I’m booked pretty solid today, but fortunately Christina Larson has just puplished a new article in her series on Chinese environmentalists. You can find it at the wonderful Yale Environment 360 site. Here’s the teaser:
Geologist Yong Yang has serious concerns about plans for a massive Yangtze River diversion project. When he went public with them, he found out how difficult it can be to challenge a government decision in China.
Go check it out.
Map: Coutesy New York Times
4 responses so far ↓
1 Greg // Jan 12, 2009 at 11:19 am
Would another potential problem with the diversion be clogging of the channels by the large volume of silt that is in the Yangtze? What will the impact be on farming and agriculture along the Yangtze river basin with up to 1/3 of the water diverted away?
2 cmcelwee // Jan 13, 2009 at 3:06 pm
The whole project is insane.
3 Doctor Green Earth // Jan 1, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Generally speaking, the Eastern Route is not a problem:by the momentum of the turn of the earth, the solid, the earth tend to follow the movement , or rotation, turnning of the earth, while the water, the liquid has a tendency to drift behind, follow the course of the eastern route. The sediment, therefore, has a tendency of staying put. On top of that, the eastern route follows the thousand year Grant canal, which as time marches on, is more or less stable. As The Western Route concern, the rapidity of the water flow has been in place ever since the sub cession of the Indian Continent under the Asia, that has created the torrent of rapids ever since the millennium, and would probably stay the same no matter how many run off is added. Whether the mid route will create some sedimentation, or silt, only time could tell, and when it does, we must deal with it. The fact is, the north east China is fast becoming a desert (the desertification), and the area is also the industrial political and population center for its vast natural resources. It is not a matter if the water diversion should be done. It is how urgent it is and what is the difficulty in conquering the problems when arise.
4 Doctor Green Earth // Jan 1, 2010 at 9:43 pm
“up to one third of the water?” I do not know that it will be lost, or diverted to the extend of affecting the aggricultural since most of the water of Yantze river is going out to the east China Sea at the present. If it need to be precise what amount, it can be controlled by the series of dams.
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