Human Cost Of China's Green Energy Rush Ahead Of Beijing Winter Olympics
NDTV
Farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price for the nation's commitment that the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy.
Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned -- farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output.
China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of facilities to increase capacity -- but activists warn ordinary people are being exploited by "land grabs" in the process.
In a hamlet near Beijing, the Long family -- who say they've lost more than half their agricultural land to a sprawling solar farm next door -- now have so little income they are burning corn husks and plastic bags to stay warm in winter.
"We were promised just 1,000 yuan per mu of land each year when the power company leased the land for 25 years," farmer Long from Huangjiao village said, using a Chinese unit of land equal to approximately 667 square metres.
