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Energy Crisis Hits Tajik Press
BBC Monitoring Newsfile via RedOrbin
Many Tajik newspapers may not be published this week because of the severe energy shortage affecting the country, the privately- owned Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported on 11 February.
(The energy crisis has been caused by what the state meteorological agency says is the country’s coldest winter for a quarter of a century. This has led to the icing up of a river feeding the lake that drives the key Norak hydroelectric power station. The problem has been exacerbated by cuts to fuel and electricity imports from neighbouring Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.)
Few papers expected to appear
Quoting the director of the state-owned Sharq-i Ozod printing house, Manzurkhon Dodokhonov, Asia-Plus said that work at the company, which prints 95 per cent of the country’s press (both state and privately-owned), was being disrupted by regular power cuts.
(11 February 2008)
As Asia food prices bite, analysts warn of worse to come
AFP
Rising food prices have hit Asia’s poor so hard that many have taken to the streets in protest, but experts see few signs of respite from the growing problem.
An array of factors, from rising food demand and high oil prices to global warming, could make high costs for essentials such as rice, wheat and milk a permanent fixture, they say.
(10 February 2008)
Rainfall Shortages Threaten Costa Rica Power (audio and text)
Jon Hamilton; Morning Edition, National Public Radio (NPR)
Costa Rica ranks among the greenest countries on earth. It promotes eco-tourism, operates vast national parks, and is working to become the first carbon-neutral country.
Perhaps most impressive, the nation produces more than 80 percent of its electricity in hydroelectric plants, which emit no greenhouse gases.
But Costa Rica’s efforts to minimize its own contributions to global warming have made it especially vulnerable to climate changes caused by other countries.
The reason is rain. Even a tiny shift in rainfall patterns could leave the country without enough water to meet its growing demand for electricity. And scientists say climate change is likely to have a significant effect on rainfall.
(11 February 2008)
Black smoke over China
Rosemary Righter, Times (UK)
Toxic fumes, money-sitters and the winds of change in the country on the brink of becoming the world’s leading trading nation
—
Review of
Will Hutton
THE WRITING ON THE WALL
China and the West in the twenty-first century
Duncan Hewitt
GETTING RICH FIRST
Life in a changing China
James Kynge
CHINA SHAKES THE WORLD
The rise of a hungry nation
(30 January 2008)
