Will a desperately imperiled ape become a tragic icon of Chinas trillion-dollar infrastructure-expansion planshundreds of mega-projects that will stretch across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Pacific?The ape, called the Tapanuli Orangutan, is one of the rarest animals on Earth.Its great vulnerability isnt stopping Chinese corporations and banks from building a US$1.6 billion hydropower project right in the heart of its tiny population. The forest destruction has already begun.
To learn more about this environmental calamity and why it is only the beginning of an avalanche of environmental crises that will be provoked by China read this brief article. Published today by ALERT director Bill Laurance, its a story of ecological Armageddon for one of our closest living relatives.And it explains exactly why we cant trust China when it claims its massive development plans will be green and safe for nature.
Ape images (c) Maxime Aliaga; forest-clearing image: Sumatran Orangutan Society