Uncategorized – News Behind The News

Beijing Pollution Red Alerts

Natasha Taylor / December 15, 2015January 2, 2016 / Asia, Uncategorized

The authorities in Beijing, China have issued their second red alert warning following heavy smog covering the city.

The city issued it’s first-ever such warning earlier in December and have just issued their second warning for this weekend, and it is expected that the pollution index will probably exceed 500. At levels higher than 300, residents are encouraged to remain indoors, according to government guidelines.

The red alerts are usually issued after three days of extremely high levels of air pollution. When these alerts are issued vehicles are forced off the roads, factories and construction sites shut down and schools and nurseries advised to close.

But how serious actually is the air pollution in China, and what does it mean for it’s residents?

Recent research has shown that the pollution is the cause of over 1.6 millions deaths in China every year. This equates to around 4,400 people every single day.

According to Time, Researchers from Berkeley Earth, a non-profit climate research organization, published an online study Thursday that finds that pollution causes about 17% of deaths in China. Researchers came to their conclusions after analyzing four months of data taken at 1,500 locations across China, South Korea, and Taiwan.

The study found that the most deadly pollutant, comes in the form of tiny particles derived from places like electric power plants and fossil fuels used in homes and factories for heating. These particles can enter the lungs and bloodstream and cause illnesses ranging from asthma to heart disease.

However, a top economic planner has said that the way to get around this problem, China needs 10 more megacities. The planner has said that all of these new cities must include top schools, hospitals, and corporate headquarters to ease the strain on Beijing.

However, it seems that some businesses are making the most of the red alerts in China. Vanity Air, a Canadian company that sells bottled air, have found a lucrative market and are selling and shipping cans in high quantities over to China to help citizens with the high levels of pollution that they’re facing.

Photo by: Getty Images via The Independent

What Is Fracking And Why Are People Opposing It?

Natasha Taylor / December 14, 2015January 2, 2016 / Uncategorized

BBC news have reported that “controversial proposals to allow fracking under national parks will be voted on by MPs next week and it follows a suggestion from the industry-funded Shale Gas Task Force which stated the UK should start fracking “as soon as possible” to find out the economic impact of shale gas.”

However there has been a rise in opposition parties and campaigners coming forward, and they have criticised the lack of a Commons debate. They have also accused ministers of a U-turn as they previously pledged an outright ban on fracking in national parks.

But what is fracking and why is there so much opposition to it?

Fracking is the process of drilling down into the earth and injecting liquid at high pressures to open up rocks in order to release the gas or oil inside, and the name for the process come from the action of the rock being fractured apart from theses high pressures.

The process, which can be carried out either vertically or horizontally, not only only creates new pathways such gas and oils to be released, but also allows existing channels to be extended.

The extensive use of fracking has prompted environmental concerns after its mass use in the US.

Fracking uses huge amounts of water, which must be transported to the fracking site, at it is said that this comes at an enormous cost to the environment.

The BBC have said that “Environmentalists say potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater around the fracking site. The industry suggests pollution incidents are the results of bad practice, rather than an inherently risky technique.”

The carcinogenic chemicals that environmentalists are worried about are a form of radiation that is linked to cancer. They don’t directly affect DNA, however, it could cause human cells to divide at a quicker rate than normal, and it is thought that this could increase the likelihood of changes in DNA.

Campaigners are also worried that the fracking process in the UK could potentially cause small earth tremors.

They’ve said that fracking is simply distracting energy firms and governments from investing in renewable sources of energy, and encouraging continued reliance on fossil fuels.

However, industry experts have said that UK needs to start fracking to establish the economic impact of shale gas that fracking produces. And the government believes that these shale gas have the potential to provide the UK with greater energy security, growth and jobs.

Photos by: BBC / Video courtesy of: YouTube

The Migration Dilemma

Rachel Gascoigne / November 20, 2015December 4, 2015 / Europe, Middle-East, Uncategorized

The European Union has been struggling to respond to a surge of desperate migrants since the beginning of the year.

The flood of migrants and refugees, the largest movement of people Europe has seen since 1945, has raised doubt about open-borders and provoked a dispute over sharing the burden.

Seeking Asylum

Conflict in Syria continues to be by far the biggest driver of the migration. But the ongoing violence in Afghanistan, abuses in Eritrea, as well as poverty in Kosovo are also leading people to look for new lives elsewhere. Asylum applications from Syrians in Europe have surged this year, fuelled by the country’s vicious civil war which began more than four years ago and shows no sign of ending.

The vast majority of refugees have fled to neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and the number of Syrians there far outweighs those who have made the difficult journey to Europe.

Division between the EU

The huge numbers of migrants is sparking a crisis as countries struggle to cope with the influx, creating a division between EU member states over how is best to deal with the resettlers. And as more and more displaced people are seeking refuge in Europe, some are questioning the EU for their slow response.

After an emergency summit in Brussels on how the EU should handle the tens of thousands of refugees pouring into its countries, leaders from central and eastern Europe pushed back a quota system that requires all EU member states to take in as many refugees as they could.
At present, the EU has a policy known as the Dublin Regulation, which requires migrants to apply for asylum in the first country they arrive. The policy was designed to curb multiple applications in various countries and to ensure claims are dealt with efficiently. However, certain countries have been overwhelmed by the influx, Hungary, Italy and Greece. Germany, for its part, has lifted the Dublin Regulation and is predicted to take in as many as 800,000 migrants this year.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker asked European nations to come together and help distribute 160,000 people who are seeking asylum across the continent. Although this number is only a fraction of the people who have fled to Europe this year.

Countries that have taken in the most migrants include Germany, Sweden, and Austria. While countries like Denmark and Hungary have hostilely pushed back proposals put forth to help ‘share the refugees out’. With many migrants making their way from Serbia, Hungarian officials have constructed a huge fence to deter migrant crossings. New Hungarian legislation has also been put in place that makes crossing the fence or damaging it a criminal offence.
Decisions about what countries would like to do about the crisis themselves, have been left to them to make individually.

Worries are being circulated by residents from EU countries that the refugees are in fact not those who are fleeing war torn countries, and are those coming from poverty ridden places instead – which makes dealing with the crisis, even more difficult.

Photos by: European C0mmission, Alexrk2.

Why Abolishing Their One-Child Policy May Not Help China

Natasha Taylor / November 15, 2015January 2, 2016 / Middle-East, UK, Uncategorized

Claims have been made that China abolishing their one child policy won’t help the country.

The policy will come into effect from March 2016 but it is unclear whether ending China’s more than 30 year-long child policy will trigger a demographic change that the Chinese Communist Party hopes for.

The East Asia Forum have reported that the abandonment of the one-child policy may not cause a significant rise in the population of China.

They’ve said that Yuan Xin, an expert in population studies at Nankai University in Tianjin, has observed that the traditional Chinese concept of having multiple children has changed alongside developments in China’s economy and society over the past few decades.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) itself has agreed that, ‘it has been a mainstream concept among Beijing residents to give birth to fewer and better children after decades of the family planning policies the city adopted in the 1970s’.

The one-child era prompted both a change in mind set more people are opting for fewer children, especially in big cities such as Beijing. Couples with only one child mainly live in the cities, where the cost of housing and education is comparatively high. Most of them tend to choose not to have a second child owing to financial pressures.

Figures released in a survey conducted by China Youth Daily, 84.9 per cent of respondents reported worrying about the financial pressure of raising a second child. Couples who are wealthy enough that they can afford to bring up a second child are usually over 40 years old and are confronted with difficulties in giving birth.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Most Chinese families spend more proportionately. It costs on average about 190,000 yuan, or about $30,000 to raise a child through age 18 in China, according to researchers at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu. That’s about 15% of the average Chinese household income.

Hopeful estimates say the new relaxation will bring between 3 million and 6 million babies a year in the five years from 2017 and 120 billion yuan to 240 billion yuan in additional spending, according to Credit Suisse, though the last birth-policy relaxation, in 2013, yielded far fewer second-child applications than expected.

Photo by: joan vila

The Big Names In The Republican Presidential Race

Joshua David Craddock Stoneham / November 4, 2015 / North America, Uncategorized

The amount of people running for the Republican makes the debate stage look more like a marathon line-up, but who are the possible winners and where do they come from?

1. Donald Trump – 26.8% voted him best in the polls

The outspoken Businessman is actually leading the polls, even beating dynastic former governor Jeb Bush in popularity.

2.Ben Carson – 22%

The dark horse of the contest, the former neurosurgeon still holds second place, despite some controversial claims about the recent Oregon school shooting.

3. Mark Rubio – 9%

The senator in Florida is sneaking up to become the new favourite for the candidacy.

4. Jeb Bush – 7%

Jeb yes-that-Bush was seen as a possible winner at the start. It’s almost as if having a extremely controversial brother harms your chances of becoming president!

5. Ted Cruz – 7.2 %

The senator for Texas is the more right-wing choice for leader

6. Carly Fiorina – 5.8%

Former head of Hewllet-Packard, Republicans hope she can manage the country better than her company.

7. Mike Huckabee – 3.8%

Former governor of Arkansas. Might overtake some politicians as Fiorina loses momentum

8. Rand Paul – 3.4%

Senator from Kentucky and son of former republican congressman Ron Paul.

9. John Kasich – 2.6%

Governor of Ohio, was a businessman in the 1990’s.

10.Chris Christie – 2.4%

Governor of New Jersey, known mostly for the Fort Lee lane closure unfortunately.

Bonus round: Bobby Jindal, Rick Santorum, George Pataki and Lindsey Graham all have under 1% of the vote therefore don’t debate alongside the other nominees.

Photots by Gage Skidmore, Iprimages, US Government, Michael Vadon, Gage Skidmore (Huckabee image), Michael Vadon (Fiorina image), Donkey Hotey.

Poll numbers come from official surveys of random samples of the American public conducted by official bodies.