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Social and environmental vandalism

23rd May 2006

Image source: BBC news

Broadcast on live television, the wall for Three Gorges Dam was completed the other day to much flag waving. This concrete monstrosity will go down in history as one the biggest acts of ecological terrorism ever perpetrated. The goons masquerading as economic advisors to the Chinese government will no doubt receive accolades for this ‘masterstroke’ which will ease the problems China has in generating enough power to meet the needs of its burgeoning economic growth. Apart from the fact it is way over budget (some estimates place total cost at USD100 billion) … if only this money had gone into solar, wind or geothermal energy … the social impact is of obscene proportions (1 million people relocated) and the ongoing, irreversible environmental consequences incalculable.

Environmental league table unveiled at Davos

26th January 2006

Image source: ft.com
According to a report published in Der Spiegel, the New Zealanders are the cleanest and greenest in the world. The 2006 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), jointly produced by Yale University and Columbia University, is to be released today at the World Economic Forum. After the Kiwis, it ranks Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom second to fifth respectively. The United States comes in at number 28, behind most of Western Europe — no surprise there — but also below the likes of Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile. I wonder if things would have been different if Al Gore had not been robbed of the presidency in 2000. The subject of his new book suggests they might of.

The Amazon basin drought

16th October 2005

Brazilian fishermen stand among dead fish along an Amazon tributary
Image source: planetark.com

Just as deforestation has affected rainfall patterns in China, the dramatic images from the drought-stricken Amazon basin this week shows what happens when 6 football pitches of rainforest are cut down every minute. As this latest environmental catastrophe is one of a long line of such incidents around the world recently, it has barely registered with the world’s media, yet it affects 61 municipalities and threatens the livelihoods of millions of people.

The Mumbai floods

4th September 2005

Image source: outlookindia.com

While events in New Orleans now make the Maharashtra politicians and bureaucrats look ‘less bad’, as The Economist noted in a recent article, After the deluge, ecologically irresponsible development contributed to the floods that brought Mumbai to a standstill for almost a week in late July. The monsoon is an annual event. This year it was particularly intense (944mm [37 inches] falling on parts of the city in one day), but rather than becoming better equipped to deal with the deluge, new development has actually served to weaken the city’s defences. ‘Large areas of protective mangrove had been razed’ in one notorious example, to make way for a golf course’ notes The Economist. ‘Developers have built on wetlands, clogging natural drainage channels. River banks have been reclaimed and become slums.’ There is little doubt that this year’s floods are a reflection of the goverment’s failure to maintain Mumbai’s ageing infrastructure, particularly the storm-drains and sewers, but even if they had been upgraded, the water still has to go somewhere!

A trip to Sembawang

22nd April 2005

Sembawang beach (facing south)

After perusing the Singapore weekend papers on the ‘raging debate’ (sic) about the proposed casino (should Singapore be hip and have one to bring in squillions of dollars of tourist revenue each year, or take the moral high ground and remain boring), I decided that this was way too controversial for me and I set out to see if this country I temporarily call home has the remnants of a ‘soul’ somewhere. I’d read in a Reuters report that, amazingly, the Republic of Singapore has grown in size by around 20% over the last 40 years — that’s not population, but area. Roy and HG once joked that such was the Singaporean zeal for land reclamation, it wouldn’t be long before ex-pats like me could take a weekend drive back to Australia. Maybe the only thing that’s preventing this happening is that there aren’t many hills left to bulldoze in Singapore, and the Indonesians stopped them dredging sand from the ocean bed a couple of years ago because it was starting to affect their coastline! Anyway, in this Reuters report, a reference was made to Sembawang Beach at the northern tip of the island, and how this was one of the last remaining ‘natural’ beaches, the others being man made, a few dumper loads of sand having been tossed around the concrete retaining walls after the land reclamation process. I also read that a small group was lobbying to save this beach from reclamation and development and had even gone to the extent of setting up a web site to “provide quiet feedback” to the government. This sent my pulse racing and I simply had to see this beach with my own eyes.

China and the illegal logging industry

27th March 2005

Image source: Reuters

At a seminar in Singapore a few months ago I shared a table at lunch with some Singaporean Ministry of Defence personnel. One of these officials commented on the illegal logging going on in Kalimantan, covertly supported by the Indonesian military, who accept bribes to turn a blind eye to what is going on. Indeed, a posting there is highly sought after because it represents such a lucrative opportunity.

In an article in The Economist this week, Green Guise, there is a suggestion that having stuffed up its own environment through excessive logging, China is now helping other countries to do the same. (The article is reproduced in full below.)

Economic growth in China

11th March 2005

A young migrant worker shovels heavily polluted mud and water from an almost dried up river bed. Image source: AFP.
http://english.epochtimes.com/news/4-2-5/19422.html

On BBC World these last few days, I’ve been watching China Week with interest – a special feature on the consequences of rapid growth in this country. One clip that particularly caught my eye was the one on the disastrous Three Gorges Project, which I have written about before in this blog. What worries me is that while you do get the odd snippet of good news coming out of China regarding sustainable development, the simple fact of the matter is that if the Chinese live like North Americans, we’re in big trouble. To get some idea as the stresses and strains Chinese consumption at American levels would cause, I recommend the latest Eco-Economy update written by Lester Brown (reproduced below if the link is broken). As a student of international political economy as well as ecological economics, in my darker moments I ponder about the geopolitical consequences of the Chinese not being able to feed themselves.

The disappearing arbres d’alignement

17th February 2004

That trashy, left-wing environmental mag The Economist is at it again — this time printing an article, Killer trees, that laments over the removal of roadside trees. Incredibly, some 3 million such trees (90 per cent in total) have been cut down in the last 30 years because of road ‘improvements’ and fears about road deaths. For non-subscribers the full article is reproduced below.

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Category: Ecological degradation