Posts tagged civil war.

Heads up! China just surpassed the United States as the world’s leading manufacture. But as Dateline/au shows, empty cities dot the landscape. Thousands of ancient homes are being scraped of the landscape and millions of people are being quietly relocated to make room for, essentially, empty skycrapers.

The famously disastrous Mall of China is profiled. So is one new city, which was expected to hold 12,000,000 people. In fact, it’s estimated that the vacancy rate in China far exceeds any other country’s, at any other time. A low-ball 64 million new apartments are estimated to be empty, with essentially no one interested or able to afford to buy one. Still, despite the media’s portrayal of a dire economic bubble, I think the situation is temporary and China will fill those homes, regardless of cost.

(via dasgoose-deactivated20110922)

#china  #economic development  #gdp  #CPI  #housing  #city planning  #regional planning  #mortgages  #financing  #polarisation  #social divisions  #civil war  #human rights  #beijing  
∞  06/29/11 at 09:45pm via thetangentleman
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Sudan: 60,000 flee South Kordofan fighting, UN says ›

Oil is splitting Northern and Sudan and Southern Sudan, just a few months after both sides agreed to split into two countries. I’ve written about Sudan’s environmental, land, climate and natural resources conflicts many times, here (oil), here (food supply), here (deforestation), and here (land). It’s the next Darfur, which, ultimately, was a fight over land. 

alwaysinrepair:

Some 60,000 people have fled bombing in Sudan’s South Kordofan region near the north-south border, the UN says. Northern forces are accused of targeting the area’s pro-southern groups, as oil-rich South Sudan prepares for independence next month. US President Barak Obama has called for a ceasefire following the upsurge of fighting, to prevent a return to the two-decade north-south civil war.

(via alwaysinrepair-deactivated20111)

#africa  #sudan  #Do Nothing  #arm chair environmentalism  #watch it burn  #Resources  #natural resources  #climate change  #adaptation  #migration  #food security  #desertification  #oil  #land use  #bbc  #un  #nato  #civil war  
∞  06/15/11 at 10:22pm via BBC
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