Thẻ: Mongabay series

Mongabay Series: A plan to save the Mekong Delta

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

  A plan to save the Mekong Delta

Mongabay Series:
Part 1 – Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?
Part 2 – Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong
Part 3 – Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Part 4 – A plan to save the Mekong Delta

18 October 2016 / David Brown

Rising seas and upstream dams are threatening to hammer the fertile region. Can Vietnam act in time to stave off disaster?

  • The Mekong Delta Plan is the product of several years’ work by Dutch and Vietnamese officials, supported by a platoon of experts from both nations.
  • It’s a blueprint for dealing not only with the effects of climate change and upstream dams but also with certain shortsighted activities by the Vietnamese themselves.
  • The region’s farmers as well as the relevant branches of government must be persuaded to buy into the plan.
This is the final installment of an in-depth, four-part series exploring threats facing the Mekong Delta and how they might be addressed. Read the first, second, third and fourth installments.“I think this year Vietnam got a taste of the new normal,” said Dinh Tuyen, my journalist friend in bustling Can Tho, the Mekong Delta’s hub city. “Less fresh water from rains or from up the river, and more salt water as sea levels rise.”We’d been talking about a story Tuyen had written in May for Thanh Nien, a leading Vietnamese daily. It featured photos of blue-green river waters, and called attention to a remarkable development: the Mekong’s southern branch was not, as usual, muddy with a cargo of silt. Tiếp tục đọc “Mongabay Series: A plan to save the Mekong Delta” →

Mongabay series: Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems 

Mongabay Series:
Part 1 – Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?
Part 2 – Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong
Part 3 – Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Part 4 – A plan to save the Mekong Delta

13 October 2016 / David Brown

Climate change and dams going in upstream are threatening to render the crucial region unviable. But are the Delta’s biggest problems of Vietnam’s own making?

  • Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to nearly 20 million people, is one of the most highly productive agricultural environments in the world, thanks in part to an elaborate network of canals, dikes, sluice gates and drainage ditches.
  • On the strength of Delta agriculture, Vietnam has gone from a chronic importer of rice to a major exporter.
  • But farmers in the region are critical of the government’s food security policies, which mandate that most of the Delta’s land be devoted to rice production. And many of them are taking measures to circumvent those rules, in ways that aren’t always friendly to the environment.
  • That’s just one example of how water and land-use policy in the Delta is undermining efforts to protect the vulnerable region from climate change and upstream development.

This is the third article of an in-depth, four-part series exploring threats facing the Mekong Delta and how they might be addressed. Read the  first, second, third and fourth installments. Tiếp tục đọc “Mongabay series: Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems” →

Mongabay series: Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong

Mongabay Series:
Part 1 – Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?
Part 2 – Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong
Part 3 – Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Part 4 – A plan to save the Mekong Delta

6 October 2016 / David Brown

  • The Mekong River is the lifeblood of mainland Southeast Asia. It flows through six countries and affects the lives of some 60 million people.
  • China and Laos are damming the river in many places. And Thailand is planning a large-scale of diversion of water that could further affect its flow.
  • It’s still an open question whether the dams in Laos can be financed. Will Beijing step in?

Tiếp tục đọc “Mongabay series: Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong” →

Mongabay series: Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta

~ Trần Đình Hoành ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?

Mongabay Series:
Part 1 – Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta?
Part 2 – Vietnam sweats bullets as China and Laos dam the Mekong
Part 3 – Mother Nature and a hydropower onslaught aren’t the Mekong Delta’s only problems
Part 4 – A plan to save the Mekong Delta

3 October 2016 / David Brown

No delta region in the world is more threatened by climate change. Will Vietnam act in time to save it?

  • Scientists say the 1-meter sea level rise expected by century’s end will displace 3.5-5 million Mekong Delta residents. A 2-meter sea level rise could force three times that to higher ground.
  • Shifting rainfall and flooding patterns are also threatening one of the most highly productive agricultural environments in the world.
  • The onus is now on Vietnam’s government in Hanoi to approve a comprehensive adaptation and mitigation plan.
This is the first article of an in-depth, four-part series exploring threats facing the Mekong Delta and how they might be addressed. Read the first, second, third and fourth installments.It’s a sad fact that several decades of talk about climate change have hardly anywhere yet led to serious efforts to adapt to phenomena that are virtually unavoidable. Neuroscientists say that’s because we’re humans. We aren’t wired to respond to large, complex, slow-moving threats. Our instinctive response is apathy, not action.

That paradox was much on my mind during a recent visit back to Vietnam’s fabulously fertile Mekong Delta, a soggy plain the size of Switzerland. Here the livelihood of 20 percent of Vietnam’s 92 million people is gravely threatened by climate change and by a manmade catastrophe, the seemingly unstoppable damming of the upper reaches of the Mekong River. Tiếp tục đọc “Mongabay series: Will climate change sink the Mekong Delta” →