Politicised Landscapes - The Danube Case in a Global Context

Wednesday, 13 April 2016, 6:30 p.m.

JÁNOS VARGHA, Founder of Duna Kör

The Danube Case in a Global Context
Presentation and talk with Axel Braun

Galeria Centralis of Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Arany János utca 32, 1051 Budapest

An event of the POLITICISED LANDSCAPES program.

Janos Vargha's presentation discusses a selection of relevant topics that are related to dams worldwide. He will give overviews on history and politics of river engineering and hydropower development, scientific research and perception of social and ecological impacts of river regulation and damming as well as an introduction to river restoration versus hydropower development. Anti-dam movements, their success and failure, including the history and impacts of the World Commission on Dams (WCD) will be contextualised with the controversy about the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dam System. Furthermore he will refer to the recent hydropower development boom, its background and future impacts as well as the critical relation of climate change and hydropower development.

JÁNOS VARGHA

Environmentalist and photographer. He graduated in 1977 from the József Attila University, Szeged, with Master’s degree in biology. Since 1981 he has regularly published articles and delivered lectures about environmental issues of water management and water constructions. He is a founder of the Danube Circle, the first independent environmental protest group in the former communist block, recipient of the Right Livelihood Award (with the Danube Circle), the alternative Nobel-prize in 1985. In 1990, he was awarded with the Goldman Environmental Prize. He is the editor of a book, published in 1997, about the decision of the International Court of Justice in the Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros hydropower project’s case, and author of its chapter about hydropolitics. From 1998 he was the chief environmental advisor of the Hungarian government, but in 2000 he resigned from this position.

Photo: János Vargha