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Preamble/Disclaimer/Author's Note: This is an essay I did for a History and Philosophy of Science subject ("Science, Philosophy, History" with Neil Thomason.) I am in the process of redrafting it into a longer piece that will include more background information, and more analysis of the conjectures. If you have any suggestions or comments I'll be interested to hear from you.
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Three Gorges Dam
An analysis of the analytic concepts contained in the Three Gorges controversy.
What wonderful plans we have!
What an ambitious enterprise we are to undertake!
We will fly a bridge across the river to join north and south,
Making a thoroughfare out of Heaven's awesome moat.
Upstream we will build a precipice of stone
To hold back Mount Wu's clouds and rains.
Creating a shimmering lake between the steep walks of the gorge.
Should the Goddess of Mount Wu live still in the clouds,
How surprised would she be to find the world so changed!
Swimming, Mao Zedong
Aside from being a founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong was also a poet. The poem “Swimming” portrayed a vision of the Yangtze River dammed and creating an enormous lake within an area known as the Three Gorges. With the poem held aloft like a prophecy, the Three Gorges Dam project began in earnest in the 1990’s, and is expected to be completed around 2010. When completed, the dam will be generating electrical power for China as well as controlling floods during wet-seasons. However, the project has raised much criticism from outside China as well as within with much of the arguments for the construction coming from the Chinese Communist Party.
Most of the arguments against the construction are developed from particular analytic concepts of engineering and nature, as well as the way they interact with each other and society. Those contained in much of the western media have the following characteristics: the Chinese Communist Party views their natural regions as resources to be augmented and used; the dam will be used as a tool of politics, further empowering the government over the people rather than vice versa; the destruction of archaeological sites and the displacement of people as further reduction of peoples’ power by removing their link, and hence knowledge, to nature and the past. So instead of being a massive, clean, infrastructure project, the image of the Three Gorges dam for many of the critics is a tool for political power and a monument to engineering hubris. There is also an implication that after this great show of pride there must come a fall.
The texts for this paper have been sourced from a number of different publications. The first four are directly about the Three Gorges Dam construction, with the fifth being a fictional story containing the themes highlighted in the contention.
The Biggest Dam in the World (Pearce 1995) gives an overview of the construction project including the expected benefits of flood control and power production. It even commends the placement of the dam for the distribution of power, which will be cleanly produced: “the dam will help China hold back from burning its vast coal reserves, thus reducing the country’s chronic smogs and its contribution to the greenhouse effect, which ahs doubled in the past 15 years.” (Pearce 1995) However, the article then goes on to outline some of the major criticisms of the dam. These include the possible dichotomy of the two main goals of power production and flood control, where it seems that the operators of the dam can choose only one. Also, there is the concern that the flooding land behind the dam will entail a huge displacement of people and the destruction of towns and farmlands.
Damned if she doesn’t (Pearce 2001) is an interview with Dai Qing, an opponent of the Three Gorges dam. The interview is by Fred Pearce and could be seen as a follow-up for the previous article. The article covers Qing’s history as once being a member of the Chinese Communist Party. Her past included working as an engineer on guided missile systems as well as a spy for the Chinese government.
She cites a number of problems with the dam. “Scientists say a series of smaller dams further upstream could do the same job more economically.” (Pearce 2001) She also talks about the number of dissenting voices from within the National People’s Congress of China that are not being heard.
China’s big dam brings a flood of fears (Schmidt 1997) looks primarily at the people who are to be displaced by the rising waters. It also focuses on the land that will be lost, and hence the knowledge and heritage associated with that land. These include temples and other sites of worship: “Original buildings, some more than 500 years old, lined stone-paved streets too narrow for vehicles.” (Schmidt 1997) (p.37)
The article follows Schmidt’s own visit to the region, and includes conversations with the people who will be directly affected.
Monuments of the millennium is about the large-scale dams that are being built around the world and asks if there is any future for these big dams. These include the Three Gorges as well as Narmada dam in India and the San Roque dam on the boundary of Pangasinan and Benguet. What is made clear is that all three of these dams are being built in Asia, and raises the question of whether such dams are still feasible: “Big dams haven’t really lived up to their role as the monuments of modern civilization, emblem of man’s ascendancy over nature. Monuments are supposed to be timeless, but dams have an all-too-finite lifetime. They last only as long as it takes nature to fill them with silt.” (Cimatu 1999)
It examines the weaknesses of the dams and the purpose that the governments have for them, which are flood control and power generation. The article also touches on the destruction of the previous cultures: “...the majority of those affected by the dams in India...were indigenous peoples.” (Cimatu 1999)
I have seen the world, Dream King. I have ridden through the deserts, and seen the rocks and old walls and statues breathed up by the desert wind in the empty wastes of sand; and then the wind and the sand come up once more and the remnants of cities and palaces and gods vanish for another age of man, forgotten and unremembered... (Gaiman 1993) (p. 27)
Worried that his own city will fall by the wayside, he bargains with the Dream King.
Caliph: I propose to give you this city. My city. I submit that you purchase it from me: take it into dreams.
Sandman: And in exchange?
Caliph: In exchange I want it never to die. To live forever. Can you do this thing?
Sandman: [Considering the city.] After a fashion, I can. (Gaiman 1993) (p. 28)
Unfortunately for the Caliph, he wakes from his bargaining to find his city in ruins and no longer the city of wonders it once was. However, the old city is like a dream for him, and he catches one last glimpse of it, in a jar carried by the Dream King.
As previously outlined, the view of the Three Gorges Dam by the previous articles
The Three Gorges area has been noted for its scenery, being the inspiration for many poets and painters (Schmidt 1997) . Most of this scenery will be covered by the proposed reservoir, with the claim by proponents that the site will become more beautiful than before (Pearce 1995) . This argument is similar to the one presented by John Stuart Mill in his essay “Nature”. Spur writes:
For Mill, human progress is the history of the great triumphs of art over nature: the building of bridges, the draining of marshes, the dragging to light of the minerals that nature has buried deep in the earth. “The ways of Nature are to be conquered, not obeyed.” (Spur 1993) (p.159)
Though Mill was primarily Eurocentric with his views of the Orient being that of a primitive and barbaric land, the idea of nature being a resource to be used to the advantage of society is certainly present.
As a contrast, the people being displaced are portrayed being more closely linked to the land. Farmers use the land, but also understand it. Schmidt makes the example of the herb collector looking for medicinal plants (1997). This tie with nature is similar to views expressed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau who remarks in his Essay on the Origin of Languages on the “natural alliance between the Asiatic...and the benevolent state of nature” (Spur 1993) (p.157)
Farmers are also worried that the land they are being moved to will not have the same productivity as the land they are losing (Pearce 2001) . In articles such as this, the link between the people and places is emphasised. The farmers being forced from the land feel impotent as they consider that the government will not hear their objections. With this perceived break down in communications, it is likely that the mistrust the farmers are feeling will be exacerbated (Wynne 1989) .
The removal of the link between people and the place is seen as having great implications on the government’s power over the people. With the Three Gorges dam being a centralised source of China’s power supply, the government attains greater power over distribution decisions (Pearce 2001) . Here the dam is being portrayed as an instrument for political gain. An artefact such as the dam can have political properties in two ways. Firstly, the instance where an issue within a community is settled by a construction (artefact). Secondly, where the construction appears to require a kind of political relationship. (Winner 1986) (p. 22) In this case, the dam is considered to be the solution for a set of problems for the community (flooding and power supply). However, all of the articles imply a continued set of politics, which gives more power to the government over the community. As Cimatu cites: “Dams are a way of accumulating authority...because the government decides who gets water and who doesn’t.” (Cimatu 1999)
The decisions and the authority comes form one source:
Bibliography
Cimatu, F. (1999). Monuments of the millennium. Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Gaiman, N. (1993). Ramadan. New York, Vertigo: 1-31.
Pearce, F. (1995). The Biggest Dam in the World. New Scientist. 145: 25.
Pearce, F. (2001). Dammed if she doesn't. New Scientist: 42-45.
Schmidt, J. (1997). China's big dam brings a flood of fears. GEO. 19: 30-40.
Spur, D. (1993). The Rhetoric of Empire, Duke University Press.
Winner, L. (1986). The Whale and the Reactor. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Wynne, B. (1989). Sheepfarming after Chernobyl; A Case Study in Communicating Scientific Information. Environment. 31.