(January 15, 2008) The Lao government’s ambition to become one of Southeast Asia’s biggest exporters of hydropower and wood chips is hurting the country’s small farmers and driving young people to neighbouring Thailand in search of better prospects, a recent Canadian-led study has found.
Made by China: Damming the world’s rivers
(January 15, 2008) In the past decade, companies and banks in China have greatly expanded their involvement in building and financing dams overseas. The cumulative social and environmental impacts of these projects is huge. This map shows just some of the proposed and ongoing dams that Chinese financiers and companies are involved in.
[Channel 4 News] China’s Three Gorges Dam Project
(January 14, 2008) “The project could lead to catastrophe.” Not the words of a dissident environmentalist, but the official Chinese news agency in a story about the Three Gorges Dam. Lindsey Hilsum in this report for Channel 4 News (UK) looks at the concerns expressed by Chinese government scientists over problems associated with the giant dam.
Up the Yangtze
Straight from the Sundance Film Festival to a Canadian cinema near you.
Thai, Chinese power companies to build US$5 billion coal plant in Cambodia
(January 11, 2008) Thai and Chinese power companies have joined with Thailand’s biggest construction company, SET-listed Ital-Thai Development, to develop a $5 billion coal-fired power plant in western Cambodia, Bangkok Post reports.
China bows to public over chemical plant
(January 9, 2008) In an unprecedented move, the Chinese government appears to have bowed to public pressure to relocate a controversial chemical plant, reports Nature.
Drowning the Tiger Leaping Gorge
(January 8, 2008) Even in the biting cold, thousands of tourists still take the treacherous daily journey through the mountains from Lijiang to see the Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of China’s most renowned attractions. However, the entire site could vanish within a few years.
China’s audit authority finds US$816 mln in misused social security funds
(January 8, 2008) China’s National Audit Office (CNAO) discovered 7.1 billion yuan (816 million US dollars) in illegally used social security funds in 2006, said Auditor-General Li Jinhua on Monday.
Yangtze Power “profits” unhinged from Three Gorges’ spiraling environmental costs
(January 8, 2008) China’s Yangtze Power Company posted a 47 percent rise in “profit” last year, though critics, including Probe International, argue these profits would vanish if the company were forced to pay its share of the project’s rising environmental costs.
PI Policy: The problem with environmental impact assessments
(January 6, 2008) Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) are now standard practice for dam builders. Probe International’s Grainne Ryder and Patricia Adams explain how this seemingly positive development actually undermines citizen rights and harms the environment.
Xinhua: Three Gorges dam tourism hits record high in 2007
(January 6, 2008) China’s Three Gorges dam attracted a record high of 1.25 million tourists last year, according to state tourism developers, Xinhua reported on January 1.
Xinhua: China to study pollution sources
(January 6, 2008) China will conduct its first national survey of pollution sources in some of the world’s dirtiest cities, Xinhua reported last week.
China Minsheng teams up with Three Gorges Financial Company, Royal Bank of Canada
(January 4, 2008) China Minsheng Banking Corporation has received state regulatory approval to set up a fund management company with Royal Bank of Canada and Three Gorges Financial Company.
From odious debt to odious finance: Avoiding the externalities of a functional odious debt doctrine
(January 1, 2008) This Article looks at the generally agreed upon characteristics of the odious debt doctrine and considers the unintended consequences and externalities that would ensue if this doctrine were ever made regularly operative. The enlivened scholarly debate surrounding the odious debt doctrine assumes that debt is the sole finance vehicle for despotic governments. This is simply not the case.
Sovereign debt and social rights – legal reflections on a difficult relationship
(January 1, 2008) The relationship between the sovereign debt of developing countries and the protection of social rights in those countries has received a lot of attention from an economic, political and moral perspective, but relatively little has been written about the legal side of this relationship.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Patricia Adams and Lawrence Solomon
Other News Sources
Probe International 