Ethical Analysis Of Environmental Impact Assessment Of Hydropower Projects In My Country

With the rapid development of hydropower projects,especially the successive construction of large-scale ones,hydropower projects have already become an indispensable part in people's daily life.While bringing huge economic benefits to humans,hydropower projects have also caused ecological environmental problems,with the contradiction between hydropower development and ecological protection becoming increasingly prominent.It has been proved by numerous domestic and foreign practices that in order to improve this situation,China must “put prevention first”.To “put prevention first”,it is necessary to assess environmental impacts of a hydropower project before implementing it,scientifically and comprehensively analyze the influences that the hydropower project may have on the environment,and then formulate reasonable measures to reduce the negative environmental impacts.Previous researches on assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects focused on exploring the technological methods to assess the environmental impacts,whereas paid less attention to the analysis on the legal level and the discussion from the ethical perspective.To utilize hydropower projects to promote economic and social development,and to minimize the potential risks of hydropower projects,we must organically unify hydropower projects,water resources,the ecological environment and human beings,raise them to an ethical level,and introduce the people-oriented principle,the principle of ecological ethics,the principle of responsibility as well as the principle of fair distribution of interests into the environmental impact assessment system of hydropower projects as new criteria for assessing the environmental impacts of hydropower projects.Based on the human-oriented ethical principle,this paper analyzes the problems of low public participation and the insufficiently performed principle of informed consent in the environmental impact assessment of hydropower projects.Besides,the paper explores the harm brought by the construction of hydropower projects to the migrants and whether enough attention has been paid to the safety of construction workers during the construction of hydropower projects.The principle of ecological ethics is used toanalyze the problem of insufficient protection of water environment and biodiversity during the environmental impact assessment of hydropower projects.According to the ethical principles of responsibility,the paper probes into the responsibilities of engineers who assess the environmental impacts of hydropower projects and enterprises carrying out hydropower projects as well as the government ' s responsibility for supervising the assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects.According to the principle of fair distribution of interests,the paper analyzes the comprehensive fair distribution of interests which failed to be involved in the assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects.In the end,based on an in-depth analysis and research on these ethical issues and combined with the reality of the assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects in China,the paper propose ethical principles and countermeasures to address these ethical issues,including integrating the human-oriented principle and harmonious coexistence of mankind and the environment into the system of assessing the environmental impacts of hydropower projects,enhancing the awareness of responsibility of engineers who assess the environmental impacts of hydropower projects,establishing and improving a fair compensation system for the assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects.The assessment on environmental impacts of hydropower projects has thereby been improved in terms of methods,systems,and norms,which has promoted the development of the cause of assessing environmental impacts of hydropower projects.