japan’s population is expected to shrink from a peak of 128 million in 2010 to 97 million by 2050.
  • apanese towns are wrestling with dilemmas like how to run their governments with fewer tax dollars, and how to provide services for an increasingly needy population with fewer workers. To make this all the more challenging, governance is strained by the population decline as well: In Yamagata Prefecture, 45 percent of seats in the local assembly race in 2015 were uncontested because of a lack of candidates.
  • Other regions of the world will soon have to face these challenges, too. Just about every developed country is aging and urbanizing, though Japan is doing so the fastest
  • The reasons that Japan’s rural population is shrinking
  • Jobs are increasingly clustered in cities, and the jobs that remain in the countryside require fewer workers than they did half a century ago. “There are very few economic opportunities outside major cities,
  • Japan has few major learning centers located outside major cities, Mock said. That means as young people increasingly pursue college educations, they leave for the cities, and often don’t return.
  • “They graduate high school, they go to university in Tokyo, they start working in Tokyo, and they set up their lives in Tokyo and never come back,
  • Of the 500 or so teenagers who graduate high school in Minamiuonuma every year, only about 100 remain in the city after graduating. Everybody else goes off to college, and only 40 come back after graduating from college on average, the mayor, Shigeo Hayashi, told me.
  • the country’s falling fertility rate. Japan's fertility rate fell by a third between 1972 and 2015;
  • When a population is shrinking and most of that population lives in urban centers, that spells problems for rural areas like Tochikubo and Minamiuonuma, unless there is a lot of immigration.
  • The problem is not necessarily that Japan will run out of money t
  • someone needs to be around to provide these services.
  • Right now, the decline of these places is happening fast, within a generation or two. If it can be a more gradual process, perhaps then basic social services can at least survive for long enough to provide for the remaining residents.
  • One obvious solution to reversing, or at least slowing, rural Japan’s decline would be to open up the country to immigration
  • Just 1.8 percent of the country’s population is foreign-born, compared to 13 percent of the population in the United States.
  • But Japan is a country whose national identity is, in some ways, based upon racial homogeneity. Proposals to significantly increase immigration have gone nowhere, and polls consistently find that two-thirds of Japanese are against large-scale immigration.
  • And it’s unlikely that immigrants, even if they were allowed in, would move to rural areas where there are few jobs even for the people who want to stay.
  • In Minamiuonuma, for instance, city leaders talk about their newly-built global IT park, where start-ups can set up offices for low rent, and a business academy for people interested in creating their own business. They built a brand-new hospital and medical college to attract doctors and nurses, and are in the process of building a series of homes for active retired people in the hope that retirees will want to relocate to the city. Like almost every other shrinking city, Minamiuonuma sends brochures to young people from the region to try to get them to come home. But still, the population continues to shrink
  • Other areas are trying to grow the population they have by increasing the birth rate.
  • Niigata Prefecture, which is expected to be among the regions hardest-hit by population decline.
  • Niigata will lose 40 percent of its women aged 20 to 40 by 2040
  • Declining Birthrate Countermeasures Division
  • Niigata sponsors matchmaking events for its young people, and even invited a matchmaking company to come in and pair rural men with women living in cities like Tokyo. “For our division, one of the most important things is making couples,”
  • The fertility rate of women in Niigata has fallen from nearly four babies per woman in 1950 to 1.43 babies per woman in more recent years.
  • Niigata is focusing on making it easier for women to have babies and still work. The prefecture is giving certifications to companies that have good parental leave policies in the hope that doing so will motivate companies to be more flexible, but it has no real sway over what companies decide
  • reducing interest payments for families who borrow money to pay for their children’s education
  • But the prefecture hasn’t seen a significant uptick in marriages,
  • or in births.
  • When I asked them about supporting births outside of marriage, officials told me such a thing wouldn’t be acceptable in Japan. Even telling couples to get married doesn’t necessarily go over well. “We are the public sector. It’s difficult for us to say, ‘You should marry as soon as possible, you’re mature enough to have babies,’” she said.
  • Yubari, for instance, a town on the northern island of Hokkaido, which lost 90 percent of its population between 1960 and 2014, declared bankruptcy in 2007
  • Since then, it has drastically cut back on services such as public buses and snow removal, merged schools, laid off government employees, and cut funds for public parks. It relocated residents from public housing on the outskirts of town to apartments close to the city center.
  • In some places, adapting has meant that elderly people are working for longer
  • people who might have wanted to retire at 65 are still tilling the fields at 75.
  • “Sixty is the new 40. The question is, will 80 be the new 60?”
  • They’re most concerned about the disappearance of a way of life—that no young people will come to the village and learn how to farm rice without machines or how to weave cloth or make sake. “It’s difficult for us to give knowledge to the younger generation,” F
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