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The Thirsty Dragon: China’s ‘Long Haul” To Slake the North’s Thirst
June 13th, 2010
Courtesy of IEEE’s Spectrum magazine, a detailed look at China’s ambitious plans to address its water scarcity issues: “…In 1952, Mao Zedong visited the great rushing rivers of China’s south and suggested that the thirsty north “borrow” some. Thus was born the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Nearly 60 years later, construction is under way on […]
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 […]
Read more »The Great Himalayan Watershed: Water Shortages, Mega-Projects and Water Politics in China, India, and Southeast Asia
January 7th, 2010
Courtesy of Japan Focus, a detailed look at Himalayan water shortages and politics among China, India, and Southeast Asia. As the article notes: “…Since we tend to take water for granted, it is almost a bad sign when it is in the news; and lately there have been plenty of water-related stories from South, East, […]
Read more »Melting Ice On The Roof Of The World
December 8th, 2009
Via AFP, continued bad news from the roof of the world, namely the glaciers in the Himalayas that sweep through Pakistan, India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, and which provide headwaters for Asia’s nine largest rivers, lifelines for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream. As the article notes: “…Scientists predict that most glaciers will be […]
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