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Fighting Thailand’s Drought Through Biodiversity

More than 65 percent of the country’s water is used for agriculture, so dry rivers and near empty reservoirs hit the sector hard.

Thailand has been hit by one of the worst droughts in decades – with devastating effects on farmers. However, some small organic farms demonstrate that the key to surviving future droughts could be to embrace diversity.

Thailand breathed a collective sigh of relief when the rains finally came late last month. El Nino has battered the country and wider region hard. After causing more than two years of extreme weather events including Thailandâ€™s worst drought in decades, El Nino is finally set to abate.

In April and May of 2016, Thailand’s government said more than 30 of the country’s 70 provinces were affected by drought. It is the second year in a row that extreme temperatures have left regions parched. Exports of key staples such as rice and sugar are expected to fall by at least a million tons, and prices in the former hit a two-year high due to predicted lower supply.

For one of the worldâ€™s largest rice exporters, such figures are worrying. More than 65 percent of the country’s water is used for agriculture, so dry rivers and near empty reservoirs hit the sector hard.

This has led to tensions among small-scale farmers in the key rice-producing region of Suphan Buri to the northwest of Bangkok as water reservoirs and pumps there have run dry. In the normally fertile, agriculture-dependent far northern provinces of Chiang Mai, Nan and Phayao, there are many stories of failed harvest and threatened livelihoods.

Although all this has caused hardship for many of Thailand’s farmers, a small group that turned its back on industrial farming and monocultures has been able to weather the storm surprisingly well – by focusing on organic farming and embracing biodiversity.

Diversify to survive

By creating extensive ponds, the Chum Chon Ton Nam Nan Highland-Swamp-Field farm managed to survive the drought without losing all its crops. Photo Greenpeace.

One enterprise in Nan province has managed to if not prosper during the drought, then at least survive: the Chum Chon Ton Nam Nan Highland Swamp Field farm. According to its 55-year-old founder and proprietor Kul Punyawong, the farm continues to thrive primarily due to one simple thing: diversity.

Situated in an area dominated by industrial monoculture where fields of parched corn now abound, Punyawong’s farm produces a variety of crops, and numerous fruits including banana and durian.

Teams of Thai and foreign volunteers and students can be found diligently hoeing and digging in streams and fields. The farm functions as an eco-friendly farming learning center, teaching what Punyawong refers to as “new theory” farming, which has many similarities with permaculture.

The farm eschews the use of pesticides and focuses on crop rotation and diversity as a model for surviving further extreme weather events caused by climate change.

Redesigning the landscape

The first thing Punyawong did was to redesign the entire landscape. She planted trees to provide shade and protect the soil, thus reducing the evaporation of water. These trees also enriched the soil and prevented soil erosion.

She also planted a more diverse mix of native plants, and the soil is now able to store water better. Furthermore, Punyawong created extensive ponds to store rainwater.

“Organic farming is definitely the best way and the only way forward,” she told DW. “While other areas and farms had little or no water at all during the long months of drought, we had no water shortage,” she said.

“With our water conservation techniques we were able to store rainwater on our land long enough for use during the drought,” Punyawong continued. She says despite only a few years of implementation, the farm already proves that this strategy can help it withstand natural disaster and crisis.

Heading to system collapse

Watcharapol Daengsubha – known to most simply as Kwan – established his own organic orchard farm in 2011, where he produces mangosteen, langsat and stinky bean. He set up the Facebook page “Bangkok Permaculture” to share tips and ideas, and now tours the country as an agriculture campaigner for Greenpeace’s Southeast Asia office.

Both Thai and international volunteers and students work at the Chum Chon Ton Nam Nan Highland-Swamp-Field farm.

Kwan and his colleagues say that this El Nino has been the worst in living memory – not just in Thailand, but also in neighboring Vietnam and Cambodia as well.

“People are suffering from the impact of conventional farming practices that have been in place for years,” Kwan told DW. But the main problem is that they still don’t think there is anything wrong with those practices, Kwan continued, even though they could contribute to system collapse.

Changes in attitude

Fortunately, projects like the Chum Chon Ton Swamp Farm can also be found elsewhere. In Chiang Mai province, 56-year old Siphan Techaphan has set up an organic farming center, which aims to train local farmers.

To those involved, promoting organic farming provides an opportunity to turn things around – and to reconnect with nature.

For Kul Punyawong, the environmental destruction of her own province had become so bad that she felt she needed to give do something. She described how deforestation for agriculture and extensive chemical usage had left the soil contaminated and the province dotted with “bald mountains.” She says such environmental degradation stretches all the way to Bangkok.

Crop diversity is key to success at the new organic farms in Thailand. Aside from Rice or corn, they cultivate fruits, vegetables and other staple crops.

She called this the whole nationâ€™s problem. “The environmental problems in Nan are not just Nan’s alone,” she says. “I believe by creating a small agriculture model that emphasises organic farming and responsible land and water management, we will be able to rebuild the lost ecology of the forest and river sources – while at the same time live sustainably and happily.”

But change doesn’t come easily, Kwan says. Although organic farming was on the governmentâ€™s agenda around ten years ago, it wasn’t successful – due to the influence of agro-chemical companies on policy and the attitude of farmers. “Many people simply believe there is no way to cultivate without the use of chemicals,” he says.

But as further drought and extreme weather continue hit the country hard, farms like those of Punyawong and Kwan may well become the normal way of farming rather than the exception.

By Greg Norman – Deutsche Welle

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP

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Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli, To repay $6.4 Million

Washington — The Supreme Court rejected Martin Shkreli’s appeal on Monday, after he was branded “Pharma Bro” for raising the price of a lifesaving prescription.

Martin appealed a decision to repay $64.6 million in profits he and his former company earned after monopolizing the pharmaceutical market and dramatically raising its price. His lawyers claimed the money went to his company rather than him personally.

The justices did not explain their reasoning, as is customary, and there were no notable dissents.

Prosecutors, conversely, claimed that the firm had promised to pay $40 million in a settlement and that because Martin orchestrated the plan, he should be held accountable for returning profits.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Martin was also forced to forfeit the Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which has been dubbed the world’s rarest musical album. The multiplatinum hip-hop group auctioned off a single copy of the record in 2015, stipulating that it not be used commercially.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and defrauding them of millions of dollars in two unsuccessful hedge funds he managed. Shkreli was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals (later Vyera), which hiked the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill after acquiring exclusive rights to the decades-old medicine in 2015. It cures a rare parasite condition that affects pregnant women, cancer patients, and HIV patients.

shkreli

He defended the choice as an example of capitalism in action, claiming that insurance and other programs ensured that those in need of Daraprim would eventually receive it. However, the move prompted criticism, from the medical community to Congress.

Supreme Court Rejects Appeal From ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli

Attorney Thomas Huff said the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling was upsetting, but the high court could still overturn a lower court judgment that allowed the $64 million penalty order even though Shkreli had not personally received the money.

“If and when the Supreme Court does so, Mr. Shkreli will have a strong argument for modifying the order accordingly,” he told reporters.

Shkreli was freed from prison in 2022 after serving most of his seven-year sentence.

SOURCE | AP