CNN's Three Gorges piece

Even CNN has jumped on the Three Gorges catastrophe bandwagon. And I don't use 'bandwagon' in its usual negative sense here, but there are a lot of news agencies starting to report this kind of information. But, I put this one up here because it's a video report, not just the usual few lines in print. The landslides angle seems to be the recent focus of most stories.

Three Gorges in the news again...

News articles concerning the impacts of the Three Gorges dam are appearing with increasing regularity in the major news providers. The BBC recently had an article outlines serious problems with landslides around the reservoir and even some reservoir-induced tremors. The article states that the landslides are caused by the 'huge weight of water behind the dam and fluctuating water levels'. Sure, I'll buy the fluctuating water levels theory, but the weight of water has nothing to do with landslide development. It's more like the banks becoming saturated and losing cohesive strength at and below the water level. There are even reports of a landslide near Badong burying a bus and killing 30 people. Hmmm, I'd be sceptical of attributing any landslide the didn't originate at or very near the water line to the influence of the reservoir. Still, sounds very ominous and of course the potential for large wave from the landslides is huge. The Economist has a recent article outlining the impact of a landslide about 17 km upstream from the dam that happened in April. I must admit that I was in the are in June, keeping an eye out for landslides and didn't see anything in that area (it seems like it is soil cracking, not complete failure so that would be hard to spot from the riverbanks).

There is also lots of talk, some of it from official sources, about moving another several million people from rural areas into cities, primarily within an hours drive of Chongqing, in order to 'protect the ecology of the reservoir area'. This is supposed to be completed by the year 2020. I note that the population of Fengjie county is supposed to drop by over 40%....to bad, it's a nice place! (see photo)

More Chinese dams...

Dams in China are in the news again, with China Daily reporting that the blocking of the river has begun to allow for construction of the Xiluodu Dam in the Jinsha River near the Yunnan - Sichuan border. Construction on what will be the second largest dam in the country began in late 2005 and is one of four hydropower stations planned for the Jinsha River, a tributary of the Yangtze. The total energy output from the four dams will be twice that of the Three Gorges Project.

While this project hasn't attracted worldwide attention (and condemnation) accorded the Three Gorges dam, it was postponed in 2005 after the builders tried to defy and order from the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) to conduct a mandatory environmental impact assessment. Apparently SEPA gave the $5 billion project the green light in late 2005.

Another interesting article I came across discusses the 'dam fever' gripping southwestern China, and many of the sometimes successful efforts by NGO's to bring it under control.

On a side note, there are apparently many small 'cottage-industry' dams being constructed across China on smaller rivers for local power generation. The photo is of one under construction near Emei Mountiain in Sichuan that I stumbed across while hiking in 2006.

China to 'build' world's largest national park (?)

China is creating a new national park in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the country's northwest, according to an article in China Daily. The article says it will become the world's largest national park, replacing Yellowstone. Errr, wrong. Yellowstone isn't even in the top 10 largest American parks (Wrangell - St. Elias is the largest), and the largest in the world is in Greenland. Poor job by the quality control department.

The park is to be an extension of Kanas Geological Park, and the extended border will incorporate 10 times the land of the original park (to 10,000 km2). Let's hope that this park won't fall victim to some of the problems with existing geological parks in China...the problems of poor public education, inadequate protection, and overdevelopment to lure in the mighty tourist Yuan. For more info on some of these problems take a look at this article from Focus on Geography. China has been putting a lot of effort recently into naming parks and having grand openings, but many (not all) of these parks don't amount to much other than tourist sites with a peripheral interest in preservation and eduation.

Same story, different spin.

Stoies about environmental issues surrounding the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing appear online today in several places. CNN has an article suggesting that the air pollution problem has not really been tackled and time may be running out to do something about it. The IOC is even suggesting that some events may have to be delayed if conditions are too bad on the day.

Meanwhile, China Daily are reporting that the United National Environment Program is lauding the organizers for 'greening' the games. The games are apparently a catalyst for the acceleration of environmental programs across the city. Sure, the article does mention air pollution is still an issue, but is much more confident there is still time to fix it.

Just some random China photos...

I'm bored and was going through a lot of my China photos as I'm supposed to be writing an article (more of a photojournal really) on the Three Gorges area for the magazine Focus on Geography. So I just thought I'd post a few photos that won't be going in any article.

This photo is from 2005 and is of a riverbank shipyard about 30 miles upstream from the dam. It will be completely underwater by now, as will the house.












Polished rock steps and sidewalks are very common in China, and are absolutely treacherous when it rains. There is so much polished rock being used in construction and as ornamentation that I really wonder where it all comes from. There must be entire mountains missing in sections of China!


Along the banks of the Yangtze River in Yichang, 20 miles downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. This is where many of the tourist boats tie-up overnight before going through the gorges.

17th CPC meeting heads up

Every 5 years the Congress of the Communist Party of China is held. Whenever you hear about '5 year Plans' you're hearing about policy created at this meeting. Right now there isn't much going on other than hype. It only happens every 5 years do it'd kind of a big deal.

http://english.cpcnews.cn/ is where you can get all of the information available. A 'media center' has just opened in Beijing to support the media, both domestic and foreign. Kind of like a hotel/convention center but just for this congress. This year the meeting seems like a bigger deal than usual because a large number of senior party members will be appointed to some very high positions. I would go into the messy politics of China when it comes to the consolidation of power on the part of the Current President, but Blogger is already blocked in China and I don't want the Chinese police knocking on my door tomorrow. If you want to get an idea of how Chinese politics works just take a good close look at the (now jailed) Ex-Mayor of Shanghai (wikipedia will help). But I digress

i figured at an event as important and encompassing as the 17th CCPC they would at the very least gloss over environmental issues. So far the only document provided is the 'Communique of the Sixth Plenum of the 16th CPC Central Committee', so it's dated, but provides the most basic, bare bones goals of the Party. Kind of. It's vague and aggrandizing, but it's something. So keep on eye on it.

on another note, this website is blocked, but I can still make updates through my gmail account, kind of weird.

and yet another note: let me know what you want me to keep on eye on. I'm planning some trips and not only do I need suggestions of where to go, but what to look out for. If you do this class again, or anything like it, i'd love to send you some pictures or whatever information i might be able to pass on.