Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River
Nature and Power in the People's Republic of China
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- 249,00 kr
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- 249,00 kr
Utgivarens beskrivning
China’s meteoric rise to economic powerhouse might be charted with dams. Every river in the country has been tapped to power exploding cities and factories—every river but one. Running through one of the richest natural areas in the world, the Nujiang’s raging waters were on the verge of being dammed when a 2004 government moratorium halted construction. Might the Chinese dragon bow to the “Angry River"? Would Beijing put local people and their land ahead of power and profit? Could this remote region actually become a model for sustainable growth?
Ed Grumbine traveled to the far corners of China’s Yunnan province to find out. He was driven by a single question: could this last fragment of wild nature withstand China’s unrelenting development? But as he hiked through deep-cut emerald mountains, backcountry villages, and burgeoning tourist towns, talking with trekking guides, schoolchildren, and rural farmers, he discovered that the problem wasn’t as simple as growth versus conservation.
In its struggle to “build a well-off society in an all-round way,” Beijing juggles a host of competing priorities: health care for impoverished villagers; habitat for threatened tigers; cars for a growing middle class; clean air for all citizens; energy to power new cities; rubber for the global marketplace.
Where the Dragon Meets the Angry River is an incisive look at the possible fates of China and the planet. Will the Angry River continue to flow? Will Tibetan girls from subsistence farming families learn to read and write? Can China and the United States come together to lead action on climate change? Far-reaching in its history and scope, this unique book shows us the real-world consequences of conservation and development decisions now being made in Beijing and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
For teacher and author Grumbine (Ghost Bears), visiting China's Yunan Province was an eye opener; as an expert on environmental issues, his concern over U.S. "protected area policies" had shielded him from far more profound problems abroad, especially the potential conflict between renewable energy development and biodiversity protection among the "88 percent of the world's humans who lack electricity, potable drinking water, basic education and healthcare." Though they've already built more dams than any other country, China's plan to build 13 new ones on three Himalayan rivers will have a huge impact on Yunan, a biological paradise home to orchids, snow leopards, fifteen species of primates and more. An international grass-roots outcry has put the project on hold, good news for the Golden Monkey but, as a staffer from the nature conservancy points out, bad news for the area's 200,000 impoverished villagers. Further complications include the fact that, should the new dams be scrapped, the growth rate of China's already-troublesome carbon dioxide emissions will be far worse. Grumbine's account demonstrates how first-hand experience broadened his understanding of the problem, requiring an approach that balances "using nature and protecting it." With much information on Beijing's efforts to reach an equitable solution, Grumbine's careful reconsideration of world conservation efforts is an important read for policy makers and grass-roots advocates.