The Three Gorges: a wiser approach
Liu Jiangqiang
October 23, 2007
China’s central government recently warned of a potential ecological catastrophe caused by the huge Three Gorges dam, once hailed as the country’s greatest undertaking in 1,000 years. Liu Jianqiang reports on how views of the project have changed.
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问题一直都存在，为什么到现在才能正视？
不管怎样，我们为政府的进步感到庆幸。
The problem has been in place for a long time. Why do we admit it this late? Anyway, we are happy to see the improvements on the government side.
三峡的问题折射出一个更开明开放的政府，实事求是的正视和公开公正的讨论应对措施，这恐怕也是科学发展观所要求的。
这几年政府的确进步了不少，官员素质也提高了不少。中国仍然有很多矛盾和问题，政府需要快速成长，跟上这个快速发展的时代。
The issue of Three Gorges Project reflects that our government is open-minded and reasonable in discussing remedy with the public, which conforms to the scientific concept of development. In recent years the government has made progress and the quality of government officials has improved. There still exist many conflicts and problems in China, which requires our government make more progress to keep in pace with this era of rapid growth.
问题已经在这里了，怎么解决呢，我们期待政府的行动！
The issue is right in front of us. How to resolve it? We are expecting actions of the government!
二十年！
有些事不能只指责政府，企业，科研机构，媒体和民众各有其责任！
20 years! We can not blame government, industry and research institute for every thing, media and people have their own responsibilities.
三峡工程上马是政策不透明，媒体不开放的必然产物。其实早在八十年代，著名水利学家，清华大学教授黄万里就反对这项工程，他提出了许多致命的问题，但就象三门峡一样，他的反对并没有得到政治领导应有的重视。
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/
%E9%BB%84%E4%B8%87%E9%87%8C
八十年代展开的由中国科学院牵头的三峡工程对生态环境影响课题的结论基本是负面的，但这些似乎都没能阻止这项工程的开。
最令人遗憾的是，和三门峡一样，三峡工程的问题最终不会有什么人为此负任何责任的。
Three Gorges Project is the inevitable result of lacking transparency in policies and media. Actually as early as 1980’s, a famous expert in water conservancy, Professor Huang Wanli from Tsinghua University, was against this project. He raised many important questions, but similar to the case of Sanmen Xia, his opinion was not given enough attention by the government. http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/
%E9%BB%84%E4%B8%87%E9%87%8C
Initiated by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1980’s, a research about the influence of Three Gorges Project on the ecosystem reached a worrying conclusion. However, it seems that all those doubts didn’t put an end to the project. It is a shame that similar to the case of Sanmen Xia, no one will shoulder any responsibilities for those problems caused by Three Gorges Project.
我很欣赏本文对于三峡大坝所面临问题的概述。现在，我想进一步阐明一些观点，这些观点也是作者想要阐述的--对于支持和反对三峡大坝的人来说，了解大坝对于长江和周边环境的实际影响是很重要的。首先，三峡大坝已经具有了巨大的象征意义，因此政府不可能就此罢手。况且在大坝建设过程中，批评人士也没有提出什么建设性的意见。现在也只好关注于工程项目、生态环境和人们的生活了。
I appreciated this article for its broad overview of some of the problems faced by the dam. Just to bring out further a point that I think the author makes--it's important now for both pro- and anti-dam campaigners to look pragmatically at how it is changing the Yangtze and the surrounding area. Part of the problem in the first place is that the dam became a huge symbol, such that the government couldn't back down, and those against the Three Gorges Dam made few constructive suggestions once it was already underway. Now those involved can hopefully focus in on engineering, ecology, and people's livelihoods.
-Ross, San Francisco
环境保护和经济发展的矛盾似乎不可调和.
面对经济利益的时候,那些即得利益者更多的是选择破坏生态,践踏别人的利益.
It seems that the conflict between environmental protection and economic development is irreconcilable. Facing profits,those beneficiaries would more likely to damage eco-system and jeopardies others' interests.
实在太晚了，大坝已经投入了使用。政府不能简单地拆除大坝。首先大坝满足了防洪的需要；其次大坝处淤积的泥沙有毒，很难清除；再次，如果拆除大坝，水库里的淤泥将形成新的水坝，并将给下游带来更多的泥沙和污染。当然，重庆和成都的发展与三峡大坝紧密相连，同时上海的大部分电力供应也依靠于此。中国政府太急于开展三峡工程了，现在该怎么解决这个问题？
It is really too late, the dam has taken on a life of its own. The gov't can't tear it down for 1. flood control reasons and 2. the silt built up behind it is so toxic it cannot be remediated. 3. if the dam was remediated, the silt deposited in the reservoir is its own dam and will spread more silt and pollution down river.
And of course, the development of Chongqing and Chengdu hinges on the Three Gorges Reservoir, as well as a large portion of Shanghai's power supply.
Beijing pushed this project too hard, now what?
三峡大坝 到底是对是错 历史会给出答案
The Three Gorges--right or wrong?--leave it to the history
将这个问题看作是经济增长与环境之间的的冲突，它的问题在于这种经济模式并不能带来可持续发展。如果不计算环境成本：那就是stern报告中所描述的外在性--存在但没有算进资产负债表的成本。绿色GDP则试图将这种成本考虑在内，以给出真实的情况。一般的大坝项目很少能达到预期的发电量。多数情况下，项目会遇到严重问题，只能达到预期发电量的三分之一，这还是在计算各种成本之前的数据。
The problem with seeing this as a conflict between economic growth and the environment is that this kind of economic model does not deliver sustainable growth. It only look like growht if you don't count the environmental cost: that is what the Stern report describes as externalities -- those costs that exist but are not in the balance sheet. Green GDP accounting tries to take account of these costs to give a true accounting. Big dams very rarely deliver the energy outputs that their supporters promise. Most of them suffer serious siltation and deliver only about one third of the projected output, even before we count the costs in other ways.
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