(October 18, 2010) A former forestry official-turned environmental activist is on trial in China for publishing a book about a controversial coal power plant without state permission. He stands accused, under China’s surreal justice system, of “conducting illegal business.”
Patricia Adams
Patricia Adams is an economist and the Executive Director of Probe International, an independent think-tank and watchdog over the environmental consequences of Canadian government and corporate activities around the world. Her books include In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid, (Doubleday 1985), and Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World”s Environmental Legacy (Earthscan 1991), which exposes the jeopardy of years of loose lending for both the Third World’s environment and their economies, and proposes a legal remedy to place responsibility for the Third World’s debt crisis on the parties involved, instead of on First and Third World taxpayers. Pat also edited the English language translation of Yangtze! Yangtze!, the extraordinary critique by Chinese experts of the Three Gorges dam that inspired the democracy movement when it was first published in 1989, led to the postponement of the dam, and was subsequently banned by Chinese authorities. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Bahasa Indonesia.
China’s challenges to human security
(August 9, 2012) A new book on human security and China features a chapter by Patricia Adams and Dai Qing of Probe International that asks ‘at what cost China’s rise?’. Dai Qing argues, at great cost.
Three Gorges Dam project complete but still under fire
(July 17, 2012) Probe International of Toronto has long been a critic of the Three Gorges dam project. Executive director Patricia Adams paints a scathing picture of the dam’s legacy so far in an article that appeared in the Huffington Post.
China’s new mega-dam is a mega-problem
(July 12, 2012) Almost 20 years in the making, China’s Three Gorges mega-dam was declared complete on July 4 when the last of its 32 generators went online, 10 years after the first turbine went into operation. There is no end in sight, however, for costs associated with the vast and controversial project, which remains closer to disaster than triumph.
German firm to help map landslide threat at Three Gorges Dam
(June 22, 2012) The threat of geological disaster in the Three Gorges Dam reservoir area has prompted authorities to call on outside experts for help.
Dam fever threatens viability of Three Gorges Dam
(June 6, 2012) Reporter Shi Jiangtao sounds the alarm on China’s dam-building frenzy along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, revisiting the findings of the 2011 Probe International study, “A Mighty River Runs Dry,” by geologist Fan Xiao.
Three Gorges Dam failing: Chinese dam increases risk of earthquakes
(April 20, 2012) A report by the environmental group Probe International shows 20 dams in the upper Yangtze are in seismically active territory. But moving citizens could take some convincing. Those who have been relocated for the Three Gorges Dam have experienced trouble getting settled and finding work.
China’s Three Gorges Dam prompts more evacuations
(April 19, 2012) Around 20,000 residents from the vicinity of China’s massive Three Gorges Dam face relocation because their homes are at risk from “constant landslides.” Patricia Adams, editor of online news portal Three Gorges Probe, writes: “Twenty years later, the critics have been proven right on all counts.”
Omen on the Yangtze
(April 17, 2012) Twenty years ago this month, China’s epic Three Gorges Dam received construction approval from the Chinese government, with the blessing of a Canadian government report: both governments stood to benefit from the ill-conceived state vanity project at great cost to many. Probe International’s Patricia Adams looks back at how the symbol of China’s ‘rise’ has become an omen of all that is wrong with China and why a country like Canada would inflict such risks on citizens elsewhere.
International experts to speak on the world’s water crisis
(April 10, 2012) Three international environmentalist activists, each an outspoken pioneer in challenging conventional assumptions about water use, share their insights and experience. Featuring Probe International’s Patricia Adams and Dai Qing.
Chinese dams will damn the country
(April 12, 2012) Patricia Adams discusses a new report commissioned by Probe International in today’s Huffington Post Canada.
Global warming fears help fuel destruction of China’s rivers, says independent Chinese researcher
(March 27, 2012) Fears over climate change and the potential for profit are behind a dam-building boom in China that, without public oversight, is running roughshod over the country’s environmental legacy and the livelihood of its people. Property rights must be respected, says the author of a new report.
Press Release: What have we learned? After Three Gorges Dam
(March 27, 2012) Probe International is cosponsoring an upcoming two-day symposium on the impacts of the Three Gorges Dam with the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, at the University of California, Berkeley. The symposium will gather scientists and experts from China, and elsewhere, to discuss emerging problems with the world’s largest electricity-generating plant in order to mitigate harm and to inform future investments in China’s power sector. The symposium will be held on April 13th and 14th, at Wurster Hall, University of California, Berkeley.
Hong Kong earthquake an aftershock triggered by Chinese dam 50 years ago
(February 24, 2012) Reservoir-induced seismic events in dam-mad China are a growing problem requiring urgent attention.
China, EU carbon markets bailed out at Durban
(December 13, 2011) The Durban climate conference set out to save the planet, but in the end may only save China’s green energy industry and the EU’s carbon markets, both of which are in danger of freefall. The $100-billion a year Green Climate Fund, agreed to by the conference, will finance the global spread of Chinese technologies. And the EU’s unilateral decision to extend Kyoto will help prop up its faltering carbon markets. But beyond December 2012, when the current Kyoto Protocol ends, the EU will be on its own as Canada, Japan, and Russia have declared their intention to withdraw.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 