Monthly Archives: November 2011

The world’s original scientists’ observations of climate change

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Survival International

As the UN’s climate change conference begins in Durban, Survival calls for the ecological knowledge and insights of tribal peoples to be heeded in global decisions concerning climate change.

From the Amazon to the Arctic, tribal peoples typically have the smallest ecological footprints, having practiced sustainable ways of life for thousands of years, but they are also more vulnerable to climate change than anyone on earth, and bear the brunt of mitigation measures such as biofuels, hydroelectric dams and conservation projects. (Download report, pdf, 3.2MB)

Most tribal peoples have developed an intimate knowledge of their surroundings, and observe minute changes in their ecosystems.

Tribal peoples’ observations include:

*Inuit hunters of northwest Canada report thinning sea ice, shorter winters and hotter summers, change to the permafrost and rising sea levels.

*Innu people of northeast Canada report observing birds in Northern Labrador such as blue jays that are typically only found in southern Canada or the U.S., less snow during the coldest months of the year and fewer mosquitoes during the summer.

*Nenet reindeer herders of Siberia report that frozen rivers are melting earlier in the season, which hinders their reindeer’s spring migration, forcing them to swim instead of walk across the ice. They also report fewer mosquitoes.

*Tsaatan reindeer herders of Mongolia report that the growth of lichen and moss that nourish their reindeer is being adversely impacted.

*Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon report a change in the pattern of rainfall in the rainforest. They urge the world to recognize the vital role of the Amazon in the regulation of the world’s climate, and the contribution of deforestation to global warming.

’Climate change has started in our country,’ says Davi Kopenawa, spokesman for the Yanomami people. ‘The rich countries have burned and destroyed many kilometers of Amazon forest. If you cut down big trees and set fire to the forest, the Earth dries up. The world needs to listen to the cry of the Earth, which is asking for help.’

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit activist, said, ‘Hunters have fallen through the sea ice and lost their lives in areas long considered safe. The Arctic is considered the health barometer for the planet. If you wish to see how healthy the planet is, come and take its pulse in the Arctic.’

‘Traditional weather reading skills can’t be trusted any more,’ said Veikko Magga, a Saami reindeer herder. ‘In the olden times one could see beforehand what kind of weather it will be. These signs and skills hold true no more.’

‘Tribal peoples are the world’s original scientists,’ said Stephen Corry, Director of Survival. ‘It’s self-evident: where they have been allowed to continue living on their lands, forest cover and biodiversity can be much higher than in other kinds of protected areas. And without their ecological knowledge, many vital medicines might never have been developed.

‘Now it is vital for us all that their knowledge and views are seen as legitimate. Tribal peoples should have a far greater role in policy decisions regarding climate change mitigation, and their right to the ownership of their land needs to be recognised.’

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Did the Three Gorges Dam create China’s devastating drought?

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China’s Academy of Social Sciences says the Three Gorges Dam is not to blame for this year’s devastating drought. That is wrong, says Probe International’s Patricia Adams, who explains why Three Gorges is making downstream water shortages a chronic problem.

Huffingtonpost.ca

Is China’s Three Gorges Dam to blame for the devastating drought last spring in the downstream reaches of the Yangtze River?

Popular opinion, including several Chinese scientists, government officials, and the press have said yes, some even arguing that drought on the Yangtze will become chronic thanks to the dam.

Now, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an agency affiliated with China’s State Council, has entered the debate, arguing that there is no scientific evidence that Three Gorges caused changes to the climate or is to blame for meteorological disasters in recent years.

This debate, one of the hottest inside China, has become politically explosive because it goes to the heart of whether the Three Gorges Dam should have been built, and whether heads should roll in the Chinese leadership.

The dam, the world’s largest hydropower project, faced blistering criticism this past spring when it was blamed for aggravating China’s worst drought in 50 years – by storing water upstream that was needed for purposes of power generation, it deprived areas downstream. As a result, critics say, China’s two largest freshwater lakes, Poyang and Dongting, all but vanished, fish stocks died off and shipping on the Yangtze – China’s most important water transportation route – was suspended.

Eventually, the dam’s operators were forced to release water to relieve the downstream areas. Suspicions grew that authorities had not properly anticipated the downstream costs of damming the Three Gorges.

They should have, according to Fan Xiao, Chief Engineer with the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, who says this year’s drought was nothing new. The annual filling of the Three Gorges dam reservoir has reduced water levels downstream in the Yangtze basin and caused a plethora of problems for the millions of people who live and work along the banks of the Yangtze River.

In 2006, just after the reservoir level was raised to 156 metres above sea level for the first time, water levels downstream at Dongting Lake plummeted to the lowest levels in history, exposing much of the lake bottom. This caused an infestation of rats, destruction of fish habitats, and saltwater intrusion of seawater into the estuary at Shanghai, which threatened the city’s water supply.

Then in October 2009, when dam operators tried to fill the reservoir to its maximum height of 175 metres, water levels in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze dropped precipitously and ships ran aground. The dam operators were ordered to release water and their attempt to fill the reservoir was aborted.

Then in 2010, Three Gorges’ officials were under pressure to show that the dam could generate power at full throttle so they tried again to fill the reservoir. This time they succeeded, but at the highest price to date.

As Three Gorges’ reservoir filled with the largest amount of water ever, China’s worst drought in 50 years hit and scenes of dead fish, exposed riverbed and beached ships downstream began showing up in newspapers around the world.

China’s cabinet, the State Council, was forced to admit that the Three Gorges Dam had “problems… which should be solved urgently,” but did not concede that the dam had caused or exacerbated the drought conditions. The Yangtze River Water Resources Committee, a government agency that manages the river, even took credit, bizarrely, for relieving the downstream drought conditions by releasing water.

Now, China’s Academy of Social Sciences has come to the defence of Three Gorges – and the government – by claiming that “extreme weather conditions,” not the dam, caused the drought. None of this washes with the millions living downstream who know that their water shortages began when the Three Gorges reservoir began to fill and that this year’s drop in precipitation was a mere aggravation of what has become a man-made problem – chronic water shortages caused by the damming of the Yangtze.

Patricia Adams is the Executive Director of Probe International, a Toronto-based environmental organization. She is also the editor of the English translation of Yangtze! Yangtze! and The River Dragon has Come! by Dai Qing.

Read this article on Huffington Post Canada.