Kvanefjeld Rare Earth Project August 30, 2020 Despite its small population (56,000) and remote location, Greenland has been attracting a lot of attention lately. Over the past twenty years, climate change has caused irreversible damage to its glaciers, resulting in unprecedented ice sheet melt and contributing to the global sea level rise. U.S. President Donald Trump (facetiously?) expressed interest in buying it, but ultimately settled for opening a consulate in the capital city of Nuuk. Greenland, a colony of Denmark until 1953, which voted for home rule and greater autonomy in 1979, is also on China's radar. Chinese companies have explored several ventures in Greenland, including the Kva
#光盘行动# Chinese Communist Youth League "Operation Clean Plate" gets 620 million views on Weibo. A panda at the Chengdu reserve fully committed to "Operation Clean Plate." Photo ©Wishnick/Robertson China is facing biblical-level challenges right now--record floods, the pandemic, the crop-destroying armyworm--not to mention the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Why is Xi Jinping choosing this moment to mobilize the public in a campaign against food wastage? In response to what he views as a "shocking" amount of food waste, the Chinese leader issued instructions on August 11th, 2020 to safeguard food security by encouraging public dietary abstemiousness and frugality. Xi first cracked down on wastef
August 17, 2020 When plastic bottles with Chinese lettering appeared on the shores of the inhabited Galapagos Islands in mid-July of 2020, residents surmised that fishing boats from China must be in the area, as they often are annually. @RisuenoCarlos It turned out that an enormous armada of up to 300 fishing vessels had sailed right up to the perimeter of the Ecuadorian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) which encloses the Galapagos Marine Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site governed by Ecuador. Fishing just outside the reserve is not illegal--the boats were (and still are) in international waters. However, observers noted the unusually large number of boats and documented the use of longlinin
Photo by Wishnick and Robertson August 10, 2020 The reservoir of China's Three Gorges Dam filled up to within 11 meters (36 feet) of its capacity of 175 meters (574 feet) as record floods afflicted Hubei Province in June and July 2020. The dam reached a peak reservoir level of 164.18 meters (538.64 feet) on July 19, 2020, exceeding its 2012 record of 163.11 (535.13 feet). Chinese officials claim that the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, has been serving as an effective and stable flood barrier during the unprecedented rainfall. They made the unusual admission, however, that the dam experienced deformities and seepage, but displaced "within the normal range." Certainly the policeman b