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The Thirsty Dragon: Plan to Divert Water From Tibet To Xinjiang
June 18th, 2011
Courtesy of China Dialogue, an interesting report on the latest idea to move water from Tibet to Xinjiang. As the article notes: Chinese scientists have dreamed up yet another mega engineering scheme: to divert water from Tibet’s Yarlung Zangbo River, along a course that follows the Tibet-Qinghai railway line to Golmud, through the Gansu Corridor […]
Read more »Tibetan Plateau: Needing An International Treaty For Its Protection
January 29th, 2011
Via India’s Economic Times, a detailed article on the need for an international treaty to protect the Tibetan Plateau: “Like Antarctica and the Arctic, the Tibetan Plateau, known as the “Third Pole,†is drawing global attention in the international and regional policy communities. The Tibetan Plateau covers an area of 2.5 million square kilometers, with […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Damming The Yarlung Zangbo (Brahmaputra)
January 17th, 2011
Via China Dialogue, an excellent report on recent developments relating to the damming of the Yarlung Zangbo (known as the Brahmaputra when it reaches India), the last of China’s great rivers to remain undammed. As the article notes: The rushing waters of the Yarlung Zangbo, the last of China’s great rivers to remain undammed, will […]
Read more »The Big Melt
March 31st, 2010
Courtesy of National Geographic, a detailed look at the “Big Melt” in the Himalayas and the real challenge of preventing water conflicts from spilling across borders, whether that be related to the growing sense of alarm in Central Asia over the prospect that poor but glacier-heavy nations (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan) may one day restrict the flow […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Hydropower Projects On Tibet’s Main Rivers
February 20th, 2010
Courtesy of The Tibetan Plateau, an updated report on hydropower projects on three of the major rivers that flow from Tibet: the Yangtze, the Salween and the Mekong. As the article notes: “…Tibetans proudly sing of their land as “the Land of Snows, the source of great rivers.” Indeed, Tibet is widely regarded as “Asia’s […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: An “Icy Water Tower” Melts
January 27th, 2010
While the source of this article (Conde Nast Traveler) is unusual for content that this blog normally features, the author – Dr. Orville Schell – is a long time China expert who has been increasingly focused on the gradual shrinking of the glacial, soaring, peaks of the Tibetan Plateau which act as the icy water […]
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