(September 21, 2011) The Three Gorges Dam faced a test as torrential rain upstream caused the year’s largest flood crest.
For development, China moves millions: GlobalPost
Around 1.5 million people were moved to make way for the Three Gorges Dam: some were wooed by promises of new homes, land, and better lives, and others were forced. Ten years on, Kathleen E. McLaughlin of GlobalPost investigates the results of the relocation. Many migrants languish hundreds of miles from their hometowns, without farmland or new jobs, facing mounting debt and with little chance of legal redress.
Zeng Jinyan: Middle class parents in China looking for a better education for their kids
(September 16, 2011) On the western outskirts of Beijing, middle class Chinese parents and teachers have chosen a site to construct and decorate a school, called Spring Valley. They do most of the work themselves maintaining traditional Chinese culture and practices, but applying a local version of the famous Waldorf education model.
Shennongjia exposes reckless development of China’s water resources
This Guardian article describes the case of Shennongjia, a region choked with dams, which caused a scandal in the Chinese media when the extent of official corruption and mismangement became clear.
Weibo Watch: Issue 5
(September 15, 2011) In this installment of Weibo Watch: hundreds of rivers and dams dry up, Poyang Lake continues to shrink, Beijing Zoo’s new amusement park draws an angry response, and complaints about mining in Tibetan culture’s holy mountains fall on deaf ears.
China at risk from thousands of dangerous reservoirs
(September 13, 2011) China’s programme to shore up its thousands of aging reservoirs is undermined by corruption, rushed repairs and inadequate funds, leaving towns, lives and land at risk.
Weibo Watch: Issue 4
(September 12, 2011) This week on Weibo Watch: controversy brews over a beer company’s plans to trek through a fragile nature reserve.
Weibo Watch: Issue 3
(September 2, 2011) Weibo Watch: Issue 3 looks at China’s Eco-Water Tours; industrial stink, dangerous dams and drains that are completely fake.
China’s deadly dam fever
(August 31, 2011) Financial rewards for bypassing dam safety procedures have
created an unrestrained dam-building boom in China that is threatening lives and the
environment.
Weibo Watch: Issue No. 2
(August 30, 2011) In the latest installment of Weibo Watch, China’s netizens debate a Shanghai government plan to relocate 76 chemical factories to undisclosed locations in the next year; an opinion piece looks at why Environmental Protection Departments in China have become ‘Dissolving Departments;’ meanwhile a Yunnan newspaper reports that 5,000 tons of chromium waste has been dumped in several sites.
China dam shocker spreads
(August 26, 2011) China’s precarious dam reality has moved out into the open.
Dams gone wrong: Is danger lurking in China’s dams?
(August 24, 2011) One of China’s premier investigative news agencies reveals China’s dams “are like ticking time bombs:” beset by disaster, flaws, poor construction, neglect, and fraud.
Weibo Watch: Issue No. 1
(August 23, 2011) Weibo Watch summarizes the week’s environmental news, direct from the hearts and minds, and the keyboards, of China’s netizens as they work for change in the way decisions are made in their communities across China.
The Yangtze runs dry
(August 18, 2011) “The Yangtze River will run dry” because engineers have gone wild, building so many dams that the amount of water needed to fill all the reservoirs along the Yangtze would exceed the flow of the river. So says “A Mighty River Runs Dry,” a new study by geologist Fan Xiao of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau in China. Because there isn’t enough water in the Yangtze to fill all the dams to their designed capacity during the impoundment period each year, “an enormous waste of money” will result, with potentially staggering losses to China’s economy, 40 per cent of which comes from agriculture, fishing, industry and shipping along the Yangtze.
Pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi urges Burma to save the Irrawaddy
(August 16, 2011) Burma’s pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has called for a reassessment of Burma’s massive 6,000 MW Irrawaddy Myitsone dam project.
Probe International 