Better technology to boost weather manipulation, official vows Rainmaking technology will be better deployed and there will be more of it, a leading meteorologist promised. The country plans to increase artificial precipitation by 3 to 5 percentage points in the next five years, Zheng Guoguang, administrator of the China Meteorological Administration, said. Rainmaking technology in China lags behind the leading countries in the field by between 15 to 45 percent, depending on the region, he said. The arsenal targeting the weather includes more than 7,000 rocket launchers, at least 50 planes and nearly 7,000 guns. Management capability will also be enhanced, Zheng said during the National Weather Modification Conference in Beijing on Tuesday. According to Zheng, about 70 percent of natural disasters in China are ... Continue reading →
Nir Elias / REUTERSA view from the Shanghai World Trade Center building. China's most populous city and an aspiring global financial center, is also among the world's most vulnerable urban areas to a rise in sea levels as global warming melts polar ice. Shanghai’s skyline glitters with sleek financial skyscrapers and glossy residential towers, but below the city’s lustrous facade lies an enduring problem. Thanks to mass urban migration, soft soil and global warming, Shanghai is sinking, and has been for decades. Since 1921, China‘s most populous city has descended more than six feet. Across China, land subsidence affects more than 50 cities, where 49,000 square miles of land have descended at least 8 inches. It’s not just the numbers that are frightening: The problem ... Continue reading →
NARANGI, India — Dozens of dredging boats scour the bottom of the Vaitarna creek all day as workers build pyramids of excavated sand in the villages along its banks. By night, thousands of trucks clog a narrow highway to deliver the sand to construction sites in the sprawling commercial hub of Mumbai nearby. The fishing village of Narangi in western India and the sand-mining frenzy there illustrate one of the most important questions India faces in its march to become a 21st-century economic powerhouse: Can this nation of 1.2 billion people pursue economic growth without destroying its environment? Villagers say the rampant sand mining is depleting groundwater tables, increasing the risk of floods and ruining the quality of soil.The situation in Narangi is typical. Despite ... Continue reading →
The splashy introduction of the new LEGO friends line earlier this year stirred up a lot of controversy. My goal with this set of posts is to provide some historical perspective for the valid concerns raised in this heated debate. ———————— 1989-2003: Gender Ahoy! I discussed the introduction of LEGOs the invention of gendered minifigs, and early efforts to market separately to girls and boys in Part I of this series, covering 1932 to 1988. The segregation of LEGO into feminine and masculine sets would escalate beginning in 1989. That year the LEGO group introduced gender to the minifig in a big way with the new Pirates theme. The masculine figs sported copious facial hair and the lone feminine pirate had lipstick and a curved ... Continue reading →