The Question(s) of Tibet - World Affairs Council

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
remote parts of the Tibetan borderlands, collecting plants, taking photographs and collating
maps. He described his trips in several articles in the National Geographic journal. After reading
his articles, I was inspired to revisit places he described in Sichuan and Yunnan such as Muli,
Yading, Deqin and Gongga Shan. This blog describes my travels and compares Rock's pictures
with ones I have taken in the same places.
HUNT INSTITUTE FOR BOTANICAL DOCUMENTATION: JOSEPH FRANCIS ROCK
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/HIBD/Departments/Archives/Archives‐HR/Rock.shtml
This website contains biographical information about Joseph Rock and photographs.
WATER/RIVER ISSUES
MOUNTAINS OF CONCRETE: DAM BUILDING IN THE HIMALAYAS (2008)
http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/IR_Himalayas_rev.pdf
Recent years have seen a renewed push for building dams in
the Himalayas. Massive plans are underway in Pakistan,
India, Nepal and Bhutan6 to build several hundred dams in
the region, with over 150,000 Megawatts (MW) of additional
capacity proposed in the next 20 years in the four countries. If
all the planned capacity expansion materializes, the
Himalayan region could possibly have the highest
concentration of dams in the world. This dam building
activity will fundamentally transform the landscape, ecology
and economy of the region and will have far‐reaching
impacts all the way down to the river deltas. Submergence of
lands, homes, fields and forests on a large scale will displace
hundreds of thousands of people. Damming and diversion of
Why Tibet matters so much.
The Tibetan plateau is the water-tower of all Asia. The
Yellow River, the Yangtse, the Mekong, the Salween,
the Iriwaddy, the Brahmaputra, the Ganga and
Yamuna, the Indus complex -- all these rivers rise in
environmental Tibet, and the cleanness and fertility and
glacial cool of the plateau are critical to the health of
these nine alluvia that sustain the lives of over three
billion people, in the most populated swathe of peoples
on earth, from the Chinese, through the Vietnamese,
Cambodians, Laotians, Thai, Burmese, Bangladeshis,
Indians, up to the Pakistanis. The de-forestation,
dessication, pollution, and overheating due to
colonization of the headwater regions of all these rivers
will be a global disaster of epic proportions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-thurman/whytibet-matters-so-much_b_465496.html
rivers will severely disrupt the downstream flows, impacting agriculture and fisheries and
threatening livelihoods of entire populations. Degradation of the natural surroundings and a
massive influx of migrant workers will have grave implications for the culture and identity of
local people, who are often distinct ethnic groups small in numbers….
A NEW ERA FOR TIBET’S RIVERS (1/17/11)
http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/4055
The rushing waters of the Yarlung Zangbo, the last of China’s great rivers to remain
undammed, will soon be history. On November 12 last year, the builders of the Zangmu
Hydropower Station announced the successful damming of the river – the first public
announcement on a matter that, until now, has been kept under wraps. The Zangmu
hydroelectric power station is being built on the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo (known
as the Brahmaputra when it reaches India) between the counties of Sangri and Gyaca. Around
7.9 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) is being invested in the project, located in a V‐shaped valley
3,200 metres above sea level. At 510 megawatts, the plant is much smaller than China’s 18,000‐
megawatt Three Gorges Dam, but still equivalent to the entire existing hydropower‐generating
capacity of Tibet.
World Affairs Council Teacher Resource Packet – The Question(s) of Tibet February 28, 2011
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