What is the IPCC?: Well, prior to this reading I did not even know myself. This seems to be one of the leading international organizations that are aiding in combatting the issue of climate change, if not the leader itself. I wrote about the Paris Agreement, and how there are no real consequences of breaking the rules, let alone being required to join at all, and this reminds me a bit (but not as bad in my opinion) of what the IPCC is intending to do with providing a frame of reference for policy makers, but not requiring them to strictly adhere to what they are creating. While this is better than outright forcing actors to comply with their rules, I believe there needs to be something done to push these policy procedures more aggressively before we lose the only planet we have.

I'm not exactly sure what South Korea has been doing in the broad sense to help combat climate change, but I have no doubt they are probably leading the technology behind what the rest of the world will be using in the next 10-20 years when it comes to green energy. I know Japan has just started to take the steps necessary to bring this change, but I believe they are still a bit slow to the curb compared to S Korea.

I know back in 2017 we left the Paris Agreement, and we joined back earlier this year, and while I am glad we are back, there is absolutely not a single thing this agreement will or can even do to actually stop this issue of drastic climate change. This is especially more so of an issue, where countries who do not want to agree to these terms have to, and can continue on with polluting and other ill wills; and there is nothing to "punish" members of the agreement who (will most likely) break these promises.

Global Report on Food Crises There will most likely be a war throughout the world within the next 20 years or so on attaining clean water and food. We are seeing it now in Africa, and it is an issue that is growing by the day. The Water Wars are one issue in of itself, and is very different from the issue of food. That being said, in the United States, there is a lot of policy that has been made to help in creating an unnecessary issue on food waste. Items that are a day past the expiration date are tossed in the garbage and into a land pile or burned outright. I know in France they sell this - still very much edible - food at a discounted rate and it has drastically improved the issue of food security there. Makes me wonder if we will ever or could ever implement policy like that here.

If the most powerful country on Earth - the US - faces a 1/10 household issue of food security, it could say something about the rest of the world. We are surely lucky here nonetheless, and I am fortunate to be one of the 90% that was able to not face this issue.

The worst part about this issue is that it is one that is somewhat manageable. Most of the world could be fed on what farmers feed their cattle in the US alone. Albeit, at its current state almost all of that feed is inedible or not nutritious to humans, but that does not mean something can't be done to make it so that we digest something like this more properly.

The IMF At a Glance: While I believe some sort of international institution - where the economy and international trade relations are supervised and surveilled - is better than no international institution, the IMF has certainly engaged in some incredibly shady business practices in the past. This article served as a great entry point into learning more about the IMF, but when you see what they publish in their "goals," and compare them to what they have done, they couldn't seem further apart. The use of giving out loans to extremely impoverished areas with little to no education, and demanding repayment at exorbitant rates seems a bit like financial slavery to say the least. Many sell organs just to get by on a chunk of their repayment, and that is a huge issue in many countries now.

When it comes to my East Asian country, Japan is of the biggest contributor to funds in the IMF. Hopefully, some of Japan's money has gone towards S. Korea.

As everyone pointed out, this is something that is incredibly vital to the future of economics. Historically, some of the biggest bucks made for the United States involved going to war directly. War is not profitable anymore, and the more countries that realize that, the more alternatives they might seek out when they realize it might hurt their pockets.

I definitely have not been paying attention at all to the Arctic region, and reading this declaration definitely feels like it still holds some of the optimism of the mid-late 90's. I wonder how much of it is still followed today? This would seem like a new colonial effort, but alas no one would voluntarily move to the Arctic to start a new life. At least I would not, I am from Florida and think that anything below 65F is freezing. One thing that I can appreciate about this agreement is that it seems very respectful, going out of the way to not try to replicate some of the bad history that the world has had against native people. I know this is an extremely important region for scientific studies of many sorts, but the economics factor took me out. I cannot image how this region would play a large role in economics. I hope they are still treating the indigenous groups with respect. I recognize that seasons have been becoming more drastic with colder winters and hotter summers with climate change, and I wonder how does this work here? Is the region freezing up? Melting? A bit of both? I do not hear much news at all coming from this region, and I have been seeing some jokes about this region having crazy Godzilla monsters.

Freedom in the Media 2019: A Downward Spiral Pt. 2 I have some of my thoughts and disdain towards a lot of social media and believe it to generally be something that has been detrimental to society for the last decade. That being said, I can definitely recognize the power it has had in pushing media that I would have probably never seen before - for both good and bad - and I can appreciate it for that. This is definitely something that is more useful in authoritarian regimes, and while I have seen Cubans on Facebook, I know other apps are inaccessible without a VPN (and knowledge of this is already limited) and restricted for general usage. I wonder what someone in North Korea would be like using global social media in a similar way.

I like the point on defamation of journalists, as there are journalists who have gotten basically blacklisted for writing articles on topics that governments do not want them to. I can think of one recently that had their author die and the issue was completely swept under the rug to never be spoken about ever again. It should have been the discovery of the century really.

One can only hope that with social media, their access to the internet does not get shut down.

This is something I have seen many criticize, and while I do not inherently agree with this sentiment, I can definitely understand it: who gets to decide what is correct information and what is misinformation?

I wrote about this earlier, but there is an awful legal loophole that is being used with the freedom of the press amendment, and that is that it technically only goes for printed media. I have not seen a newspaper in over a decade, and while they exist, it certainly can be said that it is dying. Sort of analogous to the freedom of the media really.

Freedom in the Media 2019: A Downward Spiral Pt. 1 Personally, I hate to say this, but I would like to claim for-profit news outlets for dominating the scene and leading to this deteriorating freedom of media. I recall the president of CNN saying that he wanted to make the news more like the NFL, and it is something I cannot find now. Good news does not sell, and there is a great feeling of disillusion with the media right now throughout the world. As pointed out by Dr. Davis earlier, practically anyone with a camera can be a journalist nowadays. Some guy with a YouTube channel can have more hits than Fox or CNN on their best day, everyday, and most certainly has a bias or agenda to push (as they all do really).

Oh yeah I remember that President Park of South Korea was being influenced by a cult, and it is something that I have been seeing pop up all over Asia a lot recently, with Japan having this issue for a lot longer.

World Press Freedom Index 2021 I immediately went to go and check out this listing, and saw Japan at 67 in the dark-yellow and was not really surprised. Even less surprising is seeing my family's home countries being in red and black, and Latin America in general being very red. A lot of media has become very deceptive recently, and this works for just about anything imaginable. North Korea has infamously been caught lying about winning every FIFA world cup, and edit the information to make it look as though they are telling the truth. Even more than just soccer too. Being a bit of a history-buff, this definitely reminds me of the days of yellow-journalism, except this yellow seems a lot darker to me and I have been calling it "Orange Journalism" for some time now. I wonder how this data stacks up compared to the same data collected on corrupt governments. This should not even be a thought, as this would be very obviously go hand in hand.

I have seen the argumentative excuse many have given the United States for not being so free with the press as the constitution might say it should, and that is that it only applies to printed media - which is almost dead. I, personally, want to know everything, but I know this would definitely lead to some sort of mass hysteria. I know that, and the U.S. government knows that more so than anyone, so they may have a point in holding back some information at the very least. Like you said, oversharing may be a bad thing in many many aspects.

US Statement on Diversion of Ryanair flight and Arrest of Journalist I have not been keeping up with [Central] European news in quite a while, so this case flew right over me. It is pretty damning of governments to jail and silence those who oppose them. Many times, the "Streisand Effect" occurs after they do this, and the ones they silenced and/or the issue they are trying to silence becomes more prominent than before.