Global Warming #1: Hydropower in China

Even as heat waves and forest fires rage through Europe, China’s extreme summers have their own consequences. The Yangtze river’s level is at its lowest level since 1865, says this Bloomberg article. This is a major problem for China since the river feeds “much of the country’s food and massive hydroelectric stations, including the Three Gorges Dam — the world’s biggest power plant”.

 

As the water level kept falling, electricity generation at the hydropower plants decreased. In turn, that reduction in electricity has hit everything from malls to factories.

 

Which brings me to a worrying point. Yes, we know global warming is real. Yes, we know the world needs to take more steps to switch to less polluting and alternate forms of energy. China had been increasing its share of hydro, solar and wind power contribution in that context.

 

But with successive years of droughts in different rivers hitting hydro power production, and “given that wind and solar are even less stable”, China has started increasing coal production – it’s feeling that coal is more reliable…

 

This, of course, would set off a vicious cycle. If climate change makes eco-friendly energy sources less predictable and thus less reliable, and countries start shifting back to fossil fuels, they’d be increasing the very sources that have led to global warming in the first place.

 

It’s all very well to say everyone should be willing to pay the price to create a better environment in the future, but electricity is a basic necessity of modern life that fuels economic growth and helps move people out of poverty…