Meltdown in Tibet: China's Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia"An engrossing look at the devastation wrought in Tibet by the Chinese government, and the cascading environmental problems that follow." ―Lester R. Brown, President, Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B 4.0 Tibetans have experienced waves of genocide since the 1950s. Now they are facing ecocide. The Himalayan snowcaps are in meltdown mode, due to climate change—accelerated by a rain of black soot from massive burning of coal and other fuels in both China and India. The mighty rivers of Tibet are being dammed by Chinese engineering consortiums to feed the mainland's thirst for power, and the land is being relentlessly mined in search of minerals to feed China's industrial complex. On the drawing board are plans for a massive engineering project to divert water from Eastern Tibet to water-starved Northern China. Ruthless Chinese repression leaves Tibetans powerless to stop the reckless destruction of their sacred land, but they are not the only victims of this campaign: the nations downstream from Tibet rely heavily on rivers sourced in Tibet for water supply, and for rich silt used in agriculture. This destruction of the region's environment has been happening with little scrutiny until now. In Meltdown in Tibet, Michael Buckley turns the spotlight on the darkest side of China's emergence as a global super power. " Meltdown in Tibet is an instructive book on the roof of the world. Its documentation is impeccable, and it deals with Tibet seen from a rarely tackled angle: its role in world climate." ―Forbes.com "Buckley renders an important service in this outspoken book by . . . [documenting] the calamitous consequences of China's unsparing usurpation of Tibet's natural resources." ― The Washington Post |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 5 | |
PART ONE LISTENING TO GLACIERS | 11 |
PART TWO ECOCIDE IN THE LAND OF SNOWS | 41 |
PART THREE THE POLITICS OF WATER | 165 |
APPENDICES | 225 |
| 249 | |
| 250 | |
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altitude antelopes Bangladesh bar-headed geese Beijing Bhutan black carbon blue poppy Brahmaputra Burma Cambodia cashmere China Chinese authorities Chinese engineers Chinese tourists climate change coal companies Dalai Lama dam builders dam building dam construction Delta earth ecosystem environment environmental feet fish flooding flow Ganges glaciers global grasslands groundwater Gyama Himalayan huge hydropower impact India Indus International Kailash kayaks Lake Tonle Sap land large dams Lhasa Litang major megadams Mekong meltdown miles million minerals mining Mongolia monsoon Motuo Mount Kailash mountain nations downstream Nature Reserve Nepal nomads Pakistan parks percent permafrost plans plants pollution population protest Qinghai rafting railway region reservoir sacred Salween self-immolations shahtoosh Sichuan species Tenzin Thailand Three Gorges Dam Tibet Tibetan antelope Tibetan mastiff Tibetan nomads Tibetan Plateau Tonle Sap Tsering tunnel villagers water resources wild wildlife Woeser Yamdrok Tso Yangtse Yarlung Tsangpo Yellow River Yunnan