{"id":2391,"date":"2018-10-22T14:59:40","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T09:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tibetnature.lhasocialwork.com\/en\/?p=2391"},"modified":"2018-12-20T15:00:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T09:30:01","slug":"chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s claims in new White Paper about protecting Tibet\u2019s environment are contradicted by increased production of bottled water from shrinking Tibetan glaciers, more dams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/inside-tibet-070818-1-768x469.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2392\" src=\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/inside-tibet-070818-1-768x469.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"862\" height=\"491\" \/><\/a>As the Chinese government released a new white paper claiming it supports \u201cecological conservation\u201d in Tibet, state media announced that China has stepped up production of bottled water from Tibet\u2019s endangered glaciers, and news emerged of more major hydropower schemes in central Tibet, financed by the state.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Visiting Tibet from July 25-27, 2018, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced increased funding of infrastructure construction despite ongoing environmental challenges, such as the dramatic degradation of permafrost on the Tibetan plateau, and major floods and landslides in the capital city of Lhasa and central Tibet this summer.<\/li>\n<li>China\u2019s detailed white paper, released in July, focuses on the imposition of top-down policies that are contested even within the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) and erases the role of Tibetans as vital stewards of Tibet\u2019s fragile high-altitude landscape and wildlife. It reflects a more strategic approach toward Tibet\u2019s environment emerging from concerns over Tibet\u2019s importance as an essential water source for China.<\/li>\n<li>Bhuchung Tsering, Vice President of the International Campaign for Tibet, said: \u201cThe white paper reveals in detail how China is literally re-shaping the Tibetan landscape with devastating consequences. There are clear, implicit tensions between a model of Tibet that is increasingly urbanized with new cities and staggering new developments in infrastructure and mass tourism and the pristine ecological habitat that China says it seeks to preserve. Many of China\u2019s policies of so-called \u2018environmental construction\u2019 in Tibet are raising increasing alarms both within China and internationally, given the environmental significance of the Tibetan plateau, an epicenter of global warming.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cThe Chinese leadership uses \u2018environmental protection\u2019 terminology as a smokescreen to convince governments globally that their land use policies are aimed at climate change adaptation and mitigation. The reality is that massive dams, mining projects, and mass relocation schemes have had a crushing impact on the fragile high-altitude ecosystem of the Tibetan plateau. Now those dangers are increasing, with the announcement of more hydroelectric power installations and a dramatic increase in the production of bottled water from Tibet\u2019s shrinking glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Chinese Premier underlines damaging relocation policies<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The white paper, released in July by the State Council,<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0references the Chinese leadership\u2019s efforts to remove Tibetan nomads from the grasslands, a policy that Chinese and international experts warn is threatening the survival of Tibet\u2019s rangelands and biodiversity.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#2\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The white paper\u2019s reference to \u201crestoring grazing land to grassland\u201d stands in direct opposition to the latest scientific evidence, which points to the need for pastoralists and livestock mobility in ensuring the health of the rangelands and mitigating negative warming impacts.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#3\"><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The continued high-level emphasis on relocation was made clear by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, on a rare visit to the plateau from July 25-27, 2018, where his first stop \u201cafter getting off the plane\u201d was to a family of Tibetans \u2018settled\u2019 by government policy in Nyingtri (Nyingchi) in the Tibet Autonomous Region (\u201cTAR\u201d).<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#4\"><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s white paper also sets out the leadership\u2019s new push to turn vast areas of Tibet into \u2018national parks,\u2019 a development that is contingent upon the displacement of Tibetan nomads from the grasslands.<\/p>\n<p>The first \u2018protected\u2019 nature reserve area was delineated in Tibet in 1963, and the Regulations of the People\u2019s Republic of China on Nature Reserves, promulgated in 1994, later defined the \u201cranking system, the management structure and the function zones of nature reserves, ushering in a period of rapid development of nature reserves on the Plateau,\u201d according to the white paper. The Paper also details the following: \u201cTo date, the Plateau has established in total 155 nature reserves at all levels (41 state and 64 provincial ones), covering a total area of 822,400 sq. km. This is equivalent to 31.63 percent of the Plateau\u2019s landmass and represents 57.56 percent of China\u2019s land nature reserve areas. Basically, all of the Plateau\u2019s unique and fragile ecosystems and rare species can be found in these reserves.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese leadership is increasingly framing its policies in Tibet in the context of Chinese President Xi Jinping\u2019s idea of \u2018ecological civilization\u2019.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#5\"><sup>[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0This broad and vague new Party terminology has been advanced under Xi to incorporate policy objectives ranging from the creation of nature reserves and parks and the settlement of nomads to a major new scientific study of the plateau. The idea of \u2018protection\u2019 of the landscape, as opposed to ensuring its productivity, appears to emerge from concerns over Tibet\u2019s water\u2014regarded as a strategic asset by China\u2014and its supply to China being threatened by degradation across the pastures of Tibet.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#6\"><sup>[6]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This approach coexists with massive urbanization underway in Tibet, predominantly in rural areas\u2014a key tool for meeting China\u2019s economic objectives but with the political agenda of integrating Tibetans into the PRC, undermining \u2018ethnic autonomy\u2019 and ensuring top-down control. The official media has announced there will be seven new cities in Qinghai by 2020, as the Chinese authorities seek to urbanize nearly half a million people and create a new network of transport and communications infrastructure.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#7\"><sup>[7]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Infrastructure construction intensifies despite alarm on climate change and \u2018ecosystem shift\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/inside-tibet-070818-2-768x487.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2393\" src=\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/inside-tibet-070818-2-768x487.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"726\" \/><\/a>The world\u2019s highest and largest plateau, Tibet is known as the earth\u2019s Third Pole. It is the largest repository of fresh water outside the North and South Poles. A landscape of enormous glaciers, alpine lakes, and waterfalls, Tibet is a global biodiversity hotspot and is known as a climate change epicenter because it is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<p>Massive floods and landslides in Lhasa and central Tibet this summer during the rainy season (June to August) raised alarms about the possibility of seeing the same impacts of climate change that have been evident elsewhere in the world, including heatwaves in Japan, Europe, and other areas. A Lhasa resident described the rainfall as \u201cunprecedented,\u201d and areas of central Lhasa were submerged.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#8\"><sup>[8]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Academic studies indicate an increasing trend of heavier and more rainfall on the Tibetan plateau.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#9\"><sup>[9]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A further disturbing signal is the ongoing, rapid degradation of Tibet\u2019s permafrost, the frozen layers of soil that underpin two-thirds of the plateau and provide essential carbon and water storage. Permafrost plays an important role in cold environments by keeping the overlying layer of soil in place and serving as the foundation on top of which trees and plants grow.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#10\"><sup>[10]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0While Siberian permafrost is deep and permanent, in Tibet the alternate freezing and thawing of the earth at the surface or just below it comes and goes seasonally, or sometimes even days because of the wide temperature swings between day and night.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#11\"><sup>[11]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Golmud-Lhasa railway, which has had a dramatic impact on Tibet\u2019s demography and development, could not have been built without massive investment by the Chinese authorities into how to construct infrastructure on the shifting, fragile ground of the Tibetan plateau. China\u2019s top permafrost research facility, the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, is based in Lanzhou. However just a month after the line had gone into operation in 2006, the state media made a rare admission that fractures had started to appear in some railroad bridges because of permafrost movements under the rail bed. Even the official press acknowledged that rising temperatures on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau could threaten the long-term viability of the railway.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#12\"><sup>[12]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists have documented how a combination of urbanization, intensified militarization linked to China\u2019s strategic aims, infrastructure construction and warming temperatures are creating an \u2018ecosystem shift\u2019 in Tibet. This involves irreversible environmental damage, including the predicted disappearance of large areas of grasslands, alpine meadows, wetlands and permafrost on the Tibetan plateau by 2050, with serious implications for environmental security in China and South Asia.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#13\"><sup>[13]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These disturbing developments have not affected the Party leadership\u2019s push to build more infrastructure in the region, with Premier Li visiting a site in Lhokha (Chinese: Shannan) prefecture in July where a tunnel is being built for the railway line between the TAR and Sichuan. The Chinese state media announced the beginning of construction of a new rail link from Lhasa to Nyingtri (Chinese: Nyingchi) in 2014, as part of the extension of China\u2019s rail network into central Tibet, which China describes as \u201cthe south-western frontier of the motherland.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his visit, the Chinese Premier said that Beijing would invest more in infrastructure in Tibetan areas, which he linked to \u201cecological protection\u201d in a demonstration of the language used by Chinese authorities to frame construction, urbanization and mass tourism as beneficial to the environment, even though they are actually harmful.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#14\"><sup>[14]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0The dramatic increase in Chinese domestic tourism in the TAR and a rapidly expanding infrastructure that has put Lhasa at the center of a new network of roads, railways, and airports with dual military and civilian use, reflects the region\u2019s strategic significance to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2018As absurd as melting icebergs\u2019: production of bottled water from Tibet stepped up<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Despite the fragility of Tibet\u2019s landscape and its shrinking glaciers, provincial authorities and state-owned businesses are pushing ahead with a massive expansion of the bottled water industry in the TAR and recently announced a major increase in production. According to Xinhua, \u201cLast year, 800,000 tons of water was bottled, up 30 percent year on year,\u201d although the state media agency said this still fell \u201cwell short of the target of 1 million tons.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#15\"><sup>[15]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It is not only a question of the environmental problem caused by the plastic used for bottled water, but as the Hong Kong Free Press reported: \u201cThe whole Himalayan region, and the Tibetan part of it, in particular, is under enormous environmental pressure; bottling its waters is as absurd as melting icebergs, even if the price tag is lower.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#16\"><sup>[16]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One of the major companies producing bottled water from Tibet is the Hong Kong-listed company, Tibet Water Resources, which produces Tibet 5100, a brand of water bottled at the source of the Tibetan glaciers, at 5,100 meters altitude. A coalition of Tibet groups has petitioned Liverpool Football Club in Britain to end a sponsorship deal it has with the company.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#17\"><sup>[17]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Intensification of hydropower could spell environmental catastrophe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While immensely damaging, bottled water does not have nearly the impact that dams and water-intensive industries do. Powerful Chinese state-owned consortiums have built multiple dams on all the major rivers running off the Tibetan plateau. The intention is to integrate Tibet into the national grid, with connections between hydro-dams and long-distance electricity supply from the foot of the Tibetan plateau to southern China. Locally, the electricity generated will also be used for mining and mineral processing.<\/p>\n<p>A major goal of China\u2019s Five-Year Plan, from 2016-2020, is to intensify the buildup of hydropower dams on all of Tibet\u2019s major rivers, with cascades of dams on the wild mountain rivers, and others stemming China\u2019s last free-flowing international rivers such as the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra).<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#18\"><sup>[18]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0Damming upstream in Tibet carries great risks, particularly as the plateau is one of the most seismically active areas of the world. These risks are ignored in the white paper on the environment.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Wang Weiluo, an engineer and geographer who is an expert on dam-building at the University of Dortmund, points out the high risks of building dams in high mountain regions like Tibet: \u201cDam-building raises the water level of the river which increases the pressure of the water on the ground. This raises the number of geological catastrophes especially since the valleys [of the Himalayas] are so young; landslides or rockslides will already increase as has happened in the Three Gorges dam region.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#19\"><sup>[19]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to Tibet watcher Gabriel Lafitte of rukor.org, on June 14, 2018, China\u2019s National Development and Reform Commission instructed the TAR to establish a market-based electricity supply, with sufficient incentives for corporations to invest in hydropower. There was almost no mention of photovoltaic solar power or of wind power, though Tibet is very capable of providing both, being both sunny and windy, especially in winter.<\/p>\n<p>This policy announcement means that there will likely be many new hydropower schemes in the TAR, coordinated by central planners into three grids, one centered on Lhasa, one on Chamdo (Chinese: Qamdo or Chengdu) in eastern TAR, and one in the far west, centered on Ngari (Chinese: Ali). Construction of these grids will be financed by the state, a major subsidy for corporate electricity generators. These three could eventually become interconnected by ultra-high voltage direct current power grids, which in turn could connect TAR to the rest of China, for exporting electricity to lowland China.<\/p>\n<p>Lafitte writes: \u201cChina has in recent years prioritized water supply from Tibet to China\u2019s lowlands, as Tibet\u2019s primary contribution to the Chinese economy and environment. Provision of water takes priority over pastoral production, farming, heavy industrialization and other uses of water within Tibet. Widespread clear-cut logging of Tibetan forests was officially halted 20 years ago on the grounds that bare mountain slopes in Tibet caused flooding along the mid-Yangtze. China is willing to empty the land of Tibet or nomads, if that seems to enhance water provision, but that water must also generate electricity, according to the latest intervention from Beijing, which clearly comes with finance for grid construction, and regulatory power to fix prices sufficient to guarantee corporate investment in building hydropower is profitable.\u201d<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/#20\"><sup>[20]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Given the growing scarcity of water resources in the North and Northeast of China, water is regarded as a strategic asset by the Communist Party government.<\/p>\n<p>The high political priorities of this issue are reflected in the language in the white paper refers to, for instance, a set of \u201cOpinions on Building an Important National Barrier for Ecological Security and Accelerating Ecological Progress\u201d issued by the TAR, and the \u201cconstruction of an eco-safety barrier.\u201d The emphasis on \u2018sci-tech\u2019 in the white paper is also consistent with China\u2019s global aims under the \u2018One Belt One Road\u2019 strategy, with the Beijing leadership now undertaking the scientific study of the entire Tibetan plateau. Major initiatives underway to support key objectives of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet. Because of their high-level significance, environmental policies are exempt from major debate and inquiry in China.<\/p>\n<p>source:<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/\">http:\/\/www.savetibet.org\/chinas-claims-in-new-white-paper-about-protecting-tibets-environment-are-contradicted-by-increased-production-of-bottled-water-from-shrinking-tibetan-glaciers-more-dams\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Chinese government released a new white paper claiming it supports \u201cecological conservation\u201d in Tibet, state media announced that China has stepped up production of bottled water from Tibet\u2019s endangered glaciers, and news emerged&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-third-pole","category-tibet-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2464,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}