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The Thirsty Dragon: Science’s Concerns Over South-To-North
January 9th, 2009
Via Yale’s Environment 360 blog, an interesting article on one geologist’s concerns about China’s massive Yangtze River diversion project and how difficult it can be to challenge a government decision in China. As the report notes: “…his mission was more profound: to investigate the geological and hydrological conditions of the Yangtze River basin – and […]
Read more »The Tibetan Plateau: A Freshwater Bank In Crisis
January 5th, 2009
The Asia Society has produced a documentary about the impact of global warming on the Tibetan plateau, the rivers which originate there, and the people who depend on them to live. From the introduction: As the source of most of the major river systems in Asia from China to Pakistan, including the Yellow, the Yangtze, […]
Read more »A Mideast Peace Canal?
December 24th, 2008
Via Terra Daily, an article on a planned 4.5 billion dollar “Peace Canal” to bring water from the Red Sea to the fast evaporating Dead Sea which could benefit the entire Middle East. As the report notes: “…I think that all the region will benefit from the project,” Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: South-North Diversion To Be Accelerated
December 16th, 2008
Via Xinhua, an updated report that the aforementioned 4-year postponement of the massive South-North water diversion has itself been diverted and the project is back on track. As the article notes, “China would accelerate the construction on the country’s huge south-to-north water diversion project next year, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said on […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Drying Up Quickly
December 14th, 2008
An interesting post by Ying Jia on China’s dwindling water supply. As the article notes: “….Water scarcity is largely a product of China’s wasteful style of economic growth. A World Bank research study showed that in the period 2001-2005, 54 percent of China’s seven main rivers were deemed unsafe for human consumption (World Bank). The […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Turning On The Tibetan Tap At The Expense of South Asia?
December 9th, 2008
Via The Circle of Blue and The Asia Times, two articles (one here and the other here) noting that – as China becomes increasingly stressed for water, it comes closer to slaking its thirst with Tibet’s Yalong Tsangpo River, known in India as the Brahmaputra. But international interests downstream worry about the impact on the […]
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