Meltdown in Tibet

Using undercover footage and stills, Meltdown in Tibet blows the lid off China’s huge and potentially catastrophic dam-building projects in Tibet. The mighty rivers sourced in Tibet are lifelines to the people of India and Southeast Asia. These rivers are at great risk from rapidly receding glaciers—a meltdown accelerated by climate change—and from large-scale damming and diversion, due to massive Chinese engineering projects. To make way for these hydropower projects and for mining ventures, Tibetan nomads are being forced off their traditional grassland habitat—and resettled in bleak villages, where they cannot make a decent living.

The film raises some disturbing questions about a looming eco-disaster. If Himalayan glaciers vanish, what will happen to the rivers of Tibet? What is the fate of people in nations downstream that depend on those rivers? Why is China building so many large dams on the Tibetan plateau? What on earth are China’s engineers getting up to?

WINNER of Sir Edmund Hillary Award in the Mountain/Environment Competition, at Mountain Film Festival, Mammoth Lakes, California, February 2010
WINNER of Silver Palm Award in the category of Shorts, at Mexico International Film Festival, Rosarito, Mexico, May 2010
WINNER of Best Documentary, at Poppy Jasper Short Film Festival, California, November 2010