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Meltdown in Tibet( China's Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia)[MELTDOWN IN TIBET][Hardcover]
Meltdown in Tibet( China's Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia) <> Hardcover <> MichaelBuckley <> PalgraveMacMillanTrade
Hardcover
First published April 24, 2013
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737 people want to read
About the author
Michael Buckley
16 books5 followersMichael Buckley is a traveler and travel guide. He lives in Canada and specializes in Tibet and the Himalayas.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 6, 2024
UPDATE: This may have worked better as a long article in something like The Atlantic or National Geographic; and sure, by the end it starts to get repetitive - there are only so many arguments he's trying to make here. But much like Greta Thunberg's No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, just because it over-hammers its points doesn't make them any less important.
ORIGINAL REVIEW: A revelatory, deeply depressing book that certainly deserves a larger readership.
Sad as the human toll is in Tibet, this environmental disaster will have an infinitely more far-reaching global impact as climate change accelerates and fresh water becomes even scarcer, (Tibet is often called "the Third Pole" based on the amount of fresh water held in its snows and 39,000 glaciers). What is even more alarming is that this book was published in 2014 (and obviously researched well before then), and not only are people still unaware about what is happening there - or at least not doing anything about it - but I can only imagine how much worse this situation has become in the past decade.
Anyone remember this TIME magazine cover?
You can't see the date, but it's April 2006 - a full 15 years ago, and we're still not taking this thing seriously.
TIck tock, people. Tick tock.
* You can see here how all of Asia's great rivers are sourced back to Greater Tibet, and (aside from the Yangtse and Salween) form the five breadbasket "mega-deltas" of Asia in Pakistan, Bangldesh, Burma, Vietnam and China. So you can see how any reduction or diversion of these rivers would spell disaster for at least four neighboring countries (as well as Cambodia, since the Mekong has a unique annual "backflow" into the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest lake - but that's too complicated to explain here):
ORIGINAL REVIEW: A revelatory, deeply depressing book that certainly deserves a larger readership.
"The Himalayan snowcaps are in meltdown mode due to climate change - accelerated by a rain of black soot from massive burning of coal and other fossil fuels in both China and India. The mighty rivers of Tibet are being dammed by Chinese engineering consortiums to feed the mainland's relentless quest for power. There are plans to divert water from major rivers in Tibet to feed China's desperate thirst for clean water.* The grasslands of Tibet are being usurped by desert - partly due to climate change, but mostly due to the shortsighted Chinese policy of forcibly removing Tibetan nomads from the grasslands and settling them in concrete hovels. Even yaks - the iconic creatures of Tibet - are vanishing; the yaks are sent to slaughterhouses when nomads are settled. There is high demand for yak meat among wealthy Chinese."It is truly horrific what China has done to destroy the people and culture of Tibet over the past 70 years - but that damage is already done and largely irreversible. What has received far less publicity is the ongoing ecological holocaust that is also taking place there, in terms of Chinese damming of the rivers that provide life to much of India and Southeast Asia, the massive deforestation of Tibet and elimination of its wildlife, and the over-mining of the regions resources, (uranium, rare earth elements, etc.).
Sad as the human toll is in Tibet, this environmental disaster will have an infinitely more far-reaching global impact as climate change accelerates and fresh water becomes even scarcer, (Tibet is often called "the Third Pole" based on the amount of fresh water held in its snows and 39,000 glaciers). What is even more alarming is that this book was published in 2014 (and obviously researched well before then), and not only are people still unaware about what is happening there - or at least not doing anything about it - but I can only imagine how much worse this situation has become in the past decade.
Anyone remember this TIME magazine cover?
You can't see the date, but it's April 2006 - a full 15 years ago, and we're still not taking this thing seriously.
TIck tock, people. Tick tock.
* You can see here how all of Asia's great rivers are sourced back to Greater Tibet, and (aside from the Yangtse and Salween) form the five breadbasket "mega-deltas" of Asia in Pakistan, Bangldesh, Burma, Vietnam and China. So you can see how any reduction or diversion of these rivers would spell disaster for at least four neighboring countries (as well as Cambodia, since the Mekong has a unique annual "backflow" into the Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest lake - but that's too complicated to explain here):
February 27, 2017
Michael Buckley, a Canadian, wrote the first Lonely Planet guidebook to Tibet. An adventure travel writer, film maker and environmentalist, he is much travelled in Tibet and Himalayas, where he has gone white water rafting down the mountains. He first visited Tibet in 1985 as a truck passenger and saw the constant stream of treetrunks being hauled as China felled Tibetan forests, ongoing since China took over Tibet in 1950.
This book lays bare the continuous plundering of the Tibetan plateau and mountains by Chinese settlers and soldiers. By 1980 a fact-finding mission from Tibet's former rulers found that the grasslands, once-rich in natural diversity, were empty of wildlife - all eaten, Buckley believes.
The Himalayan snow and glacier ice is the world's largest store of freshwater outside the Polar regions. Yet this ice which should reflect heat back into space, is sooty and black in many areas, from Chinese and Indian coal emissions and cooking stoves. Dark ice attracts heat so melts faster, and dark rock is exposed in a feedback loop. 95% of glaciers are shrinking faster than they can be replenished. As these glaciers feed some of the world's largest rivers which flow through eight populous countries, problems are foreseeable. These include lack of crop irrigation and drinking water.
Added is the fact that China is constructing massive dams, fourteen just on one river and more on others, to completely control the flow. They are diverting major Indian rivers northwards for their own use. Buckley found it hard to get information as Tibet is a black hole, people tending to vanish and no net service available. But Google Earth shows massive mines, tunnels and dams. Buckley says China tried to get Google to block satellite photos of these works - having been kicked out of China, Google ignored them.
If China was generating hydro power to replace its coal use, that would be one thing. But most of this power will be used right in Tibet, to power mining operations. China continues to open a coal power plant each week while tunnelling eighteen miles through a Himalayan mountain in an earthquake zone, to send workers to a mine by rail and bring back copper and other metals to Chinese cities. Copper of course is also needed on the spot for all the HEP cables and factory wiring. Blocked rivers kill wildlife, accumulate pollution and hold back fertile silt from lower lands, plus the dams could fail and flood cities.
The diverted rivers will be sent to Chinese cities for drinking water, but China is so appallingly polluted (see 'The People's Republic of Chemicals' by Jacobs and Kelly) that 60% of water reaching a city is unsafe to touch let alone drink. Already Buckley tells us Tibetan Water is shipped to cities to be sold in plastic bottles, touted as clean and pure - Buckley says the bottled water industry must be the most polluting on Earth. (See 'The Price of Thirst' by Karen Piper.)
The six million Tibetan people have long since been displaced and made jobless. River valleys have been flooded by reservoirs with farmers forcibly displaced onto arid lands. Buckley agrees that these people lived basic lives of hardship and superstition, but shows that neither mountain dwellers nor plains herdsmen have any future in the new vision of Tibet. I strongly recommend this read for anyone concerned about the environment, pollution, industry or world geopolitics.
This book lays bare the continuous plundering of the Tibetan plateau and mountains by Chinese settlers and soldiers. By 1980 a fact-finding mission from Tibet's former rulers found that the grasslands, once-rich in natural diversity, were empty of wildlife - all eaten, Buckley believes.
The Himalayan snow and glacier ice is the world's largest store of freshwater outside the Polar regions. Yet this ice which should reflect heat back into space, is sooty and black in many areas, from Chinese and Indian coal emissions and cooking stoves. Dark ice attracts heat so melts faster, and dark rock is exposed in a feedback loop. 95% of glaciers are shrinking faster than they can be replenished. As these glaciers feed some of the world's largest rivers which flow through eight populous countries, problems are foreseeable. These include lack of crop irrigation and drinking water.
Added is the fact that China is constructing massive dams, fourteen just on one river and more on others, to completely control the flow. They are diverting major Indian rivers northwards for their own use. Buckley found it hard to get information as Tibet is a black hole, people tending to vanish and no net service available. But Google Earth shows massive mines, tunnels and dams. Buckley says China tried to get Google to block satellite photos of these works - having been kicked out of China, Google ignored them.
If China was generating hydro power to replace its coal use, that would be one thing. But most of this power will be used right in Tibet, to power mining operations. China continues to open a coal power plant each week while tunnelling eighteen miles through a Himalayan mountain in an earthquake zone, to send workers to a mine by rail and bring back copper and other metals to Chinese cities. Copper of course is also needed on the spot for all the HEP cables and factory wiring. Blocked rivers kill wildlife, accumulate pollution and hold back fertile silt from lower lands, plus the dams could fail and flood cities.
The diverted rivers will be sent to Chinese cities for drinking water, but China is so appallingly polluted (see 'The People's Republic of Chemicals' by Jacobs and Kelly) that 60% of water reaching a city is unsafe to touch let alone drink. Already Buckley tells us Tibetan Water is shipped to cities to be sold in plastic bottles, touted as clean and pure - Buckley says the bottled water industry must be the most polluting on Earth. (See 'The Price of Thirst' by Karen Piper.)
The six million Tibetan people have long since been displaced and made jobless. River valleys have been flooded by reservoirs with farmers forcibly displaced onto arid lands. Buckley agrees that these people lived basic lives of hardship and superstition, but shows that neither mountain dwellers nor plains herdsmen have any future in the new vision of Tibet. I strongly recommend this read for anyone concerned about the environment, pollution, industry or world geopolitics.
January 15, 2023
This book from 2014 possibly is dated in its exact details about mining, dam building, and other matters, but the essential concern persists: china is a polluting country that has taken control of another country's land and water resources (tibet), as well as its people, and thereby has its hand on the tap of water that nourishes itself, india, pakistan, burma, and many other south asian countries. The main purpose of draining multiple water resources is to get minerals dug up, to produce power for coal mine operation, and, as of 2014, to start work on fracking within china, which requires an immense amount of water.
Buckley has travelled to the parts of the world most affected by the policies of the chinese government and reports on conditions in bangladesh and bhutan (that kingdom is a "ray of hope for what could be accomplished in terms of preservation"). He maintains a website called meltdownintibet.com. The book makes for sobering, if not dispiriting, reading. Recommended.
Buckley has travelled to the parts of the world most affected by the policies of the chinese government and reports on conditions in bangladesh and bhutan (that kingdom is a "ray of hope for what could be accomplished in terms of preservation"). He maintains a website called meltdownintibet.com. The book makes for sobering, if not dispiriting, reading. Recommended.
April 20, 2015
Important reading for more than just Tibetophiles
This book gives a factual and frightening account of the negative impacts of China’s occupation of Tibet. Buckley documents the ecological damage which China’s exploitation of Tibet’s mineral resources and rivers are having not only within Tibet but also throughout Asia, and presents convincing arguments against rampant industrial development, Chinese-style. Extensively-researched and easy to absorb, this book is important reading for more than just Tibetophiles.
This book gives a factual and frightening account of the negative impacts of China’s occupation of Tibet. Buckley documents the ecological damage which China’s exploitation of Tibet’s mineral resources and rivers are having not only within Tibet but also throughout Asia, and presents convincing arguments against rampant industrial development, Chinese-style. Extensively-researched and easy to absorb, this book is important reading for more than just Tibetophiles.
June 16, 2015
I know that the Tibetan people have been very badly treated by the Chinese since the Chinese invaded Tibet decades ago. However, I did not realize the horrible environmental destruction that is happening on the Tibetan Plateau. The Chinese are forcibly removing the Tibetan people from their land to build huge dams on Tibet's rivers and mine for minerals and oil. This is not only disastrous for Tibetans but will greatly affect nations downstream that rely on these rivers for their water. This is scary stuff - large-scale mining projects and mega-dams. Quite a power grab for the Chinese.
May 27, 2017
I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.
A sad reminder that China has no qualms about destroying the future for today's profit. This book is a bit depressing because I do not see a way that China will ever be stopped from the total destruction of Tibet. Hopefully books like this will open the rest of the world's eyes to what China is doing.
A sad reminder that China has no qualms about destroying the future for today's profit. This book is a bit depressing because I do not see a way that China will ever be stopped from the total destruction of Tibet. Hopefully books like this will open the rest of the world's eyes to what China is doing.
March 6, 2015
By far one of the best eye opening reads. Found it impossible to put this book down once I started it.
September 26, 2016
Having just finished reading this book, it is both fascinating and horrifying to read at the same time. If anyone should wonder where the next global conflict will arise, this must be one of the hot spots. The reason? Water resources.
China, as an emerging superpower, carries out grandiose hydro-power schemes and damming of rivers, including diverting water courses and abstracting colossal volumes of water. These are used to meet the insatiable demands of eastern seaboard cities for power and water. In doing so, dependent nations downstream (Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam) of all of Southern Asia's great rivers (Mekong, Bhramaputra, Salween, Ganges, Indus, Irrawaddy, Sutiel, Yangtse, Yellow, Yariung Tsangpo) suffer depleted water resources, which are often polluted. This is due to rampant coal mining and other mineral mining ravaging the delicate ecosystem of the Tibetan high plateau.
Coupled with China's global contribution to climate change through ever-rising temperatures, these are just some of the issues expertly exposed in this fact-laden book. The author, a Canadian, is something of an expert of this little-known region, so often subject to heavy-handed exclusion of all outside and critically-minded observers. Transparency and accountability have largely given way to corruption, greed, and short-term goals of mostly male Chinese political leaders.
One minor improvement; it is a shame that the author does not provide a personal narrative to his otherwise exhaustive research, which reads more like a factual documentary. Nevertheless, a riveting read.
China, as an emerging superpower, carries out grandiose hydro-power schemes and damming of rivers, including diverting water courses and abstracting colossal volumes of water. These are used to meet the insatiable demands of eastern seaboard cities for power and water. In doing so, dependent nations downstream (Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam) of all of Southern Asia's great rivers (Mekong, Bhramaputra, Salween, Ganges, Indus, Irrawaddy, Sutiel, Yangtse, Yellow, Yariung Tsangpo) suffer depleted water resources, which are often polluted. This is due to rampant coal mining and other mineral mining ravaging the delicate ecosystem of the Tibetan high plateau.
Coupled with China's global contribution to climate change through ever-rising temperatures, these are just some of the issues expertly exposed in this fact-laden book. The author, a Canadian, is something of an expert of this little-known region, so often subject to heavy-handed exclusion of all outside and critically-minded observers. Transparency and accountability have largely given way to corruption, greed, and short-term goals of mostly male Chinese political leaders.
One minor improvement; it is a shame that the author does not provide a personal narrative to his otherwise exhaustive research, which reads more like a factual documentary. Nevertheless, a riveting read.
September 5, 2019
A review with snippets:
Tibet, is the highest plateau in the world and is also referred to as the “third pole” of the earth due to the presence of the largest permafrost region outside the two poles(i.e., Antarctica and Arctic regions)
Tibet has historically been a theocracy, ruled by the lineage of reincarnate Dalai Lamas. This however changed post-1955 invasion of Tibet by the Chinese army. Since then, Tibet has been a land of secrecy with repressive forms of censorship by the Chinese communist party.
The call for “Humans must capture Nature(for prosperity and development)” by Mao Zedong, along with the forced occupation of Tibet has lead to ominous trends in the region over time. Tibet has experienced and still experiences both “cultural genocide” and “Eco-cide”.
The greater thrust and ambition for constructing ill conceived”megadams” to power the eastern industrial China has aggravated to problems of Tibet.
The urge for tapping into the excessive hydropower potential of the region has led to the construction of a chain of megadams on some of the most vulnerable regions. According to seismic studies of the region, 48.2% of the dams are constructed in very high seismic zone.
The megadams are portrayed as a symbol of development in Tibet. However, reality points to something else:
The social cost of the megadams have been huge. A whopping 22 million people have been relocated for the construction of the projects.
The megadams provide power to the industrialised eastern China, and does very little for the plateau.
The locals argue that small scale dams are more useful to the region.
The next issue highlighted by the author is the “stealing of water”. The founding fathers or China advocated the dictum of “(To) Fight for every drop of water or die”. This is the underlying philosophy behind China’s actions w.r.t water.
Water is being exploited in the Tibet region in specific and China in general in the following manner:
More than 27,000 rivers have disappeared in China since the revolution.
South to North diversion of water as planned by Mao Zedong.
Marketing Tibet water as premium bottled water in foreign markets by Chinese corporates.
One is only aware of the Tibetan Buddhists, but the author dwells into the case of “Vanishing nomads and the grasslands” of the region.
The plateau is inhabited by the “Khampa nomads” and the “Drokpas”. The general livelihood of of the tribes got affected in the following manner:
The tribes since time immemorial led a sustainable and closed model of livelihood, centred around “YAKS”. They used consume yaks milk, use it’s dung as a fuel for cooking, yaks fur formed a part of their clothing.
They were nomads and fed their yaks freely on grasslands, which the heraditarily maintained.
This cycle got affected with the introduction of the concept of “New socialist villages”. In which the nomads were forcefully settled in settlements.
This was accompanied with fencing of grasslands,restricting its access to the nomads.
The nomads had to depend on employment for their livelihood(which was scarce in the region). They had to sell their Yaks, and succumbed to alcohol addiction and depression.
Adding to the above, author dwells into other areas of exploitation, such as:
Mining: Of metals such as gold and zinc in violation of environmental rules.
Theme parks like the one in Shangri-La, against the sanctity of the region.
Atomic city in Xihai.
Extraction of Lithium from Tibet’s salt lakes and inturn polluting the lakes.
If one assumes that this is China’s internal issue, then the author proves the reader wrong by highlighting the international ramifications, such as:
Some of the largest delta’s in the lower courses of rivers originating in Tibet lie in countries such as Cambodia, Burma etc. They are sinking rapidly because of fall in silt flow.
Threat of water wars in the future with countries such as India are plausible.
The book beautifully takes the reader on a journey from the deeply rooted philosophy of sustainable livelihoods of ancient Tibet and it’s people to the contemporary trends of unsustainability.
The book gives insights into the “cultural genocide” and “eco-cide” happening in the region and it’s ramifications on its neighborhood and beyond.
It is a must read for people concerned about environment ,policy makers, and anyone concerned about the planet as a whole.
Tibet, is the highest plateau in the world and is also referred to as the “third pole” of the earth due to the presence of the largest permafrost region outside the two poles(i.e., Antarctica and Arctic regions)
Tibet has historically been a theocracy, ruled by the lineage of reincarnate Dalai Lamas. This however changed post-1955 invasion of Tibet by the Chinese army. Since then, Tibet has been a land of secrecy with repressive forms of censorship by the Chinese communist party.
The call for “Humans must capture Nature(for prosperity and development)” by Mao Zedong, along with the forced occupation of Tibet has lead to ominous trends in the region over time. Tibet has experienced and still experiences both “cultural genocide” and “Eco-cide”.
The greater thrust and ambition for constructing ill conceived”megadams” to power the eastern industrial China has aggravated to problems of Tibet.
The urge for tapping into the excessive hydropower potential of the region has led to the construction of a chain of megadams on some of the most vulnerable regions. According to seismic studies of the region, 48.2% of the dams are constructed in very high seismic zone.
The megadams are portrayed as a symbol of development in Tibet. However, reality points to something else:
The social cost of the megadams have been huge. A whopping 22 million people have been relocated for the construction of the projects.
The megadams provide power to the industrialised eastern China, and does very little for the plateau.
The locals argue that small scale dams are more useful to the region.
The next issue highlighted by the author is the “stealing of water”. The founding fathers or China advocated the dictum of “(To) Fight for every drop of water or die”. This is the underlying philosophy behind China’s actions w.r.t water.
Water is being exploited in the Tibet region in specific and China in general in the following manner:
More than 27,000 rivers have disappeared in China since the revolution.
South to North diversion of water as planned by Mao Zedong.
Marketing Tibet water as premium bottled water in foreign markets by Chinese corporates.
One is only aware of the Tibetan Buddhists, but the author dwells into the case of “Vanishing nomads and the grasslands” of the region.
The plateau is inhabited by the “Khampa nomads” and the “Drokpas”. The general livelihood of of the tribes got affected in the following manner:
The tribes since time immemorial led a sustainable and closed model of livelihood, centred around “YAKS”. They used consume yaks milk, use it’s dung as a fuel for cooking, yaks fur formed a part of their clothing.
They were nomads and fed their yaks freely on grasslands, which the heraditarily maintained.
This cycle got affected with the introduction of the concept of “New socialist villages”. In which the nomads were forcefully settled in settlements.
This was accompanied with fencing of grasslands,restricting its access to the nomads.
The nomads had to depend on employment for their livelihood(which was scarce in the region). They had to sell their Yaks, and succumbed to alcohol addiction and depression.
Adding to the above, author dwells into other areas of exploitation, such as:
Mining: Of metals such as gold and zinc in violation of environmental rules.
Theme parks like the one in Shangri-La, against the sanctity of the region.
Atomic city in Xihai.
Extraction of Lithium from Tibet’s salt lakes and inturn polluting the lakes.
If one assumes that this is China’s internal issue, then the author proves the reader wrong by highlighting the international ramifications, such as:
Some of the largest delta’s in the lower courses of rivers originating in Tibet lie in countries such as Cambodia, Burma etc. They are sinking rapidly because of fall in silt flow.
Threat of water wars in the future with countries such as India are plausible.
The book beautifully takes the reader on a journey from the deeply rooted philosophy of sustainable livelihoods of ancient Tibet and it’s people to the contemporary trends of unsustainability.
The book gives insights into the “cultural genocide” and “eco-cide” happening in the region and it’s ramifications on its neighborhood and beyond.
It is a must read for people concerned about environment ,policy makers, and anyone concerned about the planet as a whole.
November 22, 2017
Except for the Preface by the Dalai Lama, the book is largely an opinionated piece without much quality research, even though it appeared that the author had done lots of digging (to which I give credit). Never mind that the book was written in an unscholarly style, which unfortunately left a poor impression and compromised its own messages. The book contains many erroneous assertions, a disservice to readers who don't have experiences in the area, probably because of the author's lack of a science background, or as a result of a strong attraction originated from the author's perhaps long-established confirmation bias. One could probably write another entire book to just correct the errors found in this one. Personally, I would like to see a revision of the book if the author is serious about reaching out to a wider and more intelligent audience. Below I only detail on one example and hope it helps.
"First come the tunnels", Buckley wrote in the first chapter, apparently shocked by the emergence of the Galashan Tunnel. The tunnel is a part of the expressway connecting the Gongga Airport to downtown Lhasa. The author dramatized the length of the 2.4 km (or 1.5 miles) tunnel using the measure 8,028 ft (a quite smaller unit that results in seemingly a big numerical value) without providing a comparative context (this happens frequently in the book). In fact, as one of more than 10,000 road tunnels in China, the Galashan Tunnel is at best modest in length and by no means ranks among the real "shockingly" long tunnels or qualifies for an engineering feat in China and elsewhere. The longest road tunnel in China (3rd in the world) is the 18 km Zhongnanshan Tunnel in Shanxi Province's Qinling Mountains. The world's longest road tunnel is the 24.5 km Lardal Tunnel in Norway, a mountainous country that has numerous world-ranking long road tunnels. The world's longest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps, is whopping 57 km. As a well-crafted engineering, tunneling through rugged landscapes is cost efficient and friendly to the environment and should be considered as a priority.
In the Gongga County to the southwest of Lhasa, the airport sits on the south bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo. From the airport to downtown, the airport expressway starts with the Yarlung Tsangpo River Bridge followed by the Galashan Tunnel. Afterward, the expressway elongates northbound along the east bank of the Lhasa River in parallel with the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, and ends near the Lhasa Railway Station. To reach the old town on the north side of the Lhasa River, one would continue and cross the river via the Liuwu Bridge. The expressway is about 38 km (or 23.5 mi) long, cutting the downtown-airport travel time in half (about 40 minutes by my experience), compared to the traffic along the old route.
The book questioned: "It saved time but at what cost to the environment?", without assessing an actual cost breakdown and providing a scientific evaluation of the environmental impacts. There was no explanation of why tunneling is an environmental disaster. Instead, the author habitually resorted to the patronizing point that mountains mean deities to the Tibetans and therefore not to be messed with. While oddly stunned by the Galashan Tunnel, the author didn't bother explaining why the old, much-detoured and congested route would represent a lesser cultural offense or a more acceptable hazard to the environment. It is a 101 km drive on the old route from the busy airport to the Potala Palace in the city center, compared to 59 km via the expressway (data from amap.com). From the airport, the old two-lane (one small lane each way) route detours farther west to the Qushui Bridge that spans a narrow neck of the Yarlung Tsangpo's braided river bed to join the road G318 on the north bank. The east bound G318 later steers to the northeast along the west bank of the Lhasa River heading to the city. The route puts down a much larger footprint on the environment by navigating around mountains and traversing the fragile ecosystem of the Yarlung Tsangpo and Lhasa River valleys. Even without congestion, traveling along the old route requires more time for every traveler and more fuel in every vehicle to emit more green house gases and pollutants, posing as a permanent economic and environmental menace.
The author further opinionated: "For me, it's symbolic of something else: Tunnel Vision, a one-sided view of problem-solving" and then left without trying to enlighten the readers with a multifaceted view of problem-solving (which in this case is how to get from the airport to downtown in a smarter and more respectful manner). I felt that this might well be a rather logical place in the book where the author may declare that Tibet can go by with no road, no airport, or even without any man-made facility that has to maintain a physical contact with the nature (or perhaps, just at least not any by the Chinese). Could every mountain, river and lake in Tibet be claimed sacred? Why not? Probably they already are, and many are revered by different creeds. Is each worshiped Tibetan mountain, river or lake off-limit to modern infrastructures? Maybe not, unless people (usually non-Tibetans) overly romanticize the nomadic life on the hash Tibetan high plains, which they themselves don't want to live. Development doesn't have to run straight against the nature-loving Tibetan Buddhism. The question is how much modernization of Tibet can be considered sustainable, meaningful, and beneficial to its local residents, and what science and engineering knowledge can help achieve it.
People who had traveled to the central Tibet from Sichuan Province via G317 and G318 or from Yunnan Province via G214, where mountain ranges rise up to the Tibetan Plateau with major rivers and their tributaries cutting out deep canyons, would have experienced that these long and winding roads typically zigzag along, tediously switch back and forth to climb a mountain pass and then traverse down to the river valley before repeating same endeavors all over again. Constructed in the 50s when the Dalai Lama was still in Tibet, these roads, including the Xining-Lhasa road G109 that was largely built on the rather flat Qinghai-Tibet highland and didn't require extensive tunneling, are among the first roads connecting Tibet to China's southwest and northwest. Built in an era without sophisticated tunneling and bridging techniques, roads like G318 massively damage surface terrains and vegetation, inexorably fragment forage and migration territories used by land animals, accelerate seasonal erosion of the nearby structures and trigger never-ending landslides and mudslides during monsoon seasons, which endanger human and animal lives, disrupt traffic for days, delay businesses, and unnecessarily pile up huge reparation and maintenance cost all year round. The G318 and alike are now being upgraded with more tunnels and bridges to phase out those much-hated switchbacks. For the protection of the environment alone, more, not less, tunnels and bridges should be built. Civil engineers will tell that tunneling is an efficient and relatively safe approach in a mountainous landscape. Especially when teamed with elevated bridges, tunnels are much less invasive to the vegetation including the grasslands and forests, and have minimal impact on structural stability of river banks and mountain slopes. And obviously, building a shortened route reduces the overall construction and maintenance cost, energy consumption, carbon emission and air pollution in the long run.
I don't want to nitpick, but cursory information dumps without careful analysis are too numerous in the book. I also want to remind that not everyone who doesn't immediately go down the easy and often mindless path of China bashing has to be a paid pro-Chinese government propagandist. Given the fact that development in China has caused dire problems of environmental degradation, genuine science-based approaches are much needed for conservation in Tibet. It could start with an enjoyable read of a cool-headed, informative, and balanced book about an important topic for the important region.
"First come the tunnels", Buckley wrote in the first chapter, apparently shocked by the emergence of the Galashan Tunnel. The tunnel is a part of the expressway connecting the Gongga Airport to downtown Lhasa. The author dramatized the length of the 2.4 km (or 1.5 miles) tunnel using the measure 8,028 ft (a quite smaller unit that results in seemingly a big numerical value) without providing a comparative context (this happens frequently in the book). In fact, as one of more than 10,000 road tunnels in China, the Galashan Tunnel is at best modest in length and by no means ranks among the real "shockingly" long tunnels or qualifies for an engineering feat in China and elsewhere. The longest road tunnel in China (3rd in the world) is the 18 km Zhongnanshan Tunnel in Shanxi Province's Qinling Mountains. The world's longest road tunnel is the 24.5 km Lardal Tunnel in Norway, a mountainous country that has numerous world-ranking long road tunnels. The world's longest railway tunnel, the Gotthard Base Tunnel in the Swiss Alps, is whopping 57 km. As a well-crafted engineering, tunneling through rugged landscapes is cost efficient and friendly to the environment and should be considered as a priority.
In the Gongga County to the southwest of Lhasa, the airport sits on the south bank of the Yarlung Tsangpo. From the airport to downtown, the airport expressway starts with the Yarlung Tsangpo River Bridge followed by the Galashan Tunnel. Afterward, the expressway elongates northbound along the east bank of the Lhasa River in parallel with the Lhasa-Shigatse Railway, and ends near the Lhasa Railway Station. To reach the old town on the north side of the Lhasa River, one would continue and cross the river via the Liuwu Bridge. The expressway is about 38 km (or 23.5 mi) long, cutting the downtown-airport travel time in half (about 40 minutes by my experience), compared to the traffic along the old route.
The book questioned: "It saved time but at what cost to the environment?", without assessing an actual cost breakdown and providing a scientific evaluation of the environmental impacts. There was no explanation of why tunneling is an environmental disaster. Instead, the author habitually resorted to the patronizing point that mountains mean deities to the Tibetans and therefore not to be messed with. While oddly stunned by the Galashan Tunnel, the author didn't bother explaining why the old, much-detoured and congested route would represent a lesser cultural offense or a more acceptable hazard to the environment. It is a 101 km drive on the old route from the busy airport to the Potala Palace in the city center, compared to 59 km via the expressway (data from amap.com). From the airport, the old two-lane (one small lane each way) route detours farther west to the Qushui Bridge that spans a narrow neck of the Yarlung Tsangpo's braided river bed to join the road G318 on the north bank. The east bound G318 later steers to the northeast along the west bank of the Lhasa River heading to the city. The route puts down a much larger footprint on the environment by navigating around mountains and traversing the fragile ecosystem of the Yarlung Tsangpo and Lhasa River valleys. Even without congestion, traveling along the old route requires more time for every traveler and more fuel in every vehicle to emit more green house gases and pollutants, posing as a permanent economic and environmental menace.
The author further opinionated: "For me, it's symbolic of something else: Tunnel Vision, a one-sided view of problem-solving" and then left without trying to enlighten the readers with a multifaceted view of problem-solving (which in this case is how to get from the airport to downtown in a smarter and more respectful manner). I felt that this might well be a rather logical place in the book where the author may declare that Tibet can go by with no road, no airport, or even without any man-made facility that has to maintain a physical contact with the nature (or perhaps, just at least not any by the Chinese). Could every mountain, river and lake in Tibet be claimed sacred? Why not? Probably they already are, and many are revered by different creeds. Is each worshiped Tibetan mountain, river or lake off-limit to modern infrastructures? Maybe not, unless people (usually non-Tibetans) overly romanticize the nomadic life on the hash Tibetan high plains, which they themselves don't want to live. Development doesn't have to run straight against the nature-loving Tibetan Buddhism. The question is how much modernization of Tibet can be considered sustainable, meaningful, and beneficial to its local residents, and what science and engineering knowledge can help achieve it.
People who had traveled to the central Tibet from Sichuan Province via G317 and G318 or from Yunnan Province via G214, where mountain ranges rise up to the Tibetan Plateau with major rivers and their tributaries cutting out deep canyons, would have experienced that these long and winding roads typically zigzag along, tediously switch back and forth to climb a mountain pass and then traverse down to the river valley before repeating same endeavors all over again. Constructed in the 50s when the Dalai Lama was still in Tibet, these roads, including the Xining-Lhasa road G109 that was largely built on the rather flat Qinghai-Tibet highland and didn't require extensive tunneling, are among the first roads connecting Tibet to China's southwest and northwest. Built in an era without sophisticated tunneling and bridging techniques, roads like G318 massively damage surface terrains and vegetation, inexorably fragment forage and migration territories used by land animals, accelerate seasonal erosion of the nearby structures and trigger never-ending landslides and mudslides during monsoon seasons, which endanger human and animal lives, disrupt traffic for days, delay businesses, and unnecessarily pile up huge reparation and maintenance cost all year round. The G318 and alike are now being upgraded with more tunnels and bridges to phase out those much-hated switchbacks. For the protection of the environment alone, more, not less, tunnels and bridges should be built. Civil engineers will tell that tunneling is an efficient and relatively safe approach in a mountainous landscape. Especially when teamed with elevated bridges, tunnels are much less invasive to the vegetation including the grasslands and forests, and have minimal impact on structural stability of river banks and mountain slopes. And obviously, building a shortened route reduces the overall construction and maintenance cost, energy consumption, carbon emission and air pollution in the long run.
I don't want to nitpick, but cursory information dumps without careful analysis are too numerous in the book. I also want to remind that not everyone who doesn't immediately go down the easy and often mindless path of China bashing has to be a paid pro-Chinese government propagandist. Given the fact that development in China has caused dire problems of environmental degradation, genuine science-based approaches are much needed for conservation in Tibet. It could start with an enjoyable read of a cool-headed, informative, and balanced book about an important topic for the important region.
October 6, 2020
Propaganda
If you enjoy emotion- based, fear porn imitating factual info , you might be able to stomach this book. The writer is a travel guide author who is attempting to make claims about complicated scientific/ecological systems which he backs with a mashup of conclusions drawn from bits and pieces of "studies" which he clearly doesn't understand.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the geography of the area and the cultural info. The political aspects of the Chinese invasion and occupation were also interesting. But the book quickly devolves into a raving diatribe against human caused climate change which is not only inaccurate, but terribly boring. I cannot recommend this book.
If you enjoy emotion- based, fear porn imitating factual info , you might be able to stomach this book. The writer is a travel guide author who is attempting to make claims about complicated scientific/ecological systems which he backs with a mashup of conclusions drawn from bits and pieces of "studies" which he clearly doesn't understand.
I enjoyed the descriptions of the geography of the area and the cultural info. The political aspects of the Chinese invasion and occupation were also interesting. But the book quickly devolves into a raving diatribe against human caused climate change which is not only inaccurate, but terribly boring. I cannot recommend this book.
October 29, 2020
A heart wrenching account of the Environmental destruction in Tibet!
Book is definitely for people loving and interested in Tibet and Environment but it is also for wider audience to become aware of the level of environment and people harassment going on in Tibet, South East snd South Asia and it's consequences in short and long term both!
We need to keep one thing in mind that this is one person's account of the issues, therefore there might be some exaggerations and unbalanced views but nonetheless all the points mentioned are very important and should be known by the people and actioned upon!
4.5 stars from my side!
Book is definitely for people loving and interested in Tibet and Environment but it is also for wider audience to become aware of the level of environment and people harassment going on in Tibet, South East snd South Asia and it's consequences in short and long term both!
We need to keep one thing in mind that this is one person's account of the issues, therefore there might be some exaggerations and unbalanced views but nonetheless all the points mentioned are very important and should be known by the people and actioned upon!
4.5 stars from my side!
July 10, 2017
Heartbreaking and horrifying account of China's criminal destruction of Tibet's environment as it feeds its insatiable appetite for resources. To quote from the book - " The Chinese won't be happy until they have taken every last stone from Tibet - until they have extracted the gold, the copper, the lithium, desecrated Tibet's sacred mountains, turned its grasslands into deserts, destroyed the nomad culture, wiped out the Tibetan language and yoked Tibet's mighty rivers..."
September 22, 2023
Finished. Detailed look at how China is despoiling Tibet for water, minerals, energy, and the massively deleterious downstream consequences this will have for Asia, given that so many of the region’s rivers originate on the Tibetan plateau.
October 10, 2021
A must read book if you really care about the environment and the future.
November 3, 2021
Its is well written and an eye opener to China's exploitations.
August 25, 2024
Should’ve been an article
April 13, 2016
Painful to read both in the horrific content, and in the dry style it is delivered. To say Meltdown is repetitive is one thing but I would go so far to say that it is unnecessary. After slogging through all 256 pages, I have a deeper sense of the ecological woes China is inflicting on Tibet, but I think I would have been better off reading the wikipedia of it.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of research here to give credibility to this book, but I have never been so aware that I am reading a non fiction book as with Meltdown in Tibet. There are only a couple of times where the author offers his experiences living in and around Tibet for decades, the rest reads like a slightly annoyed courtroom stenographer decided to chronicle each and every environmental catastrophe in Tibet.
I'm a big environmentalist, and if you're reading this you probably are on some level too. But I can't shake the feeling that this book just doesn't have a heart. It feels like it's all content and no style or delivery. For example, Buckley starts to go into the awful atrocities the Tibetan nomads are enduring, some going as far as to self-immolate in protest, but then it abruptly ends without any reflection on this horrific deed. Too much content, not enough analysis or storytelling.
Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of research here to give credibility to this book, but I have never been so aware that I am reading a non fiction book as with Meltdown in Tibet. There are only a couple of times where the author offers his experiences living in and around Tibet for decades, the rest reads like a slightly annoyed courtroom stenographer decided to chronicle each and every environmental catastrophe in Tibet.
I'm a big environmentalist, and if you're reading this you probably are on some level too. But I can't shake the feeling that this book just doesn't have a heart. It feels like it's all content and no style or delivery. For example, Buckley starts to go into the awful atrocities the Tibetan nomads are enduring, some going as far as to self-immolate in protest, but then it abruptly ends without any reflection on this horrific deed. Too much content, not enough analysis or storytelling.
February 11, 2015
Four stars for content but two for writing/editing. There is a lot of detailed information here about how China is impacting the environment throughout Asia. Good to read if you're interested in such things.
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