October 22, 2000

12:27 AM

New evidence of madness in the halls of power in the Chinese Empire. An excellent example of how water issues will dominate in the 21st century.
posted by aflakete (8 comments total)

Via Drudge.
posted by aflakete at 12:29 AM on October 22, 2000

This will be an unmitigated disaster for the entire eastern asian continent. Every country with rivers seems to have hydro dam nazis in the government, unfortunately China controls the source of so many rivers.
A quick glance at the map shows that in that small location is the source of four of the most important rivers in asia (the Brahmaputra, the Irrawaddy, the Mekong and the Yangze), side by side, one valley after the other.
It's a real problem when sovereign states upstream can do whatever they like to the rivers they control regardless of the wishes of those downstream who depend on it.
China in this masterstroke will single handedly piss off India, Bangladesh, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, let alone the long suffering Tibetans.

posted by lagado at 3:32 AM on October 22, 2000

Nitpick alert: China ain't an empire, it's a "people's republic."

Another "water issue" is the construction of a dam in Turkey. This hydro-electric dam is on the Euphrates, a major river supplying water to neighbouring desert-countries like Syria and Iraq. Imagine Turkey for some reason denying water to those countries; they could start a war. (more info here)
posted by ar0n at 6:18 PM on October 22, 2000

I don't think China will be able to pull this one off. The nukes will piss off Europe and the USA, and the water diversions will piss off India. They were able to do the Three Gorges project because it was an internal matter, but every nuclear power seems to feel that the use of nuclear weapons is their business. This one will be just slightly more controversial.

You know, I try to respect other cultures, and the fact that things look a lot different from my seat in the rarefied heights of United States yuppiedom than they do on the ground in less-developed areas, but I feel nothing but the most powerful disgust for the Chinese government. This sort of bullshit is just inconceivably arrogant. I want to beat the hell out of them with a clue stick. Get out of Tibet, go nuke your own mountains if you have an itchy trigger finger. Stop polluting your own damn rivers if you need more water to drink, don't steal everyone else's water. And stop bloody reproducing already.

I don't know how the Dalai Lama does it.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:24 AM on October 23, 2000

It is terrible form to make a statement with posting a link as a source, but I read somewhere that Monsanto has already targeted water scarcity as a profit machince for the next century. I recall they were doing their best to be the ones who own and sell water in lower Asia.
This cannot be bad news for those bad guys.
posted by thirteen at 11:49 AM on October 23, 2000

I felt bad, so I looked one up. This is not the one I read, but it says nearly the same thing.Monsanto sucks, (staying true to form, I must add blocking streets sucks too!)
posted by thirteen at 11:56 AM on October 23, 2000

Anyone else have the feeling like the world is turning into some science-fiction story come true? Nukes for landscaping?
posted by th3ph17 at 12:19 PM on October 23, 2000

. And stop bloody reproducing already.

Errr...Mars. I was with you 100% until the last line. That's one thing the Chinese have been working on for some time now (and in that inimitable Chinese way).

My main concern now is that there are one quarter of a billion Americans consuming 60% of the world's resources.

Little known fact: if all the Americans jumped at the same time it would causes earthquakes on the other side of the world. Let alone farting at the same time!

;-j
posted by lagado at 3:48 PM on October 23, 2000