by Vaclav Smil, Ph.D.
Chapter 6 – Downstream Environmental Impacts
by Joseph S. Larson, Ph.D.
The impacts which may occur downstream do not affect the overall environmental feasibility and may indeed enhance the environment.1
Chapter 4 – Three Gorges Reservoir: Environmental Impacts
by David L. Wegner, M.Sc.
Background
A reservoir is an impounded body of water created when a river or stream is dammed and water is allowed to store. This impoundment of water has an immediate impact on the physical and biological systems within the reservoir which needs to be understood before the full range of environmental impacts can be properly evaluated.
Chapter 3 – Resettlement Plans for China’s Three Gorges Dam
by Philip M. Fearnside, Ph.D.
The Three Gorges Project would produce the world’s largest dam-displaced population (500,000 – 1,200,000 people), even at the lowest reservoir operating level nominally under consideration. Other Chinese dams have forced major resettlements – for example, the Danjiangkou Dam on the Han River (380,000), and the Sanmenxia Dam on the Yellow River (320,000).1 Outside China, the governments of Egypt and Sudan displaced 100,000 people to make way for the Aswan High Dam.
Chapter 1 – Damming the Three Gorges: 1920 – 1993
On April 3, 1992, China’s National People’s Congress, China’s parliament, erupted in a display of opposition unprecedented for this normally rubber-stamp body. The outburst was the latest in the decades-long dispute over the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River.
With increasing water needs, will China dehydrate India?
(March 10, 2009) China—and not Pakistan—is a bigger threat to India simply because it does not have enough water.
Water level at Three Gorges Dam lowered to ensure downstream water use
(March 9, 2009) The water level at the Three Gorges Dam has been lowered by about nine meters this year as the hydroelectric project is discharging more water to ensure navigation and water use for cities downstream.
Major U.S. media report on theory that the deadly Sichuan earthquake was man-made
(February 18, 2009) As speculation has grown over whether the Sichuan earthquake, which killed 80,000 people last May and left more than 5 million people homeless, was triggered by the 315 million tonnes of water held in the Zipingpu dam reservoir, so too has press coverage of that theory. Here, Probe International provides a roundup of what that coverage is saying.
Did a new hydropower dam trigger China’s deadly 2008 earthquake?
(February 2, 2009) The devastating earthquake that killed 80,000 people in China’s Sichuan Province last May may have been triggered by a recently built hydropower dam that lies only three miles from the quake’s epicenter, some researchers are arguing.
Scientists build case that Zipingpu dam triggered China’s devastating earthquake
(January 28, 2009) Since China’s deadly May 12 earthquake, Fan Xiao, China’s chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, has been a lone voice calling for an investigation into the possibility that the Zipingpu dam reservoir, just a few kilometers from the epicenter, might have induced the earthquake.
Fearing for its safety, Three Gorges’ Fengjie town plans another move
(January 28, 2009) Fearing for their safety, residents of landslide-prone Fengjie in the heart of the Three Gorges reservoir have no choice but to move their town for the second time in a decade.
How Kyoto credit scams work
(January 27, 2009) In another striking expose of carbon credit lunacy, AP reporters Joe McDonald and Charles Hanley report that a German coal-fired utility is buying “carbon credits” from a Chinese hydro dam, displacing thousands of poor farmers in the process, driving up electricity costs in Germany, and yet doing nothing for the environment.
Chinese geologist says Zipingpu dam reservoir may have triggered China’s deadly quake, calls for investigation
(January 26, 2009) Fan Xiao, Chief Engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, says scientists must investigate if Zipingpu dam triggered devastating 2008 earthquake, describes massive quake-damage to dams, rebuts recent Science Times article.
Developers suspend major hydro investments in Lao PDR
(December 17, 2008) Investors have decided to suspend major electricity power development projects in Laos as a result of the international financial crisis, according to a Ministry of Planning and Investment official.
Chinese scientists talk about the Zipingpu reservoir-triggered earthquake
(December 15, 2008) Top Chinese scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have dismissed the possibility that the Zipingpu dam reservoir could have induced China’s devastating 2008 earthquake, complaining that the media has been “incessantly questioning the wisdom of building more and more hydro dams in earthquake-prone southwest China” in the wake of last year’s quake.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 