CLEANER AIR, LOST HOMES
DAM BUILDING ON THE ANGRY RIVER
TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY BJORN FREDRICKSON
"The fact that we had to move here is incredibly unfair. None of us agreed to this. We used to have land, an economic livelihood, trees, and a place to graze our livestock, but now there's nothing. We should be compensated for our losses, but we haven't received a single cent. It's such a pity-we didn't even receive restitution for our homes. All we got was $60 each to pay for moving. The government has resettlement policies, but it's clear that they don't know how to use them."
China, a nation with over 1.3 billion citizens and an average annual GDP growth rate of nearly 10 percent over the last 25 years, faces an energy and environmental crisis. A 1998 World Health Organization report on air pollution noted that seven of the ten most polluted cities in the world are located in China, and the combustion of coal accounts for upward of 60 percent of Chinese energy. Air pollution-induced heart disease and respiratory illnesses are the leading causes of death. During a six-month stay in Beijing two years ago, I had to stop running and riding my bike. After periods of activity in the brown-skied metropolis, I experienced pain in my lungs that lasted for hours. Sometimes I even felt dizzy and nauseous.
How does this newly "environmentally conscious" host of the 2008 Olympics continue to provide its ever more voracious citizens and industries with electricity? The answer to this question lies in China's rivers. Government officials are scrambling to develop the nation's hydroelectric resources. After all, big dams produce electricity without spewing skybefouling emissions. Roughly one half of the world's large dams are in China. In Yunnan, the Land South of the Clouds and home of the official "Shangri-La," politicians and power company executives salivate at the prospect of constructing 36 additional large hydroelectric stations. When it becomes fully functional in 2009, the Three Gorges Dam will provide nearly 4 percent of China's total energy.
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next>>