The Economist (February 2)
“The iron-ore mines in Minas Gerais look like roughshod capitalism let loose.” On Monday, a tailing dam break released “a wave of sludge that may have killed more than 350 people,” making this “one of the worst tailings tragedies in history.” Furthermore, “this is the second such disaster in which” Vale, the mine operator, has been “implicated in just over three years.” This disaster should be a “cause for soul-searching” for Vale and for the global mining industry.
Tags: Capitalism, Disaster, Iron ore, Minas Gerais, Mining industry, Sludge, Soul-searching, Tailing dam, Vale
Financial Times (January 27)
“We can make a fresh start on Tuesday, and avoid the disaster of a no deal, by extending Article 50 to allow an honest reconsideration. Parliament and the people must level with one another about the detailed costs and benefits of EU membership and all sides must begin to recognise reality.”
Tags: Article 50, Benefits, Costs, Disaster, EU, Fresh start, Membership Reality, No-deal, Parliament, Reconsideration
The Guardian (July 8)
“Theresa May’s fragile deal would be a disaster for Britain.” The Prime Minister secured “a fragile domestic political compromise only by confecting a solution that no one thinks the EU will accept. And even in the unlikely event that the EU were to sign on the dotted line, there is no disguising that while it may be better than dropping out with no deal, the Chequers agreement would be a terrible outcome.” Britain would no longer have a say “in shaping the rules of the world’s most successful trading bloc…in exchange for becoming a rule-taker in whatever scrappy free trade deal we can negotiate.”
Tags: Compromise, Deal, Disaster, EU, Fragile, May, Negotiate, Outcome, Rule-taker, Trading bloc, UK
New York Times (June 10)
“There has never been a disaster like the G7 meeting that just took place. It could herald the beginning of a trade war, maybe even the collapse of the Western alliance. At the very least it will damage America’s reputation as a reliable ally for decades to come; even if Trump eventually departs the scene in disgrace, the fact that someone like him could come to power in the first place will always be in the back of everyone’s mind.”
Tags: Ally Disgrace, Collapse, Damage, Disaster, G7, Power, Reliable, Reputation, Trade war, U.S., Western alliance
Institutional Investor (May 17)
“Having witnessed the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook disaster…. Asset managers are getting behind a new set of voluntary best practices in using data that includes personally identifiable information, or PII.” This January, the Investment Data Standards Organization was launched with members including “data vendors and users, such as hedge funds. It has published a set of standards that it views as a work-in-progress, meant to govern and adapt to the fund industry’s early and exploding use of alternative data.”
Tags: Asset managers, Best practices, Cambridge Analytica, Data vendors, Disaster, Facebook, Hedge funds, Investment Data Standards Organization, Personally identifiable information
Taipei Times (February 8)
“Tuesday night’s earthquake off the coast of Hualien County has again raised the issue of human fragility in the face of the power of nature and how the geological conditions that exist in Taiwan need to be respected.” Although “nuclear power is a relatively clean source of energy,” any benefits “could be wiped out overnight should a nuclear disaster happen, especially given the proximity of two of the three operational plants to the capital and within the nation’s most-populated area.”
Tags: Clean, Disaster, Earthquake, Energy, Fragility, Hualien, Nature, Nuclear power, Plants, Taiwan
The Economist (November 18)
“A market exists for rooftop solar panels and electric vehicles; one for removing an invisible gas from the air to avert disaster decades from now does not.” But it must and fast. The need for negative emissions technology “will be gargantuan. The median IPCC model assumes sucking up a total of 810bn tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2100, equivalent to roughly 20 years of global emissions at the current rate. To have any hope of doing so, preparations for large-scale extraction ought to begin in the 2020s.”
Tags: CO2, Disaster, Emissions, EVs, Extraction, IPCC, Market, NET, Solar panels
Washington Post (November 14)
Donald Trump’s “Asia tour has been at times a disaster, at times a farce.” To pick a “most shameful moment” would be challenging. “There was a time when the world looked to the U.S. president to speak clearly in defense of freedom, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. I refer to the entirety of modern U.S. history before January, when Trump assumed the high office he now dishonors.”
Tags: Asia, Democracy, Disaster, Dishonor, Farce, Freedom, Human rights, Rule of law, Shameful, Trump, U.S.
New York Times (August 20)
“With each day, President Trump offers fresh proof that he is failing the office that Americans entrusted to him. The rolling disaster of his presidency accelerated downhill last week…. Since the 1930s it has not typically been a challenge for an American leader to denounce Nazism.” But last week, Trump “chose instead to deliver a defense of white supremacists that raised as never before profound doubts about his moral compass, his grasp of the obligations of his office and his fitness to occupy it.”
Tags: Disaster, Downhill, Failing, Fitness, Grasp, Nazism, Obligations, Trump, White supremacists. Doubts. Moral compass
Reuters (May 16)
“President Trump is now the leaker in chief.” His “conduct over the past week strikes at the heart of the United States intelligence community. He does not seem to grasp how it works…. The damage Trump has done to his own intelligence services, their foreign counterparts, and their relationships with the White House in four short months might take four long years to repair. If it can be repaired, that is.”
