Dams

New World Bank President Needs to Make Infrastructure Work for the Poor

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.21.2012

Read More: Infrastructure, Foreign Aid, Dams, World Bank, Economic Development, International Rivers, Clean Energy, Global Poverty, Congo, Clean Water, World News

The World Bank should shift its ample resources -- its lending, guarantees, technical assistance and policy advice -- from the top-down projects of the past to the bottom-up solutions of the future.

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Chinese Corruption Party Undermines China's Stability

Cleo Paskal | Posted 04.30.2012

Read More: Corruption, Infrastructure, India, Dams, Hu Jintao, Three Gorges Dam, Chinese Communist Party, Typhoon, Sovereign Wealth Fund, China, World News

Corruption is literally built into the foundations of modern China. The construction and infrastructure sectors are two of the most corrupt in country, putting at risk China's vaunted development, and also potentially endangering its neighbors.

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Healthy Rivers, Not Dammed Ones, Needed to Combat Climate Change

Lori Pottinger | Posted 01.30.2012

Read More: Renewable Energy, Durban, Dams, International Rivers, Climate, Google Earth, Google Earth Dams Video, Durban Conference, Green News

A new 3-D Google Earth video illustrates three key reasons that large dams are the wrong response to climate change.

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Can We Handle Nature's New Norm? (Part 2)

William S. Becker | Posted 11.08.2011

Whether or not we are ready to conclude that today's extreme weather events are linked to global climate change, it would be utterly irresponsible for us to ignore the possibility.

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3 Key Strategic Ingredients for the President's Get America Working Plan

Paul Abrams | Posted 10.14.2011

Read More: Harry Hopkins, Sewers, Water Pipes, Labor, Bridges, Direct Hiring, Supercongress, March on Washington, Middle Class, Deficit Reduction, Dams, Wpa, Roads, Republicans, Economy, Growing Jobs, Retrofitting Buildings, Politics News

The argument is not that government should do everything, any more than the private sector can do everything, but that there are critical functions that government can uniquely perform.

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A Stimulus Plan For Seafood: Tear Down Those Dams

The Atlantic | Posted 09.25.2011

Read More: Salmon, Stimulus Plan, Dams, Dam Removal, New Deal, Seafood Stimulus Plan, Seafood, Food News

As the fight over the debt ceiling rages on and feeble talks of bad compromises make Americans feel ever more underwater, the Obama policy that has be...

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Greenwashing Hydropower

Peter Bosshard | Posted 08.16.2011

Read More: Green News, Rivers, Hydropower, Belo-Monte-Dam-Project, Corporate Social Responsibility, Dams, Greenwashing, Green News

Hydropower projects need to be based on a balanced assessment of all available options, the full participation of affected communities, strict social and environmental guidelines, and public oversight.

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China's Water Woes Revisited: The State of Play in 2011

Jeffrey Wasserstrom | Posted 08.14.2011

Read More: History, Drought, Dams, Flood, Environment, World, Power, Development, China, China Water, World News

In my conversations with Ken Pomeranz, one of the world's leading specialists in Chinese history, I have learned a lot about how complex a role issues relating to water have played in China's past and continue to play in China's present.

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Don't Sacrifice the Planet's Arteries to Save Her Lungs

Peter Bosshard | Posted 08.14.2011

Read More: Rivers, Dams, Ipcc, Biodiversity, Renewable Energy, Hydropower, Climate Change, Green Energy, International Rivers, Green News

A new IPCC report demonstrates that there is a vast potential for energy technologies that have much lower environmental and social impacts than hydro-powered dams.

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How Dams Can Kick Up a Storm and Change Our Climate

Peter Bosshard | Posted 08.08.2011

Read More: Yangtze River, Floods, Rivers, Drought, Dams, Storms, Green News, Carbon Dioxide, Three Gorges Dam, Climate Change, Green Energy, Methane, Green News

Reservoirs don't only influence rainfall and droughts in their vicinity. They also contribute to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases.

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Mao, Tao and the Three Gorges Dam

Peter Bosshard | Posted 07.26.2011

Read More: Rivers, Yangtze River, Three Gorges, Dams, Green News, Hydropower, Three Gorges Dam, Green Energy, International Rivers, China, Earthquakes, Clean Energy, Green News

The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the world's largest hydropower project. Now the Chinese government has officially acknowledged the project's serious social, environmental and geological problems.

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People's Power Blocks Dam Construction in Northeast India

Peter Bosshard | Posted 07.11.2011

Read More: Rivers, Himalayas, India, Dams, Green News, Grassroots, Assam, Alstom, Brahmaputra River, Green Energy, International Rivers, Green News

With more than 150 dams proposed for construction and 11 projects in operation, Northeast India is one of the hotspots of global dam building. The big...

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Mighty Mekong to Be Dammed?

Peter Bosshard | Posted 06.01.2011

Read More: Rivers, Dams, Mekong, Fish, Laos, Green News, Thailand, International Rivers, Green News

The mighty Mekong River is about to face its greatest test, when the governments of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam will decide whether to give approve the construction of a dam.

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Climate Funds to Underwrite the World Bank's Love Affair With Big Dams?

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.29.2011

Read More: Energy, Rivers, Dams, Climate Change, Africa, World Bank, Green News, Hydropower, International Rivers, Green Energy, Green News

Small, decentralized renewable energy projects such as wind, small hydropower and geothermal power plants provide a win-win solution for poverty reduction and resilience to climate change.

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From Depression to Public Inspiration

Robert Kuttner | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Public Works, Boston, Depression, Dams, New Deal, 1929 Stock Market Crash, Bridges, Conservation, Gop, Franklin Roosevelt, Republican Party, Tennessee Valley Authority, Great Depression, Robert F. Kennedy, Politics News

Did you ever wonder why some of America's greatest public works projects were accomplished during its worst depression? President Obama has the right idea when he calls for major investment in 21st Century infrastructure.

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New Chinese Dam Project to Fuel Ethnic Conflict in Sudan

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Rivers, Nubians, Human Rights, Dams, International Rivers, Nile, Sudan, China, Africa, Sudan Dams, Egypt Protests, World News

Dams have impoverished tens of thousands of people and triggered serious human rights violations in Sudan. Now Chinese companies have won contracts to build three more hydropower projects in the country.

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Breaking a Path for Rivers and Rights

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green News, Rivers, Hydropower, Dams, International Rivers, Green Energy, Indigenous People, Green News

The time for a rights-based approach to development has come, and the WCD report offers great guidelines on who to turn it into practice. Happy Birthday, World Commission on Dams!

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Global Grassroots Network Emerges From "Rivers for Life" Meeting in Mexico

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green News, Environment, Mexico, Globalization, Dams, International Rivers, Civil Society, Green News

Southern civil society groups need to create their own transnational networks to protect the environment and human rights in such projects.

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Global Scientific Review Finds That it Pays to Protect Rivers

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green News, Rivers, Dams, International Rivers, Biodiversity, Water Pollution, World Bank, Ecosystems, Drinking Water, Pollution, Green News

In spite of billions of dollars in investment, the threats to river ecosystems are particularly high in Europe and the United States. The good news is that smart and cost-effective solutions are available.

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Google Earth Animation of Brazil's Disastrous Dam Accompanies "Avatar" Re-Release

Patrick McCully | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Sigourney Weaver, Belo-Monte-Dam, Google Earth, Dams, Avatar, Brazil, James Cameron, Amazon Watch, Hydropower, Amazon Rainforest, International Rivers, Amazon, Amazon River, Green News

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, the Brazilian government wants to build a massive, nasty dam called Belo Monte. The hydropower plant has long been at t...

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Global Lessons from the Pakistan Flood Catastrophe

Patrick McCully | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: How to Help Pakistan Flooding, Floods, Dams, Flood Control, Water, Pakistan, River Management, Flooding, Climate Change, Pakistani Floods, Climate Adaptation, Climate Crisis, Green News

We urgently need to step up efforts to protect ourselves from this new normal: extreme weather. We need to do all we can to stop weather disasters becoming catastrophes

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China's Biggest Bank "Not a Mercenary" in Africa

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green News, Rivers, Dams, Ethiopia, International Rivers, China, Lake Turkana, African Development Bank, World Bank, Chinese Banks, Green News

If ICBC declines to fund Gibe 3, China's biggest bank will demonstrate that it respects international environmental standards in its funding decisions.

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German Company Faces Criminal Complaint Over Abuses in Sudan Dam

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Green, Transnational-Companies, Sudan, Human Rights, Dams, International Rivers, Nile, Green News

The criminal complaint against Lahmeyer International is a pioneering example of how transnational corporations can be held to account for human rights abuses on their projects.

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Big Hydro Falls Behind

Patrick McCully | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Wind Power, Energy, Hydroelectric, Bp, Clean Coal, Wind Energy, British Petroleum, International Rivers, Coal, Dirty Coal, Solar Energy, Dams, Hydroelectricity, Hydropower, Climate Change, Solar Power, Green News

The fact that wind is now a bigger and more dynamic industry than hydro means that the new renewables industries will increasingly have more economic and political clout.

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The Forgotten Downstream Victims of Large Dams

Peter Bosshard | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Dams, Ecology, Pakistan, Environment, International Rivers, Global Water Policy Project, World Commission on Dams, The Nature Conservancy's Global Freshwater Program, Green News

An estimated 472 million people have likely been negatively impacted by the downstream impacts of large dams. This is the main finding just published by a group of eminent global freshwater experts.

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