Damming the Yangtze River. Air Pollution and Global Warming

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Lecturer
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Damming the Yangtze River
Air Pollution and Global Warming
The purpose of the Three Gorges dam was to provide hydro-generated energy to the country; this would reduce use in fossil fuel i.e. coal energy which is major sources of carbon a greenhouse gases ((Xu, Milliman, Yang, & Wan, 188). In view of the fact that hydroelectric power is pollution free the decision to build the dam was good, in that the impacts of global warming will be greatly reduced. The energy produced would ensure that the country cuts down its carbon emission to the atmosphere; this would lead to a clean and sustained environment. As stated by Gleick, (142) the electricity produced in the Three Gorges Dam would save the country 50 million tons of coal burning annually; which contributed to approximately 2 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, 10,000 tons of carbon monoxide and huge quantities of dust particles. This is responsible for depleting the ozone layer which protects the earth from harmful sun’s rays (Tan, & Yao, 358). The depletion leads to increased temperatures in the atmosphere also known as global warming.
Indeed, this would ease air pollution given that less carbon would be emitted to the atmosphere; for instance the energy produced would be used in electric trains and hence reduce transport by road. China is highly dependent on coal energy and the Three Gorges dam would reduce the consumption of coal and hence air pollution reduced significantly (Allin, 18).
The water from the dam was to be used to irrigate the nearby land which would be a viable venture; also the planting of trees (forestation and reforestation) in the nearby regions would enhance the environment (Allin, 19). Trees acts as intake to carbon dioxide from the environment and when planted they would reduce the carbon dioxide hence a cleaner and safer environment (Fearnside, 621). In fact the dam contributed to achieving of the Kyoto protocol that encouraged countries to reduce their greenhouse gasses emissions.
Water Pollution
The construction of Three Gorges Dam effected anti pollution measures upstream, there were wastewater treatment measures in the regions of Chongqing and other areas upstream (Allin, 21). This led to reduced water pollution in the dam and downstream. This was better than before where much waste water was channeled to the river leading to water pollution (Tan, & Yao, 358). The government was committed to end water pollution in ...