I used to be for the Damn. As a lover of history, I was greatly saddened by the destruction of so many cultural artifacts. The flooded areas could have yielded evidence of Chinese civilization predating the Sumerians or Catal Ayuk, Turkey. I only supported the damn with the belief in clean hydrodynamic electric power generation. I felt that China could not afford to continue her coal power stations without air quality deterioration.
I recently watched the documentary FLOW. It was about water rights and the future fight for ever scarcer clean water. In it I discovered a horrific fact. Damns ARE NOT environmentally friendly after all. Flowing water brings vast amounts of nutrients across massive landscapes. Damning that water creates more stagnant and less oxygenated water. It has more ppms from the silt and worst of all. This all combines to kill more of the wildlife. The water then fills with decaying matter and releases methane and Co2. Even more than an inefficient coal burning power plant!!!
Now the extermination of numerous species such as the world's largest freshwater fish, the Chinese paddlefish. Has lead me to reverse my opinion of the Three Gorges Damn. I feel this project has cost China so much cultural identity because of the fact that the damn will create more pollution and environmental damage than the previous intermittent floodings. The amount of displaced people as well as wasted material and manpower are truly reminiscent of the "China Syndrome". I never would have fathomed the Three Gorges Damn could create more pollution than a coal burning power plant.
Again LIKE ALL OF YOU, I once was fed PROPAGANDA about the clean energy hydrodynamic electric power creates. It is NOW clear these damns slow down water flow and create more stagnant and less oxygenated water. Aerobic organisms hence die in mass. This decaying organic matter releases methane from the bacterial breakdown of the matter itself. Methane is worse than just Co2 as a Greenhouse gas. In fact, depending on the size of the damn, it can be worse than a coal burning power plant. It is biology and chemistry in action. All you have to do is THINK ABOUT IT! Now without questioning how the silt building up at the damn is having detrimental environmental effects beyond merely impeding water flow. It also contributes to destroying the habitable water quality. It also serves as a collection point for hazardous industrial wastes in the water table itself. The destruction of the archeological artifacts is clear. However coupled with the fact that the LARGEST damn in the world is the TGD, it is clear this is a major source of methane and hence creates more pollution in the form of Greenhouse gases than comparable coal burning power plants. It is similar to the myth about Natural Gas being so environmentally friendly. The scientific facts cannot be ignored. False propaganda is easily digested because people don’t understand the science behind the claims.
LOL, I'm sure if you were alive in the Qin dynasty, you'd only give 10 years to the Great Wall as well.
If there's one thing the Chinese are good at, it's large-scale infrastructure projects.
China is also good at creating the largest self made disaster in ALL of human history, The Great Leap Forward. NEVER have so many people died because of incompetent leaders. The Qin wall also did not last that long. Today it is the Ming wall that everyone regards as the pinnacle of Chinese engineering. It was the largest human engineering project in the entire history of the world until the USA federal freeway system was made in the 50s.
Like the Qin Dynasty the present Chinese government must not be so rigid as to not allow objective scientific reexaminations. Checks and balances are what keep people honest so to speak. Irrational and harsh demands for energy should not forsake the environmental consequences. There is only so much available CLEAN fresh water left in China. China should not follow the pattern of the USA where according to the EPA, over 90% of all fresh water bodies are contaminated.
Mistakes are always going to happen. However large super scale infrastructure projects need greater discrepancy due to the fact that the scale of problems would be exponentially amplified if something were to go wrong. Just like the USA learned with the largest oil spill in US history. The human race had better be more careful with her energy production, refining and distribution.
That's some really flawed thinking right there. Just going along with the typical Western cliche.
No, the CCP administration doesn't admit flaws just because they become really serious. They acknowledge flaws when:
1- there is a public outcry about it
2- a faction tries to use said issues to oust another faction
3- they don't mind the flaws being public knowledge
As for the dam itself, some people are always willing to jump on whatever reason they can find to support their position, lack of evidence be damned.
The article itself states:
Actually there is an overwhelming plethora of evidence about how damns harm ecosystems especially related to drought downstream of the damn. In the Western USA many damns have blocked the salmon and steelhead from returning to their traditional and natural spawning grounds. It has been proven that over 90% of the nitrogen that feeds the forests in the Pacific Northwest come from spawning salmon. Long term these ecosystems will gradually decay from lack of nutrients.
China will also face similar issues such as a lack mineral redistribution in her soil. This is a major loss for agriculture and wild flora, from a long term sustainable perspective. Not only will yields suffer, but the nutritional values will decrease. The local landscape from the tailwater of the damn, will suffer the most.
Finally I feel your third claim is extremely rare for any government. You never want any other nation or entity to know your dirty laundry. If you are responsible government you warn your people and prevent dangerous energy projects from encroaching on native communities. If you lie to your people like the Japanese Government did, then you get the current TEPCO nuclear disaster. China can ill afford to make the same mistakes as Japan did.
