After years of environmental assault — from dam building, overfishing, and logging — stretches of the Mekong River, upon which millions of people depend, appear to be recovering. Heavy rains have helped, along with a crackdown on illegal fishing and other conservation efforts.
mong the many ailments plaguing Southeast Asia’s Mekong River, “hungry water” stands out with particular clarity. In recent dry seasons, the Mekong has in places turned a pristine blue as upstream dams rob it of the nutritious particles that normally color the river a healthy mud brown. It’s a phenomenon that can be highly destructive, with the sediment-starved water eating away at unbuffered river banks — hence the “hungry” epithet — and causing harmful erosion.
It also encapsulates the troubled state of the Mekong, a river that may look healthy on the surface but has grown increasingly sick from a wide range of problems, including dam building, overfishing, deforestation, plastic pollution, and the insidious impacts of a changing climate. During El Niño-induced droughts in recent years, things got so bad that some people suggested the Mekong River was approaching an ecological tipping point beyond which it could not recover.
But events in the past year suggest such doomsday predictions may be premature, especially in Cambodia, which sits at the heart of the Mekong basin. Thanks to the last monsoon season, which delivered above-average rainfall to the region, and authorities cracking down on illegal fishing, fish stocks have increased. Fishers along the Mekong have discovered giant fish thought to have disappeared, and the Cambodian government, which has a mixed environmental record, has stepped up conservation efforts.
Long read: https://e360.yale.edu/features/mekong-r ... a-recovery
In Cambodia, a Battered Mekong Defies Doomsday Predictions
- Bong Burgundy
- Where Did All the People Go?
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In Cambodia, a Battered Mekong Defies Doomsday Predictions
Bringing the news. You stay classy, nas, Cambodia.
It's not over till the fat lady sings
Drought coming this year, see what happens then
Drought coming this year, see what happens then
"We are going to run out of oil" - Nope
"The great Great Barrier Reef is beyond repair" - Nope
"The US economy is going to implode" - Nope
"Humans have destroyed the natural Amazon rainforest" - Oh, you mean it's mostly man-made, WTAF! - Nope
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be cleared in 10 years if you give us 20 billion" - What, well it's not actually a garbage patch per se and 90% of the "garbage" is 10 meters under water that we can't get too but still, and that 20 billion will not stop the land runoff anyway, give us the money! - Nope
"The ozone will be gone in 10 years" Nope.
"Evergrande. The start of China's collapse" - Nope
"Roads in SHV will fall apart in 5 years" - Nope
"Graphene is the new carbon fiber" - Nope
"Sugar good, fat bad" - Nope
"MSG bad" - Nope
"Smoking good" - Nope
"Diesel cars good, petrol bad" - Nope
"Nuclear bad, hydrocarbons good" - Nope
"The great Great Barrier Reef is beyond repair" - Nope
"The US economy is going to implode" - Nope
"Humans have destroyed the natural Amazon rainforest" - Oh, you mean it's mostly man-made, WTAF! - Nope
"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch will be cleared in 10 years if you give us 20 billion" - What, well it's not actually a garbage patch per se and 90% of the "garbage" is 10 meters under water that we can't get too but still, and that 20 billion will not stop the land runoff anyway, give us the money! - Nope
"The ozone will be gone in 10 years" Nope.
"Evergrande. The start of China's collapse" - Nope
"Roads in SHV will fall apart in 5 years" - Nope
"Graphene is the new carbon fiber" - Nope
"Sugar good, fat bad" - Nope
"MSG bad" - Nope
"Smoking good" - Nope
"Diesel cars good, petrol bad" - Nope
"Nuclear bad, hydrocarbons good" - Nope
pew, pew, pew, pew!
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“If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.” ~ Sun Tzu,The Art of War.
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when they are shown, those who do not see. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
Unless the Chinese have built a dam.Phnom Penh Trader wrote: ↑Fri Mar 03, 2023 9:20 pm“If you wait by the river long enough the bodies of your enemies will float by.” ~ Sun Tzu,The Art of War.
pew, pew, pew, pew!
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