The partial collapse of a new bridge in China’s Sichuan province this week riveted a global audience with the spectacle of disaster. The greater drama is China’s breakneck hydropower expansion.
The lesson of Hongqi Grand Bridge
Fan Xiao
A high-profile Chinese geologist and environmentalist, and the author of several reports for Probe International. Fan Xiao is the former chief engineer of the Regional Geological Survey Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau.
Dammed to the hilt
For the first time, a comprehensive list of cascade dams in Sichuan Province shows the jaw-dropping extent to which one of China’s most hydropowered regions is being developed, proving the Xi Jinping […]
China’s Yarlung Tsangpo Great Bend mega-dam not feasible due to risks
A transboundary super dam proposed for occupied Tibet, near its border with India, poses significant concerns and risks. A report by Chinese geologist Fan Xiao delves into the infeasibility of the massive […]
A little chat about the recent 6.2 magnitude Jishishan earthquake
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake that struck China’s northwestern Gansu province late Monday, killing more than 100 people and injuring hundreds, occurred in an area prone to earthquakes on the northeastern edge of the […]
Dams cause earthquakes, earthquakes cause other earthquakes
A new study focused on the 6.8 M Luding earthquake in China’s Sichuan-Yunnan seismic zone, shows how dams make areas susceptible to earthquakes directly (through RIS) and indirectly by altering geological structures, […]
A deeper look at China’s May quakes
Two strong and separate earthquakes rattled northwest and southwest China this month – one of them the strongest since the devastating Wenchuan earthquake of 2008. The series of May quakes are part of […]
Seismic activity in the Three Gorges region – 2021 update
Since the impoundment of the Three Gorges reservoir began in 2003, tens of thousands of earthquakes have been recorded in the reservoir area. Chinese geologist and environmentalist, Fan Xiao, looks at the […]
Why is the flood control capacity of the Three Gorges Dam project being questioned again?
Because the project’s flood control capacity doesn’t work.
Photo gallery: Astonishing changes in the life and environment of Chongqing
Images taken by Chinese geologist and environmentalist Fan Xiao during trips to the Three Gorges Dam reservoir area in 2012 and 2013, portray the dramatic changes that have taken place since the dam’s construction more than 20 years ago.
Astonishing changes in the life and environment of Chongqing: 20 years after the construction of the Three Gorges Dam: Fan Xiao
Twenty years after the completion of China’s monumental Three Gorges Dam, a new study by Chinese geologist Fan Xiao finds the mega-project’s impacts on his hometown of Chongqing, some 600 kilometres upstream, have been dramatic. Lost in the dam’s grand scale are the harsh consequences borne by the region’s environment and economy; its after-effects are felt most intensely by the individuals and communities struggling to adapt in the immense shadow of China’s largest public works effort since the Great Wall.
Impoundment of two mega-dams on China’s Jinsha River triggers earthquake in Ludian
In the wake of the 6.5-magnitude earthquake in China’s Yunnan Province on August 3 that claimed the lives of more than 600 people, Chinese geologist Fan Xiao has released new data that supports a link between that event and the region’s mega-dams.
Jinping-I Dam impoundment linked to earthquakes
(February 3, 2014) Chinese geologist Fan Xiao investigates once again if the impoundment of a large dam reservoir triggered a series of earthquakes in the seismically active southwest region of China? Based on data collected by China Seismic Information (CSI), Mr. Fan says, ‘Yes’. Not only were the November 22, 2013, seismic events recorded in Sichuan, China not naturally occurring or isolated incidents, he says the region should prepare for stronger, “even destructive earthquakes” as a result of further impoundment.
Press Release: 80,000 deaths from 2008 Chinese earthquake was likely not an act of God, says new study
(December 12, 2012) A new study published by Probe International reveals a dangerous relationship between dam reservoirs and seismic activity.
China’s State Council issues death sentence for legendary Yangtze fish
(January 6, 2012) The Xiaonanhai hydro project slated for the Yangtze River poses a threat to China’s most precious wild fish and the supremacy of the law, say Chinese environmentalists and scientists.
Not enough water in China to divert northward – Chinese scientists
(July 18, 2011) In a remarkably candid piece, the Communist Party mouthpiece, Global Times, quotes critics saying there isn’t enough water in China’s rivers to divert north under the government’s South-North Water Transfer scheme.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 