Last Days of the Mighty Mekong

Autorentext

Brian Eyler is Director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Stimson Center in Washington, D.C. He spent more than 15 years living and working in China and Southeast Asia and is widely recognized as a leading voice on environmental, energy, and water security issues in the Mekong region.

Klappentext

Celebrated for its natural beauty and its abundance of wildlife, the Mekong river runs thousands of miles through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Its basin is home to more than 70 million people and has for centuries been one of the world's richest agricultural areas and a biodynamic wonder. Today, however, it is undergoing profound changes. Development policies, led by a rising China in particular, aim to interconnect the region and urbanize the inhabitants.

In this new and comprehensively updated edition of Last Days of the Mighty Mekong, Brian Eyler gives his first-hand account of the impact on the river of the tumultuous political period since the book's original publication. From the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic and a devastating drought to the increasing political tensions and resource competition between China and Trump-era America, Eyler recounts his own increasing involvements in international efforts to protect this precious and delicate environment. Along the way he meets the region's diverse peoples, from villagers to community leaders, politicians to policy makers. Through conversations with them he reveals the urgent struggle to save the Mekong and its unique ecosystem.

Inhalt

Introduction

1. Yubeng: The Last Shangri-la
2. Damming the Upper Mekong
3. The Erhai Valley
4. The Akha as Modern Zomians
5. The Golden Triangle in Transition
6. Laos as a Contested Space
7. Damming the Lower Mekong
8. Phnom Penh and Boeung Kak Lake
9. The Tonle Sap
10. Whither the Mekong Delta