Environment

Flattening Mountains in China Draws Protests

A group of Chinese scientists is criticizing the country’s bulldozing of hundreds of mountains to provide more flat land for agriculture and development.

The government’s largest land-flattening operation aims to remove more than 700 mountains and shovel the debris into valleys to create nearly 100 square miles of usable land.

A smaller but similar project in Hubei province resulted in increased erosion, landslides and flooding, as well as altering the courses of rivers and streams.

Writing in the journal Nature, three academics from the School of Environmental Science and Engineering in Chang’an University say the project has not been adequately considered “environmentally, technically or economically.”

Officials say the project will generate billions of yuan from the sale or lease of the new flattened land.