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The Thirsty Dragon: China Heading Towards An Unavoidable Water Crisis
November 12th, 2012
Via OilPrice.com, a report on China’s thirst for water: China is a huge producer and consumer of commodities. Not only is it the largest global producer of key crops and meat, it has the largest appetite for goods that cover the gamut from rice to rubber, from cotton to copper. But one of its largest […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Scarcity Of Water & Land Shifts Geography of Food Production & Irrigation Networks to China’s Northeast
November 11th, 2012
Courtesy of Circle Of Blue, a report on how rich land, ample water, and dogged persistence turned China’s virgin northeast into the nation’s breadbasket: Farmers harvest corn near Tongliao in Inner Mongolia. China, the world’s largest nation and second-largest economy, is pursuing grain production with a single-minded purpose. On the south side of the two-lane […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China Buys Japanese Water Rights
November 6th, 2012
Via Bloomberg, an interesting report on Chinese purchases of Japanese land & water rights: Morihiro Oguma’s phone rang every day with calls from brokers representing foreign investors who wanted to buy his Japan Mineral water-bottling business. “In many cases, I was told I could name my price,†Oguma said in an interview, adding he had […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: China’s Water shortages Potentially A Perfect Storm
November 5th, 2012
Via MarketWatch, a report on China’s water issues: Water shortages could be China’s own version of the perfect storm, potentially blowing a hole in carefully laid plans of an incoming generation of leaders. Targets for moderately fast economic development, seen as crucial for the Communist Party to maintain its grip on power, no longer seem […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Questions Over China’s Mekong Dams
October 24th, 2012
Via the Phonm Penh Post, an article on the impact of hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China: A fisherman repairs his boat in a community situated along the banks of the Mekong River in Kratie province. Some questions remain about whether hydro dams on the upper Mekong River in China exacerbated conditions […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Food Supply, Fracking, And Water Scarcity Challenge China’s Juggernaut Economy
October 21st, 2012
Courtesy of Circle of Blue, a look at China’s water related challenges ahead: An expensive program to expand irrigation networks is occurring in Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces, which has prompted concern because it would push new irrigation canals into highly erodible grassland regions. These provinces have some of the worst desertification in the […]
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