{"id":20007838,"date":"2014-04-04T13:45:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T08:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=7838"},"modified":"2020-10-01T20:40:37","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T15:10:37","slug":"map-the-environmental-impact-of-chinas-dam-rush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/energy\/map-the-environmental-impact-of-chinas-dam-rush\/","title":{"rendered":"Map: The environmental impact of China\u2019s dam rush"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>China plans to increase its share of non-fossil energy to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/news.xinhuanet.com\/english2010\/china\/2011-03\/04\/c_13761105.htm\">11.4<\/a>% of total energy consumption through an additional\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.internationalrivers.org\/files\/attached-files\/final_rivers_report_english_small.pdf\">160 gigawatts<\/a>\u00a0of installed hydropower capacity by 2015, along with ambitious expansions in renewables and nuclear.<\/p>\n<p>By 2020, China plans to have\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.china.org.cn\/environment\/2011-01\/06\/content_21684012.htm\">430 gigawatts<\/a>\u00a0of installed hydropower capacity, more than Europe and the United States combined.A\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wilsoncenter.org\/wilsonweekly\/cef\/china_hydropower\/index.html\">bilingual interactive map<\/a>\u00a0published by the Wilson Center\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wilsoncenter.org\/program\/china-environment-forum\">China Environment Forum<\/a>\u00a0illustrates the scale \u2013 and potential costs \u2013 of China\u2019s hydropower plans. It highlights more than 90 major dams (22 in operation, 48 planned, and 23 under construction) that overlap with areas that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.conservation.org\/where\/priority_areas\/hotspots\/asia-pacific\/Mountains-of-Southwest-China\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Conservational International<\/a>\u00a0has identified as biodiversity hotspots.<\/p>\n<p>In southwestern China, three parallel rivers \u2013 the Nu,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/reports\/6811-The-uncertain-future-of-the-Mekong-River\/en\">Lancang<\/a>\u00a0and Jinsha (also known as the Upper Mekong, Salween and Yangtze, respectively) \u2013 form a series of corridors that connect the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia to the Tibetan Plateau. These areas are some of the most biodiverse in the world, and scientists argue they have value as \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.srs.fs.usda.gov\/pubs\/34378\">climate refugia<\/a>\u201d \u2013 places worth preserving in order to allow species to retreat to cooler, more suitable climates as temperatures rise. A cascade of dams, however, has been planned for the region, threatening to submerge habitats, reduce the flow of tributary rivers and make the area less suitable for many plant and animal species.<\/p>\n<p>But many of the existing, planned and under construction dams lack comprehensive environmental and social impact assessments. Chinese dam developers have also often failed to respond to concerns over the impacts in other Southeast Asian countries, limiting or sometimes outright refusing to share data on water and sediment flow.<\/p>\n<p>In December 2013, a group of Chinese environmental NGOs released a<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinariversreport.org\/\">comprehensive assessment of the damage done to China\u2019s rivers<\/a>\u00a0by hydropower development. They called for river protection legislation to set<a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinadialogue.net\/blog\/6682-China-needs-red-lines-to-protect-its-rivers-from-hydropower-craze\/en\">ecological \u201cred lines\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and promotion of other forms of renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p>How China balances hydropower development and ecological protection in the coming years will have far-reaching consequences on the wellbeing of China and mainland Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An interactive map illustrates the scale \u2013 and potential costs \u2013 of China\u2019s hydropower plans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1669,"featured_media":20014134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[757],"tags":[50040314,554,556,587,50040707],"hashtags":[],"country":[20000110],"class_list":["post-20007838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-dams","tag-hydropower","tag-infrastructure","tag-rivers","tag-the-third-pole","country-china"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v26.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Map: The environmental impact of China\u2019s dam rush | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An interactive map illustrates the scale \u2013 and potential costs \u2013 of China\u2019s hydropower plans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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