Pollution in the Yangtze River
Pollution is a big problem for many rivers, oceans, and seas. And it's understandable because of how much damage pollution can do. But this page will focus mostly on what is happening in the Yangtze River.
Pollution was what made the Yangtze River turn red. Pollution even made the Baiji Dolphins go extinct! And it's all because of our selfish acts. In China, there is a bunch of stuff going on like businesses and stuff, and it also includes building factories, etc. So to make their economy grow, China made some factories near the Yangtze River. And of course this whole affair does not end well for the Yangtze River. The river turns red, and immediately all of wildlife in the Yangtze River is under the threat of extinction. But one already has died out quite some time ago. Like mentioned before, all the pollution that was spilled into the river made the Baiji Dolphins go extinct. But, pollution wasn't the only thing that made the Baiji Dolphins extinct. Some illegal human activity like electric fishing helped kill all the Baiji Dolphins. In fact, humans were actually the biggest reason why the Baiji Dolphins became extinct,. 40% were people fishing for them. But enough of the Baiji Dolphin.
But enough of the Baiji Dolphin. Pollution in the Yangtze River was there for over 50 years, increasing 73% in pollution levels that came from hundreds and hundreds of cities in China. The actual annual discharge of industrial waste has reached a whopping 25 billion tons. As if 25 billion tons of industrial waste wasn't bad enough, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development Task Force on Reducing Non-Point Pollution from Crop Production explained that 92% of all the nitrogen discharge has reached the Yangtze River, polluting even more. Shipping discharge was also part of the reason why the Yangtze River is so polluted. However, the major pollutants in the Yangtze River are suspended substances, oxidizing organic and inorganic compounds, and ammonia nitrogen. The Yangtze River is also the 4th largest sediment carrier in the world because of the proportion of a bunch of land in its catchment. The hydropower developments impound reservoirs that affects the water in the Yangtze River tremendously.
The Three Gorges Dam
This dam is actually the world's largest hydropower project and most notorious dam. However, this huge project is basically something for disaster and pollution, yet the Chinese don't remove it or anything. Heck, they even replicated it both domestically and internationally. But despite all the destruction the Three Gorges Dam can make, the Chinese government actually has some goals for their massive project. One is trying to control flood. There has been many floods in the past that have been very destructive, and made the Chinese government pay a whole bunch for all the damage the flood cost, thus urging the Chinese government to build the Three Gorges Dam to reduce the impact of each flood that occurs. Another goal that was set by he government was power generation. If China were to have this dam, then the Chinese won't have to rely on coal as much as before because of the use of hydroelectric turbine generators. Yet another goal that the government thought of was navigation. Just the presence of the dam will allow large ships to travel up and down the stream for the first time. The final goal the government has for this project is tourism. Well, it is a pretty cool thing to look at, despite what it actually does. And also, it is the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, so of course tourists would come and visit the dam. Right