ForumGarden

Scrat, I've seen this river, too and I've seen the charming old villages which are now drowned by rising waters. Have you heard the international group of geophysicists who've raise alarms about the weight of all that water on the FAULT which created the river? If an earthquake is triggered and the dam breaks, millions will die!

Were they building the ubiquitous apartment buildings when you were there? I felt very, very sorry for the older folks, moving unwillingly from their villages into ugly hi-rises!

I felt very, very sorry for the older folks, moving unwillingly from their villages into ugly hi-rises!


Trump towers perhaps?

Adam...they don't look one bit like the Trump towers, although the Chinese government will tell your that they're the next best thing!

They DO look like giant, grey concrete pillars with rooms inside. What's happened to the Chinese people who've lived for thousands of years along the Yangtse is that their cramped/narrow/higgletypigglety/historic villages have been replaced by sterile towers mandated by the government.

Villages which grew up around ancient temples are now gone. Villages which grew up around the trade with passing river vessels are now gone. Villages which survived on fishing from the river are now gone. Farmers who grew crops along the fertile river banks are now gone.

The ancient "village" mentality has been replaced by a series of apartments.

The river has been "tamed," and hopefully, "economic progress" will not be hampered by engineering misjudgements in the placement of the dam.

We can't do anything about the endangered species who are now "out of a job" along that river (and there are several, including a rare river dolphin.) And we can't do anything to save the architecture or the religious heritage of temples and villages drowned. (I've been to the "ghost city" and will never forget the ancient rock carvings which are now under water.)

Much of China is an ecological disaster. Mao told the farmers to kill all the songbirds because "they ate the farmers' seeds." Of course, this was nonsense, but they did it....and in the cities, the only birds you'll see are pigeons. Those pigeons have survived only due to their extreme "flight" reflex! Otherwise, they'd be gone, too.

The air in much of China is so foul that your photographs will show YELLOW SKY! Tour guides blame that on the "farmers are burning corn husks" theory....but you and I know that it's SMOG...plain and simple. Ten friends and I spent nearly a month in many parts of China and we all got horrible respiratory infections, because our (healthy) lungs couldn't handle the high particulate count in the air.

(Did you know that the Chinese joke that their "national bird" is the CONSTRUCTION CRANE?)



And all in the name of PROGRESS! And ignorance of any impact that all this "economic growth" will have on the environment. And heaven forbid that anyone from the west might criticize it!

"Of course western scientists are going to predict catastrophy!!! This is good for China therefore it must be bad for everyone else. They have to point out all of the bad things they can, it's like a childs game. "

You need to get YOUR facts straight. Criticism of this dam and the environmental disaster that is China is not political. You seem to have an agenda or at least a prejudice.

What's good for the Chinese environment is good for China. What's bad for the Chinese environment is bad for the world, in the long run.

Certainly all big cities have problems. Pointing that out doesn't diffuse for a minute the mess going on there and the obvious decision by the Chinese to make things worse in the name of "progress."

I give them enormous credit for managing their population and for the gradual emergence of a capitalistic system. There's much to be done.

"Right on. I don't care for barking moonbat libs or the likes of capitalistic neocon morons."

Neither do I. And I sincerely hope you're not painting ME with those considerably less than flattering phrases. They do roll quite glibly off your lips.