STOP CHINESE DAM BUILDING.

This petition asks the congress of the United States to hold hearings debating the proliferation of Chinese dam building around the world in the face of increasing evidence that dams are one of, if not the greatest ecological catastrophe of the 20th century.

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6344

China is those most prolific dam building country on earth next to the United States with 25,800 large dams, but unlike the United States who has now started to reverse our dam building trend because of destruction to lower 48 state fisheries and river/coastal ecosystems, China has accelerated dam building not only in China but around the world and is lobbying for dams to be part of newly implemented "Cap and Trade" schemes around the world.

http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/china

Dams are not green energy but are now the largest human caused source of the powerful greenhouse gas methane, which is 25 times as powerful as CO2 in causing global warming/climate change. The methane is created and released as trees, vegetation, soil and other materials decay underneath dam reservoir waters as reservoirs are filled after dam completion.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2007-09-26-china-dams_N.htm

Dam reservoirs now cover 500,000 sq. miles of the earths surface, an area the size of the U.S. state of Alaska and growing as China and other counties accelerate mega-dam building which is now being marketed as "green energy" by dam engineering firms, banks and others who stand to profit from dams and dam building.

The dams being built now are some of the largest ever built on earth. The "Three Gorges Dam" in China on the Yangtze river in China has a reservoir 350 miles long. That's as long as the U.S. state of Michigan. This dam has devastated downstream fisheries, displaced millions of river dwellers and will likely cause the extinction of the endangered Yangtze river dolphin which lives nowhere else on earth. Multiple species of rare river dolphins which live in various river systems around the world are now further threatened by dam building.

These creatures took millions of years to evolve and adapt to their present river habitats.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam

The building and completion of the enormous Zipinpu Dam, built on a major earthquake fault line in Sichuan Province in southwest China, is now suspected to have caused the massive 7.9 earthquake in May of 2008 that killed 70,000 people. Chinese and other scientists warned the Chinese government of the risk of building such a large dam on a major earthquake faultline, yet the Chinese government chose to disregard the warning. The astronomical weight of the millions or billions of tons of water flooding into the massive Zigpingpu dam reservoir and pressing down upon the surface of the earth after the dam was completed, appears to have been the culprit. The dam has now been emptied and is awaiting repairs from earthquake damage. Dams reservoirs are known to cause earthquakes around the world, especially when they are filled after dam completion, this is not speculation but known to be fact by various geophysical scientific communities around the world.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008713168_dam06.html?syndication=rss

http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/china/china-other-projects

Some of China's major rivers no longer reach the sea because of dams choking off their water flows for electricity etc., this is also true in the U.S. and in other countries around the world who have engaged in extensive dam and canal building.

Coastal marine life is eventually killed when cool river water outflow are blocked and warmed by dams. Coastal marine life has evolved in waters regulated by cool river outflows for millions of years. Quickly adapting to changes in coastal water temperatures and water salinity changes caused by dams is not possible for most species.

http://www.truthout.org/article/death-worlds-rivers

China and other nations of the world are now building or planning to build hundreds of these large dam and mega-dam projects around the world in the coming days, months and years to generate electricity for mining and resource extraction etc. and is extremely focused on doing this in southwest Asia and Africa on some of the largest, most pristine, species diverse tropical rivers on earth. Their record on humans rights and the environment are poor, with China now having some of the most polluted rivers and coastal areas on earth. 

Pollution and dams have destroyed a large portion of Chinese river and coastal fishing grounds. China now has to import seafood from all over the world to support it's ravenous appetite for fish as they further destroy worldwide rivers and coastal fisheries with dams to extract resources and generate more electricity for manufacturing etc.

http://www.probeinternational.org/three-gorges-probe/international-expansion-chinese-dam-builders

According to various studies dams and dam reservoirs have dislocated 40-80 million poor river dwelling farmers, fisherman and tribal people in the last 50 years while flooding and destroying millions of acres of riverside forest, farmland, fisheries and causing an exponential increase in malaria and other water born parasites caused by the stagnation of entire river systems when dams are constructed and reservoirs are filled.

http://www.internationalrivers.org/chi/node/480

In many parts of the world such as Africa, dam reservoir waters are nothing more than breeding grounds for malaria, water born parasites, diseases and pools for collecting toxic mining, factory and agricultural wastes that cannot be washed out to the sea to disperse because of dams and dam stagnated river waters. This toxic sludge/water which  accumulates behind dams is then periodically released to downriver stream-side communities causing sickness, death and destruction of river and coastal fisheries.

The nations of Africa and southeast Asia where these enormous dam projects are being built and resources are being extracted should include improving sewage, water cleaning plants and water drainage infrastructure as the part cost of doing business there by outside nations such as China. These dams should not be built.

http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/diseases/malaria/en/

River water temperatures, sediment flows, nutrients and water levels are also severely altered by dams which kill multiple species of river and coastal fish that can only live and breed within certain temperature ranges. Dams tend to warm and stagnate rivers creating prime breeding habitat for malarial mosquitoes and other water born parasites, worms and diseases. Most life in the world's oceans and seas are in coastal areas, away from the coasts oceans become increasingly like deserts devoid of significant life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_migration

500,000,000 people are now infected with malaria each year, with 1-2 million dying, 90% of these deaths are in children. The rise in malaria worldwide has paralleled dam building in the 20th century.

http://www.burmariversnetwork.org/key-concerns/social-impacts.html

Will dam building countries, banks and wealthy funders of dam construction projects compensate these people for the loss of their children, destruction of river and coastal ecosystems, fisheries, forests, farmlands and villages?. This should be incorporated into the cost of building dams. If you decide to kill children and destroy entire ecosystems and people you should pay a very steep price indeed. In fact dam building that obstructs the entire mainstreams of rivers or multiple river tributaries should be outlawed around the world in the face of increasing evidence of the human and ecosystem destruction and disease caused by damming rivers/river systems.

http://www.boell.de/worldwide/europenorthamerica/europe-north-america-6276.html

We in the free world have the ability to change this wave of apocalyptic destruction by educating ourselves on this issue and then educating our friends and families.We can then also contact our federal and state government leaders making them also aware of this looming environmental and human catastrophe.

Investigate the below links on this subject to learn more and then click on the below links to contact your state senators and congressman to let them know how you feel about this issue.

http://www.internationalrivers.org/

http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2119

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6344

http://www.americanrivers.org/

CONTACT ALL U.S. STATE SENATORS AT BELOW LINK:

http://www.theorator.com/senate.html

CONTACT YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES HERE:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

OR SEND AN EDITORIAL LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES ON THIS ISSUE:

letter@nytimes.com

We the undersigned would like to see U.S. congressional debate and legislation investigating the building of dams and mega-dams around the world by China and other countries, and to pass legislation to better monitor and regulate possible U.S. government and private investment in these tremendously damaging projects which are now known to have caused and are still causing human and ecosystem destruction on an astronomical scale.