Opinion

Leave Munkhbayar and his friends alone!

Jun 29th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

Leaders of United movement of Mongolian Rivers and Lakes were arrested on June 23. English language media are silent and only SODON-blog reacted to this outrageous event.
Police  arrested Munkhbayar  again on June 23 and brought him  that night  to Ulaanbaatar. Three  others who were in Munkhbayar’s team were also arrested: Enkhbayar, Baatarkhuyag, and Naimanjin.
The […]



Wake up, Mongolians!

May 3rd, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

 
Ulan Bator: eight nomad tents stand near the house of parliament. Nomads wander the town square, horses neigh, and shepherd dogs bark. Our special correspondent reports from the very thick of the young Mongolian revolution.

On 19 April, dozens of nomad wagons and hundreds of riders and shepherds were still arriving in S?khbaatar Square, Ulan Bator, […]



Rivers without Boundaries comment on China Dialogue article

Feb 4th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

Saving Dalai Lake- response from Chinese coordinator for Rivers without Boundaries.
I am very pleased that issues in Argun-Erguna River basin has once again been brought to people’s attention, especially as this article has been reposted on over ten websites.(see chinadialogue.net)
Let me first introduce myself, and also correct a small error in the article. My name […]



Radioactive Heaven at the transboundary Argun River

Feb 1st, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

 According to annual review of uranium mining issues at www.wise-uranium.org , a court in Zabaikalsky Province, Russia ordered the Krasnokamensk uranium mill to stop local lake pollution. Due to insufficient waste water treatment capacity, the concentrations of zinc, phosphate, phenol, oil products, iron, magnesium, sulphates, nitrates and several other dangerous admixtures exceed the permissible standards. Russian […]



Dalai Lake is shrinking, but can it be saved?

Jan 25th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

Recent article in China Dialogue by Huo Weiya describes controversies around  water transfer from Hailaer River to Dalai Lake. Unfortunately it fails to mention that Argun River floodplain wetlands likely affected by water transfer are also situated mostly in China and have immense natural value. But it puts together many interesting details helping to understand […]



The river of Genghis should not be destroyed by foreign mining!

Jan 16th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

Yet another call for help for Dauria rivers polluted by Russian miners came from Mongolia:
“Mongolia today has full of invincible army of destroyers, who can damage land soil and nature. It is impossible to calculate by numbers damage caused by mining to environment and local economy. Ancient historical Orkhon River is crying and […]



Member of the Cherokee Nation reflects on Mongolian mining boom

Jan 13th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

After spending several months in the epic clamor of industrializing China, I went to Mongolia looking for open spaces and unspoiled nature, for clean air, for hiking and horseback riding, and for nights still dark enough to terrify. In the countryside (and most of it remains countryside) the Eternal Sky held sacred by Mongolians since […]



Hot debate about sea-water transfer project

Jan 10th, 2011 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

According to an article by Jeremy Page in Wall Street Journal on November 09, 2010 local officials in China’s arid northwest have launched a new push for a vast water-diversion project that would pump raw sea water thousands of miles from the coast to the deserts of Xinjiang through a pipeline made of […]



WESTERN DECEPTIONS AND THE EXTINCTION OF THE NOMADS

Dec 24th, 2010 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

Controversial article by Keith Harmon Snow investigates example of The Asia Foundation(TAF) in Mongolia to show how international (environmental ) foundations are serving needs of transnational mining companies and western governments.

” While pumping money into domestic civic organizations, subversive neocolonial entities like TAF also impose limitations on grant recipients. NGOs affiliated with the MNPC began […]



Mongolia Eco-Warriors Call Attention to Economic Development Dilemma

Nov 16th, 2010 | By esimonov | Category: Opinion

A 1991 discovery led to the present day gold rush in the area around the former logging hamlet of Tunkhel. The Gatsuurt deposit, managed by Centerra, contains an estimated 1.3 million ounces of gold according to the company. 
In early September at a small outpost 110 kilometers north of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, four environmental activists […]