Tiara Murray
11-08-11
Global Issues: The Big Melt
Pgs. 62-66
 Pace of glacier accelerated to more than a football field every year;
unglacial rate
 Geologic colossus is the highest and largest plateau on the planet, ringed by
its tallest mountains
 Gives birth to Asia’s largest and most legendary rivers
o The Yangtze and the Yellow to the Mekong and the Ganges
 Ice cover has shrunk more than 6% since the 1970’s
 The more dark areas that are exposed by melting, the more sunlight is
absorbed than reflected causing temperatures to rise faster
 Chinese scientists believe that 40% of the plateau’s glaciers could disappear
by 2050
 Desert covers about 1/6 of the plateau
 Welcome side effects: expanded croplands and longer growing seasons
 Artificial glaciers-simple stone embankments that trap and freeze glacial
melt in the fall for use in the early spring growing season
o Built by retired civil engineer Chewang Norphel
 Resettlement village for Tibetan nomads, part of a massive and controversial
program to relieve pressure on the grasslands new Chinas three major rivers
o The Yangtze
o Yellow
o Mekong
Pgs. 150-162
The Border of Madness
 More than 14,000 people have been killed in almost three years since
President Felipe Calderon mobilized the army to fight Mexico’s half dozen
major drug cartels
 Convoys covered 170mi. all together
 Calderon deployed more than 45,000 troops (out of 230,000) throughout the
country
o Of the 45,000 7,000 reinforced by 2,300 federal policemen
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Pure catch-22: state or federal authorities will not receive complaints
against soldiers, and the army will not investigate unless charges have been
filed by state or federal authorities
U.S. government estimates that trafficking of illegal drugs directly employs
450,000 people in Mexico
17 of Mexico’s 31 states have become virtual narco-republics; organized
crime has infiltrated government, the courts, and the police there’s almost
no way they can be cleaned up
The Jihad against the Jihadis: How Moderate Muslim Leaders Waged War on
Extremists-and Won
 More than 1.5 billion Muslims living in more than 150 countries across the
world
 Al-Quaeda was driven out of Afghanistan, money was tracked and blocked,
and its fighters were killed
 In 2005, King Abdullah ascended to the throne and inaugurated a political
and intellectual effort aimed at discrediting the ideology of jihadism
 Al-Azhar University now condemns jihadism
o Oldest and most prestigious school of Islamic learning
 12% of Jordanians view suicide attacks as “often or sometimes justified”
o Down from 57% in 2005
 In Indonesia 85% agree that terrorist attacks are “rarely/never justified”
o 70% opposed such attacks in 2002
War
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in the Fifth Domain
Internet traffic is directed by just 13 clusters of potential domain-servers
Internet was designed for convenience and reliability
China is accused of wholesale espionage-attacking the computers of major
Western defence contractors and reputedly taking classified details of the
F-35 fighter
 The Pentagon and NSA started cooperating on cyberwarfare in late 2008
 “Web War 1”-a concerted denial-of-service attack on Estonian government
 Cyber-attacks are among the three most likely threats to the alliance
Globalization
Climate Refugees: Global Warming will spur Migration
 Environmental, economic, and social consequences drive migration
 Climate refugees range from 25-50 million
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Immigrants to the US come from Mexico and the Caribbean
Developing countries have little responsibility for climate change because
they have little industry and produce small amounts of pollution
China may have surpassed the US in overall greenhouse gas emissions
US still has the largest historical greenhouse gas emissions and the greatest
per capita emissions