March 22nd, 2009
Published in Guang Ming Daily, Beijing, March 16 2009.
***********************************************
CHARLES DARWIN AND NATURAL SELECTION
Gioietta Kuo Feb 11 2009
On the very fundamental question of ‘who made man’ there is a strong dichotomy in the world. On the one hand are the Christians who believe in one God who created man though there are variations on how this came about and how long it took. But all depends on Faith and the absolute acceptance of the Bible. On the other hand, there are a mass of atheists, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General | Comments Off
March 19th, 2009
Sydney Yovic
Ethics and Animal Research
Preface: The thoughts and opinions that I am attempting to disprove or debate are all intelligent arguments for animal research. As I explored this controversial subject, I ran into many of these same opinions coupled with religious belief. I must preface this paper by saying I have disregarded any and all statements made with religious tone or tradition with regards to animals and their importance or value according to all religions. The reason behind my religious neglect is fully based on the assumption that not everyone has the same religious beliefs or any at all so it is inappropriate to use religion as an argument to be taken seriously or refuted.
Because animals are a part of a moral community and they do not posses autonomy nor a representative protecting their best interest of life, it is unethical to use them as subjects for experimentation which causes pain and suffering as a means for producing benefit to humans. It is widely accepted that animals are able to feel pain and there are even guidelines requiring that animal pain and suffering be regulated, finite and justified. These guidelines to control animal pain in the course of research show evidence that animals’ pains are to be taken seriously, thus proving their lives hold some value. If the life of an animal has value, then the animal possesses a moral standing and should be considered a part of a moral community. When we accept animals as morally considerable, it is clear that harmful animal research of any kind is unethical. In this paper, I will argue that animals have a quality of life and consequently, it is morally wrong to victimize them as test subjects. I will also attempt to invalidate Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Consumer Issues, Humanitarian | Comments Off
February 18th, 2009
by Gioietta Kuo
(Dr. Kuo is a Senior Research Fellow for the American Center for International Studies)
INTRODUCTION
About 2 years ago, the consensus of world’s eminent climatologists like Sir David King and Dr James Hansen were unified in their opinion that the world could survive eventually 450 ppm – parts per million, of CO2 (then at 385 ppm) in the atmosphere. Even so, according to them, there is no time to lose, the world’s governments should adopt a radically different energy policy to eradicate fossil fuel use. If we continue business as usual in the next ten 10 years then the planet will reach a point of no return.
Since then, 2 years have passed, there has been no drastic reduction in CO2 emission in the world and CO2 concentration has increased by 2 ppm per year. In the meantime, more and more signs of global warming, such as the sharp rise in arctic temperature and Greenland ice melt, together with an improved study of data of the earth’s
climate history have the climatologists alarmed. Led Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Consumer Issues, Energy, Environment | Comments Off
January 13th, 2009
By Marc Prensky
From On the Horizon (MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001)
© 2001 Marc Prensky
It is amazing to me how in all the hoopla and debate these days about the decline of education in the US we ignore the most fundamental of its causes. Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach.
Today‟s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. A really big discontinuity has taken place. One might even call it a “singularity” – an event which changes things so fundamentally that there is absolutely no going back. This so-called “singularity” is the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century.
Today‟s students – K through college – represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology. They have spent their entire lives surrounded Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Globalization | Comments Off
January 13th, 2009
By Dennis McCuistion
After a century of world economic leadership blemished primarily by government mistakes which created the Great Depression, the United States through its military power, essentially won the first and second World Wars and the Cold War. America’s leadership role was a beacon for dozens of countries that moved away from socialist/totalitarian systems and toward a more open and market system.
But among the positives, such as lower tax rates, we are now experiencing Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial, General | Comments Off
December 3rd, 2008
by Gioietta Kuo July 21 2008
Senior Fellow, American Center for international Policy Studies, amcips.org
In a new book by Lester Brown: “ Ourgrowing The Earth, the food challenge in an age of falling water tables and rising temperatures”, he makes the point that as our population increases and our economy grows, our demand on the earth are growing, exceeding many of planets natural resources to provide food, water and other basic needs for us. Evidence of these excessive demands are everywhere: collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests, expanding deserts, rising CO2 levels, eroding soils, rising temperatures, falling water tables, melting glaciers, deteriotrating grasslands, rising seas and river running dry. In fact nearly all these environmental trends affect world’s food supply.
Indeed, we are reaching the limit of what we can draw from our planet.
In recent days, much talk has been concentrated on the shortage of oil and our energy security. Although energy is very important to us, there are in fact much greater phenomena happening right in front of our eyes that will affect us even more – that is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Consumer Issues, Environment, Food, Globalization, Humanitarian | Comments Off
September 6th, 2008
As translated into Chinese and published in PEOPLE”S DAILY, Beijing, on Aug 26 2008
********************************************************************
The Growing Global Oil Crisis
Gioietta Kuo July 8 2008
As the price of oil keeps on shooting up to an unprecedented level of over $100 a barrel, many experts like Goldman and Sachs of New York predict that the price will reach $200 towards next year. How will the world economy react to such a fast rise and how will it affect the avearge citizen in different countries?
One need go no further than the motor car to realize that the world’s economy is oil based. There are two fundamental reasons why the world is in a severe oil crisis, the extent of which we have never seen before. In the 1970s the oil crisis was caused by the producers cutting back for political reasons. But this time the reasons are much more difficult to surmount. First, there are many signs that oil is ‘peaking’ – that is the amount one can extract from the ground is getting less and less, so it is becoming more difficult to incrase production. Second, as the developing countries like China and India industrialize, the demand for oil increses as the growth rates of these countries rise.
So, in order to overcome the present crisis, first we Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General | Comments Off
August 19th, 2008
On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (the “Act”). This legislation, sponsored by Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), comes a year after last summer’s recalls of millions of toys. It took the recalls and the deaths and hospitalizations of children resulting from magnets, collapsing cribs, lead trinkets, and toys filled with poisonous liquids to spur the federal government into action. The Chicago Tribune deserves Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Consumer Issues, News | Comments Off
July 7th, 2008
An eminent biologist and anthropologist Jared Diamond recently examined a very fundamental question: “Why did some civilizations like that of Easter island, the Maya empire and Greenland Norse collapse in history while others like Iceland and Japan survive for thousands of years?” It is very important to answer this question for it is for our society to tread carefully so as to avoid the example of the extinct civilizations in the past.
As an example of a failed civilization, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Environment | No Comments »
June 17th, 2008
By Gioietta Kuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-10 08:08
As the price of oil exceeds $135 a barrel, Goldman Sachs, the New York investment bank, predicts that the oil price will reach $200 a barrel in the next year.
Mamdouh Salameh, advisor to the World Bank and UN Industrial Development Organization, said that if not for the Iraq War, the oil price would be $40 a barrel today. It is the United States’ and Britain’s invasion that led to the current oil crisis.
Iraq apart, although speculation must play a part, there are two fundamental reasons why the world is in a severe oil crisis.
First, there are many signs that oil is Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Consumer Issues, Energy, Financial, Globalization, Technology | No Comments »
