While guest of honour at the Namami Brahmaputra river festival, the Dalai Lama spoke of the spiritual link to the Brahmaputra, which originates in his homeland Tibet. China’s blocking of a tributary of the Brahmaputra for the construction of a hydropower project has long been a sore spot in India-China relations. CNN-News18 reports.
India’s proposed Interlinking of Rivers (ILR) project would entail the creation of 3,000 large dams and “environmental tinkering on an epic scale”. Proponents say ILR is the “only way forward” for a country facing a projected population of 1.6 billion in 2050. Detractors say “there’s simply no evidence to justify what the government wants to attempt”.
After 14 long years, the state government has made its first move to blacklist the SNC-Lavalin company by issuing show-cause notices to it.
So far, all the pledges from all the countries put together would scarcely budge the needle on the great big global thermostat. This opinion piece for the Globe and Mail quotes Probe International’s new study on China’s climate policy and energy needs.
Two of the most populous nations—China and India—are building hundreds of dams in a violently active geologic zone.
Projects are strong enough to withstand a rare “thousand year” earthquake, say China Three Gorges Corporation officials: “no need to worry”. Experts beg to differ.
Western NGOs that operate in China stay silent to remain in the Chinese Communist Party’s good books.
This Huffington Post blog, by Peter Neill, founder and director of the World Ocean Observatory, looks at the global love affair with big dams and the perils of forcing water to acquiesce to political ambitions and national pride, and the sometimes dangerous results of doing so.
(November 17, 2011) The Yarlung Zangbo, or Brahmaputra, is a major international river passing through China, India and Bangladesh. Yet the countries share very little information on the river’s flow, or on their plans to build dams on it. chinadialogue reports on a workshop that brought together scientists and journalists from across the borders, and discusses the real risks of huge dams on the river.
The UN’s “Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM), which was essentially a fig leaf for wealth transfers from industrialized nations to poor developing nations, isn’t working according to plan.
(August 4, 2011) In its quest to promote green energy and reduce the world’s carbon footprint, the United Nations has so distorted the economics of power production that it is set to subsidize over three dozen coal plants in India with some $5.3 billion in “carbon credits.”
(April 29, 2011) China on Friday said its proposed dam on the Brahmaputra river in Tibet is not a “very big one” to cause concern in India and Bangladesh, claiming that it would not lead to any major change in the quantum of the water flow to the countries downstream.
(April 26, 2011) The damming of every major river flowing from the Tibetan plateau will trigger natural disasters, degrade fragile ecologies and divert vital water supplies.
(March 29, 2011) The North East People’s Alliance, a group composed of activists and NGOs in North East India, is calling for a halt to large hydro dams, which they fear will trigger further seismic activity in the area.
Patricia Adams
Brady Yauch
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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