The Nature of the Internet

Power on the River is a short documentary by Eliot Fisher and Anna Kongs about what happens when the corporate vision of progress enters into the lives of small rural communities in the interior of Brazil.

Typically we keep our focus on rivers outside the U.S., but on Septemeber 18 we'll see an important action happening here at home on the West Coast. The Klamath Justice Coalition is organizing the first annual Day of Action Against PacifiCorp: The Most Destructive Power Company in the West. 

Hurray - Yesterday we were acknowledged for the strong impact of the flash presentations we've been producing to highlight our work. The goal of these slideshows is to bring our message to a wider audience and convey a powerful feeling of why we do this work, and what's at stake for the people and places threatened by large dams.

Look for us on your favorite blog reader. We posted this entry just so they'd give us a Technorati Profile. :)

(This is part 3 in a 3 part series. Read part I: Take Me to the River)

Dust in the Wind: Ahai Dam Barrels Ahead

Raft Approaching the Ahai Dam Site

If the 160-meter-high Ahai Dam is completed, its designers will be able to proudly say that their concrete work erased a thousand years of lovingly crafted Great Bend terraces in just a few years of reservoir filling. The legacy they are focusing on is surely a more positive one: increased distribution of eletricity to a power-hungry China, and increased efficiency for the Three Gorges Dam. According to the engineers, the main purpose of this eight-dam cascade will be regulating flows and sediment for the world's largest hydroelectric power station downstream. Whether or not all eight dams are actually required to make this work, and what that says about the design of Three Gorges itself, are all unknowns in China's disordered grand plan.

(This is part 2 in a 3 part series. Read part I: Take Me to the River)

Meeting the Golden Sands

Just Another Day on the Jinsha

I awoke at 7am to the sound of tent poles being dismantled - a luxury after the previous day's pre-dawn start. If we were going to do the full 120 miles we needed to be ready to go by 10am. On a weekend backpacking trip that would be a piece of cake - but for 28 people to pack tents, cook and eat breakfast, and load the aforementioned two tons of gear back onto the boats in two groggy hours, it would be quite a challenge.

Click image to enlarge

In my short tenure at International Rivers, I've come to expect dams in every corner of every country around the globe. Still, I was shocked by the ubiquitous nature of these concrete beasts as we flew above China. On the three-hour flight south from Beijing to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, I counted over 70 dams.