内容摘要：Trees blur as a train travels Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, near Pikwitonei, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Trees blur as a train travels Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, near Pikwitonei, Manitoba. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Vietnam recognized early on that it had to reconfigure its rice sector. It was the largest rice exporter, ahead of both India and Thailand, to signat the annual United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

Restaurant owner Hien Ky prepares fried rice in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Restaurant owner Hien Ky prepares fried rice in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)Each year, the industry suffers losses of over $400 million, according to

. This is worrying, not just for the country but for the world.The Mekong Delta, where 90% of Vietnam’s exported rice is farmed, is one of the world’s regions most vulnerable to climate change. A

in 2022 warned of heavier flooding in the wet season and

. Scores of dams built upstream in China and Laos have reduced the river’s flow and the amount of sediment that it carries downriver to the sea. The sea level is rising and turning the river’s lower reaches salty. And unsustainable levels of groundwater pumping and sand mining for construction have added to the problems.First test flights are planned next year, but the grueling round-the-world trip is set for 2028. Made with lightweight composites, the plane is dependent on several untested innovations and is far from a sure bet.

Piccard says a major airplane manufacturer wouldn’t take on the risk of producing a prototype such as Climate Impulse in case it fails.”It’s my job to be a pioneer,” he said in an interview. “We have to show it’s possible, then it’s a big incentive for the others to continue.”

Even if the project is successful, experts say green hydrogen-powered flight on a commercial scale would be decades away at best. The project has lured tens of millions of euros of investment, and the team of dozens of staffers is growing.The solar-powered plane was a technological feat in 2015, but wasn’t scalable, said Climate Impulse engineer and co-pilot Raphael Dinelli. Limited in range, that plane had to make more than a dozen stops on its trip around the world.