Using undercover footage and stills, Meltdown in Tibet provides a disturbing look into China's extensive 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 global warming—and from large-scale damming and diversion, due to massive Chinese engineering projects.

Tibetan nomads are being forced off their traditional grassland habitat to make way for these hydropower projects and for mining ventures. They are then resettled in bleak villages, where they cannot make a decent living.

Filmmaker Michael Buckley’s personal take on the politics of water in Tibet 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 is the Chinese government’s ultimate goal? China's plans for this pristine region could well prove disastrous not only for Tibetans, but for the whole of Asia--which relies heavily on rivers sourced in Tibet.

Watch the trailer here (MOV file) 2 mins
 
2010
Michael Buckley & Peter Sevcik