Saturday, November 20, 2010

The Rise of China: Unsustainable Growth? (Videos) *Living beyond its environmental means?*

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China-Hong Kong Bridge


The Rise of China: Unsustainable Growth?

Two videos, and viewpoints, of China are presented below.

Unsustainable Growth in China? In the first video, the WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) says China's growth is environmentally unsustainable in its "relentless march to prosperity". China's "ecological footprint has surpassed a point of sustainability that threatens us all". China is consuming twice the resources of its own "biocapacity". Carbon emissions, from the burning of fossil fuels, is the largest single factor in the exponential increase of China's ecological footprint, increasing 20-fold in the last 50 years. China accuses the West of hypocrisy in attempting to curb China's carbon emissions and ecological footprint. China continues advocating an ongoing exemption for developing nations such as China, India, Brazil, et. al. so that economic growth will not stall and the standard of living will continue to increase.

A Changing China "For hundreds of millions of Chinese, Yue-Sai Kan is a household name. The journalist, television host, entrepreneur and author has been a key figure in modern Chinese culture for 20 years, and she continues to have her finger on the pulse of the Chinese people." About 300 million people in China watch her show which started in 1986. By comparison, the population of the USA is 310+ million. She has been called the "Chinese Oprah". "China is changing very, very fast, the economy is growing  like crazy", she says. Yue-Sai discusses the government-controlled and government-owned media plus the expansion from one TV station to 3,000+ stations in China.

China's View of America Yue-Sai Kan says the Chinese have always liked the American culture, "from Coca-Cola to Hollywood movies". However, "politically there are things they do not like. The latest, for example, is the way the American government is buying $600 billion worth of debt."

The Rise of China Yue-Sai Kan says "what is happening here is essentially a miracle. Anyone who has come here would be thinking to themselves, "this place is growing like amazing', I better learn something about this place'. Because it is an area of the world we should learn a little more about. In the last 20 years, it has grown by leaps and bounds and the Chinese have gotten a lot more self-confidence. This will enable them to go into the next decade with extraordinary power."

Reuters "WWF Says China Growth Unsustainable": China is living beyond its environmental means a Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) report says ahead of Cancun climate conference.Helen Long reports.



ABC News "The Most Famous Woman in China": Yue-Sai Kan, television host and businesswoman, reflects on a changing China.



About China

China has the largest population of any country in the world. Total population is 1.328 billion (2008), about 22% of total population in the world. Li Bin, director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said that the world's most populous country is projected to have 1.39 billion citizens by 2015. China also has a very dense population, with approximately 135+ people per square kilometer. By comparison, the US Census Bureau estimates the USA population at 310.8 million and the world population at 6.88 billion.

Since the founding of new China in 1949, China's economy has witnessed great achievement in different stages. The CIA World Factbook estimates China is the third largest economy in the world, behind the European Union  and USA and ahead of Japan.

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

All Life Gets A DNA Barcode (Video) *Searchable index of every species*

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All life on earth to be in digital library


International Barcode of Life: creating a searchable index of every species on Earth

The goal of the International Barcode of Life Project is to capture, using a handheld device, the unique "DNA barcode" of each and every species on earth, and organize that information to be accessible and useful for everyone (sound familiar?). A DNA barcode is a gene sequence that uniquely identifies any species, and iBOL has already barcoded 35,000 of them . There are approximately 10M species on the planet (half of which have yet to be discovered), so there's a long way to go, but the components for success are in place.

(Reuters) "All Life on Earth to Get a Barcode":  Oct 29 - Using DNA fragments, researchers at Canada's University of Guelph hope to build a barcode library of all species on Earth that can be used to save endangered species and monitor food supplies as they travel across borders. Ben Gruber reports.



Tree of Life



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Apple, Google, Baidu, China, technology, financial system, stocks, markets, economy, science, environment, future


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Observations & thoughts by a sojourner through space & time...
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