Tibetans have long worshiped Mt Khawa Karpo, regarded as one of the highest spiritual gods in this mountainous region of Yunnan, China. Yet as the earth warms, glacier retreat and ice loss here over the last decade have reached alarming levels and the melting is only accelerating.

China's mother river, the Yellow, was known for its devastating floods in ancient times. Nowadays, however, it stops flowing all the way to the sea many days of the year. Apart from increasing demand from agricultural and industrial water usage, the water shortage can also be traced all the way to its originating streams up on the northeastern corner of the Tibetan Plateau.

This is the first feature of the "Tibetan Plateau in Peril" project, a series of video and other visual stories about melting glaciers, thawing permafrost and a whole ecological degradation on the "roof of the world" and their region wide, 2-billion-population impact.

A new phenomenon is already beginning to radically change the landscape of Chinese roads in second and third tier cities: small, 4-seat all-electric passenger vehicles that cost as little as 2,000-3,000 US dollars, can be charged in a normal household outlet, and emit less greenhouse gases.

Da Shu Xian, or Big Tree Country, in remote Sichuan Province is the site of a large sulfur mine, which produces up to 12,000 tons of sulfur a month. In the 14 years since the mine became operational up until this film was produced in 1992, pollution from the sulfur mine wiped out the area's trees that had given the county its name.

China may be on the cusp of a green building boom due to a growing number of private energy service companies (ESCOS) nationwide. Sohota Electric, an energy savings company in Zhuhai, Guangdong is one of those firms. Its clientele includes state television broadcaster CCTV, whose energy bill Sohota has cut by 16 percent.

Working with Chinese planners from the Ministry of Water Resources, international planners from the World Bank managed, over a span of 10 years, to reshape the hydrology, soil dynamics, forestry, agriculture practices, and economic viability of the Loess Plateau in northwestern China.

Air pollution is an unfortunate consequence of China's recent rapid development. The 2008 Olympics are focusing global attention on Beijing's air quality. Despite government efforts to control the problem, it remains a serious challenge for China.