Category: Three Gorges Probe

China’s thirst for energy

(December 6, 2000) China’s environmental degradation from its rapid, no-holds barred industrialisation has reached the point where it is now interfering with future growth. Bodies such as the World Bank have estimated that the cost of environmental pollution is equivalent to several percentage points of GDP.

Collapses found at Yangtze River banks

(November 28, 2000) Officials were busy reinforcing embankments in a section of the Yangtze River China’s longest yesterday after collapses in three major areas. The Xiaoxiang Morning Post reported yesterday that the collapses one as long as 600 metres in the Yueyang section of the river in Central China’s Hunan Province were causing great concern as the flood season officially began yesterday.

Three Gorges dam reservoir will trigger earthquakes, say experts

(November 23, 2000) Guangzhou Daily reports that 100 experts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan attended a mid-October conference at the Three Gorges dam site to discuss dam-related technical issues, including whether the filling of the dam’s reservoir would trigger earthquakes. The experts agreed that the weight of the water in the 600-kilometre Three Gorges dam reservoir is likely to cause earthquakes, but their magnitude will not be very large, ranging from 4.0 to 5.5 on the Richter scale.