MCLC: Nu River project threatens region (1)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Thomas123 <bate888 at gmail.com>
Subject: Nu River project threatens region (1)
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Here is another ³balanced² anti-Chinese-government NYT article that cannot
go unanswered. Andrew Jacobs¹ language is almost as breathless as the
people who have to inhale sulfur dioxide and particulate emissions from
coal-fired power plants in China.

 
Much of the article is lifted (dangerously close to plagiarism, in my
opinion) from material found in a January 29, 2013 article written by
Jonathan Kaiman for The Guardian and reprinted in the Sydney Morning
Herald January 31, 2013; Kaiman¹s sources in turn were several
Beijing-based ³green² activist groups responding to a government
information release of the week before.

 
Jacobs¹ article fails to mention the location of the dams except that they
are slated for the ³upper reaches² of the 2,700 km river. None would be
located within the area of the so-called ³Grand Canyon of the east² which
covers about 600 km of the middle reaches of the river. None would be
within any UN World Heritage Site. None of the alarmist claims by the
environmentalists are supported by fact.

 
The proposed dams are hydroelectric, not irrigation projects. As such they
would not divert any river water, unlike the irrigation projects proposed
jointly by the Burmese and Thai governments for the lower reaches of the
river, which if approved would most certainly affect residents of the
river¹s densely populated delta.

 
The four dams are what are left of a 13-dam proposal (the Chinese
government does listen). These dams would go a long way towards
eliminating or reducing the 100 million tons of coal burning currently
done annually to supply electric power to Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. In
addition, they would foster some level of improved living conditions for
those residing in the regions directly affected by the dams. Surely, no
one who looks at photos of current living and farming conditions in the
area can begrudge some such improvements for the local people.

 
Thomas Bate