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.Subject: Re: China2004 Environment Group
To: Paul, Mary, Susan, Ed, Trish
Subject: Re: China2004 Environment
It's time to hammer together a lesson by committee, as I understand it. :~
Reviewing the notes posted by Susan before the trip, I see that we were supposed to cull something from the Daoist lecture? Did any of you cull any coherent notes? Did anyone even UNDERSTAND what the professor said? I sure as hell didn't, and I can't make any sense of my notes. :} I suggest that one of us produce a good summary of Daoist attitudes towards nature. Secondly, Susan posted a good response to the environmental problems/criticisms of the building of the 3 Gorges Dam. I refer you all to Article 9 in the McGraw-Hill publication, Global Studies: China 10th Edition (2004), entitled "Dam the Consequences." They mention several problems in addition to the problem of sa
lmon not being able to travel upstream to spawn. These include the loss of age-old heritage sites, the removal of people from ancestral homes without adequate compensation, and refusal to consider the full ramifications of this project as well as several others. When the Communists came to power in 1949, there were just 22 large dams. Now the PRC has 22,000, almost half of the global total.
This comes at a time when large dams are falling out of favor and there is talk of removing the Hetch Ketchy.
On the other hand, China is dealing with the need to control flooding, channel water to various irrigation projects, and the need to generate more electicity for the growing cities of eastern China. (There was a recent article in the L.A.Times about the blackouts and how factories have to deal with the lack of power.) There is a tension between modern growth and Daoist respect for nature. It makes a difference that most of China's senior Communist Party leadership were trained in engineering or technical fields. Li Peng graduated from the Dept. of Hydro-Power generation at the Moscow Power Institute and Hu Jintao is also a hydraulic engineer.
I suggest this as a possible focus of our lesson. Any ideas?
Later,
Paul
