Climate
-
Contemplations
Climate-driven calculation
REUTERS India is testing artificial intelligence (AI) to build climate models that improve weather forecasting as torrential rains, floods and droughts proliferate across the vast country. Climate change has triggered more intense weather events in India in recent years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in 2023, the independent Centre for Science and Environment estimated. Accurate forecasting is…
Read More -
Climate
The Coming Storm
MAJ. AFUA O. BOAHEMA-LEE/U.S. ARMY | Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES Southeast Asia has recorded rising average temperatures since 1960. With climate change effects becoming more pronounced over the last decade, it is now considered one of humanity’s most crucial challenges. Based on data collected over the past two decades, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) included Thailand and Vietnam among countries…
Read More -
Climate
Sponsor An Ocean?
Story and photos by The Associated Press The tiny Pacific island nation of Niue has devised a novel plan to protect its vast and pristine territorial waters. It will get sponsors to pay. Under the plan, launched by Niue Premier Dalton Tagelagi in September 2023, individuals or companies can pay $148 to protect 1 square kilometer of ocean from threats…
Read More -
Climate
Scientists Identify 380 More Species in Mekong Region
Radio Free Asia An aggressive color-changing lizard, a venomous snake named after a goddess in Chinese mythology and a camouflaging green frog found only in the forested limestone mountains of northeastern Vietnam were among the hundreds of plant and animal species discovered in the Mekong River region in the past two years, researchers announced in May 2023. Hundreds of scientists…
Read More -
Climate
Building Resilience
FORUM Staff | photos by the associated press The targets are moving at Foxtrot Range, a strategic repositioning as Ewa Beach yields ever more of itself to the advance of a relentless force — the crashing and scouring of Pacific surf and tide. In early 2023, crews began moving the pistol range about 40 meters inland, the first step in…
Read More -
Climate
Renewable Forces
On the evening of November 21, 1918 — 10 days after the signing of the armistice that ended World War I — British War Cabinet member George Curzon presided at a dinner honoring the Inter-Allied Petroleum Conference. Toasting the delegates gathered in London, Curzon declared that the Allies had “floated to victory on a wave of oil” due to their…
Read More -
Climate
Great Barrier Reef Coral Frozen in World-First Trial
Story and Photos by Reuters Scientists researching Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have successfully tested a new method for freezing and storing coral larvae that could help restore reefs damaged by climate change. Researchers are scrambling to protect coral reefs as rising ocean temperatures destabilize delicate ecosystems. The Great Barrier Reef, which encompasses 3,000 individual reefs and is the biggest living…
Read More -
Climate
PRC’s growing thirst may spark tension with Russia over Lake Baikal
Tom Abke The People’s Republic of China (PRC) faces a water shortage and is eyeing Russia’s Lake Baikal, the world’s largest freshwater lake, as a possible solution to the crisis. However, Beijing’s attempts in recent years to import water from Lake Baikal have been dampened by Russian public opposition, despite initial support from the Kremlin. As the PRC’s thirst grows,…
Read More -
Free and Open Indo-Pacific/FOIP
NATO, partners promote rules-based Arctic, free and open sea lines of communication
FORUM Staff Melting ice caps in the Arctic are not only creating new shipping routes but also increasing competition to control them, with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia jockeying to stake claims. NATO and its partners want to ensure that as opportunities arise for shorter trade passages between Europe and the Indo-Pacific, navigation remains free and open…
Read More -
Climate
In Thailand’s Deep South, Artists Strive To Alter Its ‘Violent Image’
Story and photos by Benar News The beaches in Pattani province, in the heart of Thailand’s Deep South, are pristine but mostly deserted. Outsiders hardly venture here because the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking border region is synonymous with an armed separatist insurgency that has simmered for decades with no end in sight. But artists and residents of Pattani town, the…
Read More