Category: Pacific Basin,

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers worst ever coral bleaching 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

In just nine months, bleaching caused by warmer water has killed around 67 percent of the coral in a previously pristine part of the reef, one of the natural wonders of the world.

…Threats to the reef have become so severe that in recent years UNESCO has suggested it could be placed on list of World Heritage sites “in danger.”

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers worst ever coral bleaching | FOX 61

Sigh…

Great Barrier Reef Hit by Worst Coral Die-Off on Record, Scientists Say – The New York Times

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

About two-thirds of the shallow-water coral on the reef’s previously pristine, 430-mile northern stretch was dead, researchers reported.

….Some scientists and environmental advocates have criticized the government’s efforts to protect the reef, saying they have fallen far short. They have also pointed to a seeming contradiction in the wishes of the Queensland government to protect the reef even as it pushes ahead with plans to develop the Carmichael coal mine, the country’s biggest, which lies less than 200 miles inland in the Galilee Basin.

…As custodian of the reef, the government has an obligation to manage one of the world’s greatest natural wonders, Dr. Steffen said. “It is nonsense to think we can open up a new coal mine and think we are going to save coral reefs.”

…Coral in the north was “cooked” as water temperatures rose about two degrees, Professor Hughes of James Cook University said. “That coral did not bleach and die slowly.”

Great Barrier Reef Hit by Worst Coral Die-Off on Record, Scientists Say – The New York Times

Sigh….

New Zealand’s earthquake was so intense, it lifted the sea bed 2 metres above ground 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Pacific Basin,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

The magnitude 7.8 earthquake that tore through New Zealand on Monday was so powerful, it dragged the sea floor 2 metres above the ground, causing it to explode though the sand and reveal its strange, lumpy exterior.

New Zealand’s earthquake was so intense, it lifted the sea bed 2 metres above ground – ScienceAlert

Wild

These Photos Capture The Beauty And Grace Of The World’s First Muslim Hijabi Ballerina

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,, Pacific Basin,, Religion,Leave a comment


These Photos Capture The Beauty And Grace Of The World’s First Muslim Hijabi Ballerina | Huffington Post

Stephanie Kurlow, growing up in Australia, dreamed of being a ballerina. A convert to Islam, she now dreams of dancing professionally in the hijab.

Ballerina in hijab: Australian teen dancer Stephanie Kurlow – CNN.com

Judging her form from a still is next to impossible so I cannot say if she is any good but she’s found a way to make her dreams and her beliefs work together and that’s always a good thing.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson delivers incendiary maiden speech to Senate

On By peanutgallerynhIn Pacific Basin,, Race,, Religion,Leave a comment

Greens Senators have walked out of Pauline Hanson’s incendiary first speech to the Senate, where she claimed the nation was “in danger of being swamped by Muslims”.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson delivers incendiary maiden speech to Senate

Unfortunately the US does not have a monopoly on electing backwards, racist, pieces of shit.

Everyone Ignored The White Man In This Famous Photo. 48 Years Later, The Real Story Emerges

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Pacific Basin,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Everyone Ignored The White Man In This Famous Photo. 48 Years Later, The Real Story Emerges

Amazing. Especially the last few paragraphs.

Ahhh, Olympics. One of the reason I love you so is that I firmly believe sport is one of the few reliable ways to highlight the common threads among us and weave us together with shared humanity.

Brexit and the South China Sea: Why Politicians Lie 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

Why the cost of lying in domestic and international politics should not be underestimated.

The principle issue with leaders and politicians consciously lying to their constituents is that it prohibits people from making informed and rational choices. In the case of China, this is specifically the reason why they are being lied to, since an informed and rational Chinese public, in all likelihood, would not support Xi Jinping’s brinkmanship over a few rocks in the Western Pacific (“Mourir Pour Scarborough Shoal?” Anyone?).

In the case of the United Kingdom, a Western democracy, the fact that Boris Johnson’s acolytes got away with lying to the public without serious repercussions not only spreads mistrust between those who govern and the governed, but more importantly, and alas more troublesome to a democracy, it is poised to undermine the rule of law—the lifeblood of the democratic experiment—since trust in elected leaders and the law is the sinew that holds any democratic system together.

Brexit and the South China Sea: Why Politicians Lie | The Diplomat

Hmmm…

The South China Sea is a powder keg with disturbing echoes of 1914 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Pacific Basin,Leave a comment

And the doleful 1914 analogy works at another analytical level. The US resembles 1913 Britain, still the dominant power in the world, even if it is in relative decline as others gain on it. China approximates the Kaiser’s bumptious Germany, determined to secure its place in the sun, and is the global rising power most making the rest of the world nervous. Japan is Third Republic France, in decline and painfully aware of it, even as its hated rival – for the French Germany and for the Japanese the Chinese – gains in power almost by the day. India is even an alright stand-in for Tsarist Russia, powerful, slightly geographically removed from the situation, yet capable of playing a pivotal role. The aptness of the analogy leaves little room for strategic comfort.

Like pre-1914 Wilhelmine Germany, China is on the strategic march, especially throwing its weight around the South China Sea, where more than $5 trillion in trade passes through its waters each year. Beijing ridiculously claims the lion’s share of the waterway for itself, through the use of the nine-dash line that it says validates these excessive claims. The problem is that Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan also have competing claims, and they increasingly chafe at China’s high-handed treatment there, where Beijing is constructing military bases. At last bearing it no longer, the Philippines took Beijing to the international court, with The Hague set to rule on the conflicting welter of claims in the next few days.

Almost certainly The Hague will rule in the Philippines’ favour, and equally certainly China, to the horror of its neighbours, will simply ignore the court’s decision. Then the mask will have well and truly slipped, revealing China’s naked power grab in this most dangerous region in the world.

The South China Sea is a powder keg with disturbing echoes of 1914 | City A.M.

hmmm