@Geezer
I can read French poorly - but I have no clue what I'm reading.
@Peter
China may have "gone off the rails" for you - but during that time of "going off the rails", it sustainably eliminated poverty for over 800 million citizens, with roughly half the GDP of the entire USA - for which it was recognized and lauded by the UN.
That feat is worthy of being called the 8th wonder of the world - as it's never ever been done before in the recorded history of the world.
Most westerners and quite a few domestic Chinese gripe about the freedoms observed and enjoyed in more open societies - but they don't have that massive burden of responsibility for 1.4 billion people.
In fact - the world should be ecstatic that China controls it's population. Can you imagine 1 million Chinese uber/lfty drivers in any country in the world - that's true asphalt terrorism.
Or constantly, consistently, and persistently flooding markets with whatever's trendy today - fly-by-night Starbucks knockoffs - 10 per city block - saturating the market until everybody goes bankrupt?
The examples are plentiful.
The system isn't great - but it's not there for entertainment or to make people feel good.
If you're REALLY interested in China affairs and trying to understand this country and its development philosophy - try reading any of the national five year plans - they even publish them in English. ndrc.gov.cn
They are some of the finest and most professional project management documents I've ever seen, worthy of being called "world class".
The western media typically and traditionally ridicules these plans, but that merely shows their extreme ignorance of the scientific method of world-class project management processes and the intended purpose(s) of these specific documents.
Has ANY ambassador or consulate general EVER read China's Five Year Plan? That will show you the maturity and intent of that country's key in-country representatives.
University in Yunnan requires students to run 240 kilometers for graduation
发布者As a parent - I'd send my kids there just because of that policy. I wonder if it'll spread to state owned companies.
Update: Kunming Metro Line 3 open as of August 29
发布者Wow - thanks for the update(s). This opens a brand new line of journalistic travel reporting fog gokm. What to see & do around each station (temples, eateries, entertainment, etc).
Look forwards to the municipal subway exit travel reporting (for tourists and locals alike).
And you can also do travel video spots for the local tv channels - chinese love (I think) to see foreigners who can speak reasonably fluently and whom are delighted with the local culture(s).
I'm just glad we can finally (maybe) get to dianchi without grabbing taxis, didiche or buses.
Report: Communally owned forests hold key to healthier China re-greening
发布者Central government mandates general or qualitative requirements, It is then the responsibility of various provinces to implement quantitative results.
How would one structure sustainable pilot projects, to demonstrate such diversity - to include funding and finance? Each ecosystem is diverse from the next - so to initiate a project requires finance to study the current (or previously existing) bio-diversity, to develop a sustainable plan to move forwards with responsibly and sustainably managed resources.
This requires access to academic and commercial resources - who won't work for free.
Alien's solution is direct, but probably not scalable, sustainable and therefore feasible (too many people - reduce population).
When presenting an issue or problem, it's always a good idea to have at least three potentially feasible solutions for discussion and implementation.
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
发布者please forgive the grammatical errors... (example conscious vs conscience)...etc.."dammed" spelling corrector...
Interview: Brian Eyler on Baihetan, China's second largest dam
发布者@east
Concur with your assessment - but fossil fuels are a known depleting asset, hence the long-term (perhaps beyond our lifespan) national impetus behind these assets.
Also agree that hydropower construction can be infinitely more LEED-ish in their construction behavior.
On that note - many of the more heavily polluting industries such as mining, refineries, etc can be made significantly cleaner through energy based solutions - which we have yet to witness generally in China.
For example, pollution from Guangzhou's fossil plants can energy-assisted technologies currently in use in developed countries - so that's perhaps a hybrid solution that benefits both parties - assuming one can find the funding to implement such technologies AND the project owners are sufficiently motivated to implement such cleaner technology supplements/complements - aka central government mandates, grants, and subsidies.
As for the legendary Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) - those usually come with FIT (Feed in Tariff) agreements - hence the short-term nature of these agreements. We've seen globally that FIT programs are short-term solutions to encourage market entry, but are non-sustainable.
As for grid congestion - that's an issue of planning. As you've noted, China and even developed countries still have not developed the technologies to enable efficient long-distance transmission of power.
Hydropower isn't going away - so the best solution is to hybridize and try to work with what we have to minimize all the valid issues you've raised and do our best to render these systems more ecologically harmonious - example hybridized sluice - where we can still sustainably maintain the downstream environments at a safe but sustainable level.
Too often, commercial and environmental interests stand diametrically opposed and commercial interests typically dominate.
So if you have viable suggestions that can be presented to the NDRC, I'd be more than willing and interested to discuss and perhaps help frame the projects and finance (in English, regrettably), along with potential downstream domestic government and pseudo-government investors, to add to hopefully create a potentially overwhelming sustainable, scalable, and feasible solution that NDRC can in good conscious mandate.
It's not a perfect solution - but perhaps a good first step to more responsible resource utilization and management and infinitely better than standing still, diametrically opposed.
I suppose this would be called "managed wetlands" or something like that (as opposed to eliminated wetlands) - assuming the issue is downstream wetland ecosystems.
Feel free to PM (private mail) me to discuss how to move forwards - perhaps even generate multi-lateral support.
While it may not seem apparent, ALL governmental infrastructure projects require feasibility studies, which include social and environmental impact studies - so the first starting place is to examine those studies, to understand the current standard government logic and behavior in approving and or waiving of those social and environmental costs.
To access this information, you'll absolutely need a strong commercial or government partner - the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Again - the objective is to change the working model so we're all actively working together as opposed to butting heads (with a little central government mandate to help encourage the reticent).