(May 19, 2011) The world’s largest hydroelectric project was designed to tame the flood-prone Yangtze River and to generate clean energy. But the water is becoming polluted, and regular landslides are making life near the dam dangerous. Three Gorges dam is “a classic case in which government officials exaggerated the benefits and underestimated the risks,” says Patricia Adams of Probe International.
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.
Bankers join environmentalists in alarm over Beijing’s water crisis
(May 5, 2011) Beijing’s water shortage is one of the main factors thwarting the region’s sustainable economic growth, say bankers who have joined environmentalists in sounding the alarm over the city’s “chronic water deficit.”
Memo to Chinese government: no one believes you
(April 15, 2011) Patricia Adams writes: Chinese authorities will invent crimes, if need be, to silence dissidents for exercising their right to freedom of speech. However, renewed efforts to curb criticism and protest reveal an entrenched public distrust towards the government: the people of China, and the world, are done listening.
Beijing’s massive water diversion project could trigger earthquakes: experts
(March 28, 2011) A new study warns that plans to raise the Danjiangkou Dam could lead to earthquakes of greater than 4.0 on the Richter Scale. Experts say the dam triggered an earthquake of M 4.7 in 1973.
Three Gorges Dam: trigger of severe earthquakes?
(March 2011) The giant structure located in China has already caused more than 3,400 (so far minor) earthquakes. Scientists are now warning that a much bigger disaster could be looming on the horizon. A study by seismologists at the China Earthquake Administration (formerly known as the China Seismological Bureau) indicates that the massive Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze River “significantly increased” seismic activity along the dam’s reservoir.
Beijing’s water plan doesn’t go far enough, critics say
(February 21, 2011) South China Morning Post reports on the Chinese government’s first national water plan. Probe International executive director Patricia Adams tells the Post why the plan will fall short.
Patricia Adams responds to a Cap and Trade advocate
(February 16, 2011) In a February 14th National Post article, author Dan Gardner argued that ‘command and control’ environmental regulations should be replaced with a cap and trade system. But as Probe International Executive Director Patricia Adams points out, cap and trade is just another varient of the ‘command and control’ approach that Mr. Gardner claims to oppose. Below is her response in today’s National Post.
Patricia Adams: Haiti needs rights
(January 11, 2011) One option for Haiti is to make it a U.S. territory like Puerto Rico, writes Probe International’s Executive Director, Patricia Adams.
China’s 1.3 Billion Nobel Peace Prize Winners
(December 10, 2010) Though it was Mr. Liu who was honoured today in Oslo, he is a symbol of millions of his fellow citizens who everyday work to defend their rights and the rights of all Chinese citizens, writes Patricia Adams, Executive Director of Probe International.
Haiti: ‘The Republic of NGOs’
(November 24, 2010) As Haiti looks to the future, Probe International’s Executive Director Patrica Adams questions a reliance on foreign aid, writes Alanna Wallace from The Cord.
How to Best Help Haiti: Reduce Foreign Aid
(November 19, 2010) A speech given at the University of Waterloo by Probe International’s Executive Director, Patricia Adams, on the failure of foreign aid in Haiti.
Listen: Probe International’s Executive Director Patricia Adams in a panel on foreign aid
(Nov. 12, 2010) Probe International’s Executive Director, Patricia Adams, recently participated in a panel discussion on foreign aid, hosted by Radio Canada International.
China Officials Push Water Plan
(November 9, 2010) Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Probe International’s Executive Director Patricia Adams calls recent plans to pump raw sea water thousands of miles from the coast to the deserts of Xinjiang uneconomic and impractical—and one that only a government undisciplined by markets and public oversight would ever contemplate, let alone implement.
He who pays the piper calls the mining tune
(October 26, 2010) Industry wants carte blanche use of taxpayers’ funds, writes Patricia Adams in the Financial Post.
Probe International on BNN
(June 27, 2010) Probe International’s Executive Director Patricia Adams participates in a debate on the effectiveness of foreign aid. The debate originally aired on BNN.
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