A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
One potential benefit of the Three Gorges dam is to reduce China's reliance on coal and fossil fuels for electricity and heating, though the price paid in social dislocation and environmental destruction is rather too high. But now that it's basically a done deal, we may as well look at the bright side.

China is highly polluted, due in large part to the widespread use of coal. Currently, over 70% of China's energy is provided by it, adn the result is smog like you wouldn't believe and acid rain affecting 40% of the country, plus Korea and Japan. Nine out of ten of the world's most polluted cities are here in China, and by 2005 China is expected to be the world's #1 source of air pollution.

Though Chinese don't wear the pollution masks common in Ho Chi Minh City, the effects of the dirty air are everywhere, from the respiratory ailments and chronic colds endemic to the region to the permanently gray and dirty buildings in practically every town and city in China. I have no idea why they even bother to paint anything white here -- within 2 years everything looks like a slum. I certainly don't want to encourage the Chinese to pursue future projects as massively damaging and questionably valuable as the Three Gorges Dam, but at least they're starting to get some renewable energy sources that won't pollute the countryside for decades to come.

Copyright 2003 Katy Warren
posted by Katy at 8:02 AM