Recording available: Climate Crisis in Tibet – Part III: China’s Rapacity for Mining Tibetan Resources: When Will the Greed End?
The Tibetan Plateau – Asia’s water tower and China’s major source for critical minerals like copper and lithium – is facing severe ecological degradation due to China’s extensive infrastructure projects, including mega-dam building, forced relocation of Tibetans, and mining. The increase in the so-called development projects such as the 2006 Golmud-Lhasa railway link among other such initiatives via China’s “Western Development Strategy,” or the “Go west” policy have only facilitated greater exploitation of Tibet’s natural reserves including critical minerals.
This webinar, third in series, explored and attempted to address the following questions with some of the leading experts on the subject:
- What is the extent and scope of the Chinese mining operations in the Tibetan Plateau? What does the latest data suggest?
- What is the extent of extraction of critical minerals, particularly of rare earths, in Tibet?
- What is the specific impact of such activities on the environmental degradation in the Tibetan Plateau? What are its implications for the regional and global community?
- How can the countries concerned about climate change due to excessive human activities like mining help create awareness about the Tibetan issue?
- Are the international climate forums, accords, and organizations like the IPCC, UNFCCC, UNEP, and ICIMOD helpful in achieving dissemination of information in relation to Tibet? If not, what more can be done?