I entered Tibet in 1985 on a mission to write the first English guidebook to the place. In the decades since then, I have embarked on a number of voyages across Tibet, as well as into the Tibetan-speaking regions of India, Nepal, Mongolia and Bhutan. Nothing beats boots on the ground to inspire passion—and an accurate reading of the situation. As a keen environmental activist, I have made five short documentaries, of which four are devoted to environment issues in Tibet, from China’s megadams on the rivers of Tibet to Chinese plundering of Tibet’s mineral wealth.
I wrote
Meltdown in Tibet: China's Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia
Who better to explain the Tibetan ecosystems that are vital to all of Asia? And to offer solutions.
A millennium before national parks and nature reserves appeared in the West, Tibetans had a system in place: they did not call regions national parks, but they decreed these areas were to be left alone, which is pretty much the same thing. The Dalai Lama elaborates on the Tibetan Buddhist concept of interdependence, whereby all creatures, plants, and phenomena depend on each other.
He proposed that Tibet be turned into a large biosphere, a Zone of Peace between China and India, set aside to preserve the Third Pole. Though his vision was rejected by the Chinese, in 1989, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize due to this vision—the first ever awarded on the basis of environmental initiatives.
An ethical approach to dealing with the urgent issues of climate change and taking care of our delicate ecosystems.
Winner of the Silver Independent Publisher Book Award in 2022 for Nature books.
This Fragile Planet features 80 inspiring quotations from His Holiness the Dalai Lama on environment, matched with 120 eye-catching photos and visuals from a dozen professional photographers - all carefully curated and edited by Tibet expert Michael Buckley.
The book lays out the vision of His Holiness concerning secular ethics and environmental protection, great respect for all living beings, the importance of interdependence, and the concept of universal…
There’s so little published about the vast Third Pole region that we need to turn to academia to find anything of real substance. This academic work by Simon Marsden is about legal angles, mainly the huge issue of sharing rivers (international watercourses) and how to impose agreements based on international environmental law.
Academic books are a dense read, and they are costly—around $100 for this one.
This highly topical book considers the important question of how best to protect the environment of the Third Pole - the area comprising the Hindu Kush Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau - using the tool of international law; specifically, international environmental law and the law of international watercourses. Following detailed analysis of weaknesses in current legal protections according to comparative legal theory, Simon Marsden recommends three potential options for implementation by policy and lawmakers.
The first option is to transplant existing international law, including conventions from the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Council of Europe. Secondly, transplantation of a…
Social Security for Future Generations
by
John A. Turner,
This book provides new options for reform of the Social Security (OASI) program. Some options are inspired by the U.S. pension system, while others are inspired by the literature on financial literacy or the social security systems in other countries.
An example of our proposals inspired by the U.S. pension…
Author Brahma Chellaney is India’s most prominent geopolitical expert. He lives in Delhi, at the epicenter of the battle for water.
India’s water crises are numerous. For starters, India’s groundwater is running out, and there’s no way to replenish it. Water means survival, and across India, water shortages are critical, not just for people but also for agriculture and industry. Few solutions are in sight at this point.
Chellaney’s book considers the much larger picture of how Asian nations will "share" water sources—if that is at all possible. Due to flooding and sea-level rise, a third of Bangladesh may disappear in the coming decades.
This Book Is The Winner of the Asia Society's Bernard Schwartz 2012 Book Award. The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is that danger greater than in water-distressed Asia. Water stress is set to become Asia's defining crisis of the twenty-first century, creating obstacles to continued rapid economic growth, stoking interstate tensions over shared resources, exacerbating long-time territorial disputes, and imposing further hardships on the poor. Asia is home to many of the world's great rivers and lakes, but its huge population and…
Author Jonathan Watts covered environmental issues across China for many years for The Guardian.
The book title originates from the author's childhood fantasy belief that if everyone in China jumped simultaneously, it would shake the earth off its axis, leading to catastrophic consequences. This has morphed into a metaphor for China's massive footprint across Asia. And a massive footprint in the Third Pole region—as China occupies Tibet by military force and does not give a toss about the environmental impact of its irresponsible policies. China is experiencing catastrophic water shortages and is hell-bent on diverting water resources from Tibet.
When a Billion Chinese Jump is a road journey into the future of our species. Traveling from the mountains of Tibet to the deserts of Inner Mongolia via the Silk Road, tiger farms, cancer villages, weather-modifying bases, and eco-cities, Watts chronicles the environmental impact of economic growth with a series of gripping stories from the country on the front line of global development. He talks to nomads and philosophers, entrepreneurs and scientists, rural farmers and urban consumers, examining how individuals are trying to adapt to one of the most spectacular bursts of change in human history, then poses a question…
Social Security for Future Generations
by
John A. Turner,
This book provides new options for reform of the Social Security (OASI) program. Some options are inspired by the U.S. pension system, while others are inspired by the literature on financial literacy or the social security systems in other countries.
An example of our proposals inspired by the U.S. pension…
Melting ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is a well-known catastrophe in the making, but what do you know about meltdown at the Third Pole?
The nation most closely identified with The Third Pole is Tibet, which sits over the largest area of permafrost and has the largest array of glaciers. Since Tibet is not recognized as a sovereign nation, most refer to the geographical feature of the Tibetan Plateau instead. All the glacial ice is melting, and the permafrost ice is thawing—largely due to human-caused factors. Ecocide in the Land of Snows is largely precipitated by China’s destructive mega-damming of Tibet’s rivers and by rampant mining of Tibet’s vast mineral resources.
