The looming rice crisis, Brahms lying in honor, Vietnam's export surge & hiding from the Hueys

Great links, reading and images from Chartbook Newsletter by Adam Tooze

Trưóng Hiếu, 1973. “Soldier in field on radio.” Ink on paper.

Vietnam’s export surge

Moving up the supply chain, the surge in Vietnamese electronic exports had been remarkable.

Source: The Economist

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The looming rice crisis

And no crop is as vulnerable to global warming as rice, say scientists at irri. A study in 2004 found that a 1°C increase in minimum temperatures leads to a 10% decline in yields. Rising sea levels, another result of warming, are already causing salt intrusion in low-lying areas of the Mekong delta, eroding rice yields there. Massive floods last year in Pakistan, the world’s fourth-biggest rice exporter, are estimated to have destroyed 15% of its harvest. Rice’s contribution to global warming represents an underappreciated feedback loop. Irrigating paddy fields starves the underlying soil of oxygen. This encourages methane-emitting bacteria to flourish. Consequently, rice production is responsible for 12% of total methane emissions—and 1.5% of total greenhouse-gas emissions, comparable to aviation. Vietnam’s paddy fields produce more carbon equivalent than the country’s transportation.

Rice yields are stangating.

If it is to meet 30% rise in rice demand by 2050 global agriculture needs a greener revolution.

Source: The Economist

European food prices are continuing to surge

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“Hiding from the Hueys.”

Trưóng Hiếu, 1970, Củ Chi district, northwest of Saigon, Ink on machine-made paper.

Vietnam’s coal boom

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Sun Yat-Sen’s 1919 vision for China’s industrial development

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Brahms lying in honor

Anthony Princiotti @tonyprinciotti

126 years ago today, Johannes Brahms died in Vienna of liver cancer at the age of 63. His death came just 11 months after the passing of his dearest friend, Clara Schumann, a loss that had prompted him to say "Now I have nobody left."

Is this a bent and patched nuclear bomb?

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America’s Chinese population in 1870

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More on America’s shocking life expectancy numbers

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An Oxford University college can accept a proposed £155m donation from a Vietnamese conglomerate after the government closed an investigation.

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Trưóng Hiếu, 1972, Mỹ Tho Province