China from the Inside: Shifting Nature

This film, part of a BBC television documentary series about China, focuses on the environment in that country and represents a typical example of contemporary Anglo–American reporting. Ecologists, scientists, government officials and ordinary people discuss China's headlong – and ecologically reckless – industrial development, and the changes it has wrought to the country's environment. The film's main aim is to present basic but balanced information. It focuses on the issue of hydrobiology and maps the situation around a number of rivers, including their pollution, and in some cases the efforts of local organisations to repair the damage. In the case of most of the problems addressed, the film posits a basic link between social engineering and the political ability of state bodies to see its results, meaning serious future economic problems. Subjects include a gigantic flooding project which is intended to secure water supplies for north–eastern parts of China, including Beijing, and the well–known Three Gorges Dam.