Supplemental Readings from Florida International University students

Li et al. 2001. Reservoir resettlement in China: past experience and the Three Gorges Dam

Abstract: This paper reviews involuntary resettlement resulting from dam-building, which has been ignored relative to the dominant focus of migration research in China, rural to urban migration. Reservoir resettlement in China has a long history, often of misery and hardship for those displaced. Relocatees affected by the Three Gorges Project (1994-2009) on the Yangtze River face a similar situation. In China priority has been given to building the dam to provide electricity, flood control, and navigation. Less attention has been paid to the problems of the people affected by reservoir inundation. The rural population forced to relocate and rural-urban migrants generally have been discriminated against by national policies. This paper was selected as a worked example of consequences of national scale policy for local peoples, with a particular focus on power imbalance and displacement, themes which also emerge from the lead presentation by Dr. King.

O'Brien and Leichenko. 2001. Double Exposure: assessing the impacts of climate change within the context of economic globalization

This paper considers synergisms between the impacts of two global processes, climate change and economic globalization. Both processes entail long-term changes that will have di!erential impacts throughout the world. Despite widespread recognition that there will be `winners' and `losers' with both climate change and globalization, the two issues are rarely examined together. In this paper, we introduce the concept of double exposure as a framework for examining the simultaneous impacts of climate change and globalization. Double exposure refers to the fact that certain regions, sectors, ecosystems and social groups will be confronted both by the impacts of climate change, and by the consequences of globalization. By considering the joint impacts of the two processes, new sets of winners and losers emerge.