Latest comments posted about Slideshow: water worries on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1847-Slideshow-water-worries http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/1847-Slideshow-water-worries These photos document the development of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as well as the consequences of unsuccessful attempts to adapt nature to human needs. There are a lot of glaciers inside Xinjiang, which is also the origin of many rivers of China. Excessive exploitation is a rampant problem. Another is that heavy metal discharged upstream causes the whole river to be polluted, all the way to the sea that the river flows into. Consequently the health of inhabitants living upstream and downstream, who drink the water and use it to irrigate their crop fields, is threatened. So economic development should always take a back seat to the public’s health and the environmental conservation. -Yan-Kai Wang Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:34:02 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7294 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7294 I think the photos are beautiful. Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:28:09 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7204 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7204 These photographs are generally speaking, extremely cropped versions. The originals which I've seen are more "striking" and more fully convey the issues. The originals can be seen at http://www.digitalrailroad.net/jabwass/Default.aspx Fri, 04 Apr 2008 23:02:24 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7197 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7197 It seems to me that most of China's photos about disasters emphasize solely the negative aspects, so we have trouble relating with photos that portray anything positive. In fact, there are two themes in this series of photos, namely "How great it is to have water" and "how hard it is without water". Maybe the author hopes to use the contrast between these two themes to influence readers. Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:20:55 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7195 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7195 China’s northwest arid areas are scarce in precipitation volume and melted glacier ice is the main supply of water for rivers. But the raise in temperature speed the reduction of glaciers, which poses a great challenge to the future consumption of water in the northwest China. Just imagine if all the rivers were dried up, how would the people in northwest China survive their lives? For my perspective, the eastward and southward migration campaign could be a solution, and the same kind of events used to happen in China. Through out China’s five thousand years history, the northwest people experienced four times of so-called “cold periods”, the detail of which are included in the following: 1. Xizhou Dynasty(1100BC-850BC),cold and wet. 2. Donghan Dynasty, Sango, Jin Dynasty and Northern and Southern Dynasties(100AD-600AD), dry at first and followed by wet. 3. Northern Song Dynasty, Northern Song Dynasty, Liao Dynasty, Jin Dynasty and Xia Dynasty(1000AD-1200AD). 4. Ming and Qing Dynasty(1300AD-1900AD). In Chinese history, the southward migration of the northern minorities and wars happened frequently during these four “cold periods”. Contrast to the climate in the large area of northern China, which was suddenly turned cold at that time and made it unsuitable for the surviving of human beings, the climate in the south, was quite favorable with warm and wet weather, accompanied by rich resources. For the sake of surviving, the northern minorities started their southward movement in history, during which fighting for living space became the central conflicts between them and the people in the central plains of China. Despite the frequency of battles, they actually enhanced the convergences between different races and fastened the development of Chinese culture. However, if the northwest people were moving to the other parts of China right now, I don’t think it would contribute to the communication and prosperous cultural development. Instead, the regions concerned will be much more crowded because of these new comers, and inevitably, a series of social issues would come up as a result of the increase in population. In that case, what kind of policy should the government have to deal with these people who are in the areas which have already been overpopulated? Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:11:17 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7180 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7180 Hi, I will look into your problem with the spam filter. I'm afraid we had to introduce these measures for good reasons: we had a problem with spam on chinadialogue that was affecting our comments pages and translations. We'll see what we can do, though. Sam (chinadialogue) Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:54:10 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7190 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7190 Perhaps this is a translation issue, but I thought the photos were certainly striking. Not in the sense that they were very alarming or dramatic, but firstly that they were strikingly GOOD photographs: interesting composition, impressive photojournalistic qualities. Secondly, they clearly showed some quite moving contrasts between water poverty and abundance. Consider, for instance the scene of the two girls collecting water from a well and the family fishing next to a factory belching pollution (that surely is striking). And compare this to the family playing in the Ili river or the vast outflow of the diversion canal if you want to see a striking contrast. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 08:50:50 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7189 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7189 Why has chinadialogue created such a long text to prevent spam. Is typing 7 letters necessary? I failed to post my comment, as it timed out after I finishing typing the long text. As such, I had to repost my comment. I strongly protest it and I think 4 letters should be the most. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:33:19 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7187 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7187 I agree to the comment 2. I had a look of all the pictures, I did not see anything "striking" there. Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:35:00 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7188 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7188 What does the word "striking" here refer to? Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:00:27 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7185 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/1847#comment-7185