There was a story on NPR this morning about the Three Gorges Dam on the Yellow River. It was fascinating to listen to. The story was about how the rising resevoir is threatening to inundate historical and cultural artifacts like the Teasure Stone Fortress. And not only physical artifacts are being lost, but culture and people. One Chinese civil engineer talked about how many intangible cultural artifacts are being lost, like language, and the way people carried loads on their heads in baskets.
I was interested to hear this because my fourth graders just completed a unit on types of energy. Their unit project was to choose one type of energy (fossil fuels, wind, solar, hydroelectric) and debate the pros and cons. This would have been a great resource for those students studying hydroelectric. I still think I'll play them parts of this three part series on the impact of the Three Gorges Dam.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17810431
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