Environment News 3.8.14 Part V: Three Gorges Dam is Up and Running in China – But What Did It Destroy in the Process? It is and was an environmental disaster of epic proportions and though the Three Gorges Dam in China HAS reduced China’s coal consumption, its construction (began in 1992) on and waylaying of the Yangtze River far outweighs the benefits it has given. It displaced 1.24m people, flooded hundreds of ancient archaeology sites and is filtering out sediment to the detriment of people downriver. “The massive project sets records for number of people displaced, number of cities and towns flooded - 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,350 villages - and length of reservoir - more than 600km.” stated the website, NGO International Rivers. Chinese officials even admitted that its construction caused earthquake AND that the 31m tonnes of coal Three Gorges replaced pales in comparison to Chinas coal usage, which totalled 3549 million tonnes in 2012. “It triggered landslides, altered entire ecosystems, and caused other serious human rights and environmental problems. Its worth wondering if Three Gorges Dam can ever really be a net positive.” Writes International Rivers. motherboard.vice/read/why-the-worlds-biggest-hydroelectric-dam-is-still-an-environmental-disaster?utm_content=bufferbbded&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 23:43:40 +0000
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