2008 Woodie Awards
The Green Beat
By: Anna Waugh, Associate News Editor
Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News
China's growing urban population has triggered an unprecedented need for power that has the country exploring three new large-scale developments. Three parallel gorges in the Yunnan province in the southwestern corner of the country are the locations for three proposed hydropower projects which Professor Darrin Magee of Hobart and William Smith Colleges has dubbed "The Three (Other) Gorges." If completed, the dams along these rivers would provide what some say is a renewable energy alternative to coal.
Last Thursday, Magee, who has studied dams and politics in China, spoke to about 45 students and faculty in Olin Rice 250 about China's energy future. Her talk was a part of EnviroThursday, a weekly lecture series sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department.
"[In China], hydropower is absolutely seen as renewable," Magee said. "If I'm honest, I'd rather see a Chinese dam than a Chinese coal plant. [Coal plants] come at a tremendous cost to the environment. Kilowatt by kilowatt, I think hydropower is less harmful, at least for human health. Ecosystems are a different story."
Last summer China surpassed the United States as the world's largest producer of CO2 emissions. And though the country has half of the world's large dams - over 20,000 in all - more than 75% of its growing need for energy is derived from coal.
The three proposed projects along the Lancang, Nu, and Jingsha Cascades, would collectively supply nearly 95,000 MW of power to the country. Each cascade would have a series of dams along it.
It is unknown how many people the flooding caused by damming the rivers would displace, but estimates are over 50,000.
"Not a whole lot," Magee said. "In China, you have a very different perspective in terms of displacing people, damaging ecosystems." In the Three Gorges Dam project in the Hubei province, for example, is expected to be completed in 2011, more than one million people will likely be displaced, Magee said.
Last Thursday, Magee, who has studied dams and politics in China, spoke to about 45 students and faculty in Olin Rice 250 about China's energy future. Her talk was a part of EnviroThursday, a weekly lecture series sponsored by the Environmental Studies Department.
"[In China], hydropower is absolutely seen as renewable," Magee said. "If I'm honest, I'd rather see a Chinese dam than a Chinese coal plant. [Coal plants] come at a tremendous cost to the environment. Kilowatt by kilowatt, I think hydropower is less harmful, at least for human health. Ecosystems are a different story."
Last summer China surpassed the United States as the world's largest producer of CO2 emissions. And though the country has half of the world's large dams - over 20,000 in all - more than 75% of its growing need for energy is derived from coal.
The three proposed projects along the Lancang, Nu, and Jingsha Cascades, would collectively supply nearly 95,000 MW of power to the country. Each cascade would have a series of dams along it.
It is unknown how many people the flooding caused by damming the rivers would displace, but estimates are over 50,000.
"Not a whole lot," Magee said. "In China, you have a very different perspective in terms of displacing people, damaging ecosystems." In the Three Gorges Dam project in the Hubei province, for example, is expected to be completed in 2011, more than one million people will likely be displaced, Magee said.
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