, Columnist
The World’s Biggest Dam Is the Last Thing China Needs
Beijing’s passion for hydroelectric megaprojects is a symptom of its obsession with coal, not the cure for it.
China’s Three Gorges Dam.
Source: AFP/Getty Images
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If you’re worried about China’s insatiable appetite for coal and its role in the relentless heating of our planet, you might see the building of the world’s biggest renewable power plant high on the Tibetan plateau as unalloyed good news. Don’t get your hopes up.
The proposed dam approved Dec. 25 on the Yarlung Tsangpo river — which flows parallel to the Ganges before turning south through a six-kilometer-deep (3.7 mile) canyon and joining its path through India and Bangladesh — is a list of superlatives.