Foreign Policy (June 22)
“India has crossed two bleak landmarks in its battle against the coronavirus. The country has now reached over 400,000 infections, making it the fourth-worst-hit country in the world, overtaking Britain, Spain, and Italy. But it’s also lifted its 76-day lockdown.” In order “to stave off economic disaster,” the country is now “walking head-on into a pandemic at its peak.”
Tags: Battle, Bleak, Coronavirus, Disaster, India, Infections, Italy, Landmarks, Lockdown, Pandemic, Peak, Spain, UK
New York Times (February 26)
“Japan can’t handle the coronavirus. Can it host the Olympics?” The nation’s leaders have a “sense of entitlement.” This “breeds indifference and incompetence,” which was on full display during “by the unmitigated epidemiological and public relations disaster that was the saga of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Diamond Princess, Disaster, Entitlement, Incompetence, Indifference, Japan, Leaders, Olympics
The Guardian (June 12)
“The problem with earthquakes is that they undermine the very things you do to prevent them. And with Tokyo now seeing millions of tourists a year, and expecting millions more for the Rugby World Cup this year and the Olympics in 2020, the city is ripe for panic in the event of a disaster.”
Tags: Disaster, Earthquakes, Olympics, Panic, Prevent, Problem, Rugby World Cup, Tokyo, Tourists, Undermine
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
