(March 25, 2010) Last Friday, Beijing-based NGO, Friends of Nature, released its Annual Report on China’s Environment and Development 2010, a collection of articles from some of China’s top environmental groups, legal and environmental scholars, and journalists.
Tibet’s rivers strangled by dams
(March 22, 2010) China’s grand pipe-dream is to divert abundant water from the Tibetan highlands to reach water-starved cities of the north and west of China, which have around 300 million people, says Canadian documentary maker Michael Buckley in his recent film “Meltdown in Tibet”.
Opening the books: Chinese citizens calling for greater transparency
(March 16, 2010) Ren Xinghui’s recent decision to sue China’s Ministry of Finance over the Three Gorges levy – added to electricity bills in the 1990s to help pay for the massive infrastructure project – has raised a number of eyebrows.
State funding fuels China’s global push in wind, sun
(December 22, 2009) Most of China’s alternative energy makers, including solar firms Yingli Energy Holdings and Suntech Power Holdings, and wind gear maker China High Speed Transmission, already have access to low-interest financing from state-run banks to fund their growth as well as client purchases.
China’s wind power plans turn on coal
(December 10, 2009) So far, wind energy makes up just 0.4 percent of China’s electricity supply. However, Beijing is building the world’s biggest wind power project, although paradoxically, adding wind power in China also means adding new polluting coal-fired power stations.
The Three Gorges reservoir has become a danger
(March 11, 2010) The large-scale construction that accompanied the building of the Three Gorges dam and its reservoir has increased the number of landslides—both new and reactivated—in the surrounding area. County seats recently built on land near the reservoir are now particularly prone to landslides. Local schools and residential buildings are already suffering cracked foundations and walls.
China idles 40% of windpower turbine output capacity
(March 11, 2010) China is idling as much as 40 percent of its wind-turbine factories following a surge in investment driven by the government’s renewable-energy goals, the vice president of Shanghai Electric Group Corp. said.
Three Gorges construction fund under scrutiny
(March 8, 2010) A Chinese law school graduate recently sued China’s Ministry of Finance for denying his right, as a taxpayer, to information about the Three Gorges Construction Fund. This is the first time a taxpayer has challenged the Chinese regime.
Three Gorges reservoir plagued by hazards
(March 6, 2010) The fragile hilly ecosystem near the Three Gorges Reservoir has suffered a series of plights including geologic hazards, stone desertification and water pollution, said a vice-mayor of Chongqing municipality, the Beijing Times reported on Saturday.
The plight of Three Gorges migrants: in the government’s own words
(February 24, 2010) In what might be a first, China’s state media is telling the truth about migrants who were forced off their land to make way for the massive Three Gorges dam. A recent China Daily story covered the painstaking details of a family trying to integrate in a new community after being forced to move to an east coast city from their home in the southwest.
Tapping the source: China and the Mekong river
(February 16, 2010) As the rush to dam the Mekong river in Southeast Asia continues unabated, critics are fighting back by documenting the river’s elaborate ecology and economy–both of which are under siege from development.
An interview with the man who sued China’s Ministry of Finance to safeguard Chinese citizens’ right to know
(February 12, 2010) Tired of paying into a fund for the construction of Three Gorges dam without knowing how the money was being spent, Ren Xinghui took matters into his own hands.
Researcher sues ministry over special utility fee
(January 29, 2010) A Beijing man is taking the Ministry of Finance to court after the agency refused to explain to him how they spend the extra fee tacked on to the electricity bills of nearly every household in the country.
Silencing scrutiny: Chinese government jails another activist
(February 9, 2010) Chinese activist Tan Zuoren has been sentenced to five years in jail for subversion. The environmentalist was arrested last March after he began investigating the deaths of thousands of children who were crushed when their schools collapsed on them in the May 2008 earthquake in Sichuan.
The relationship between large reservoirs and seismicity
(February 8, 2010) Following the 12 May 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China, Chen Houqun, Xu Zeping and Li Ming discuss the question of whether large reservoirs can trigger strong earthquakes.
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