The Dammed: (Three Gorges Dam - China)

[jpak]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article351717.ece

The world's biggest dam is to open in May, months ahead of schedule. The Three Gorges dam is viewed by supporters with pride as a symbol of China's economic and social change but environmentalists believe it is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

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[Psephos]

1. Comparable to old Soviet-style environmental disregard

Short-term economic benefit trumps everything else in a government which has no checks on its decisions, and an ambitious nationalist agenda to fund.

Peace.

[madrchsod]

2. this dam is a marvel of engineering

and i`m sure it hold water for thousands of year but yes, but at what cost...

[phantom power]

4. How long it lasts depends on silt load of the river.

If the silt load is high, the reservoir might last a surprisingly short time. For instance, the Powell Reservoir has already lost 20% of it's original volume to silt from the Colorado. The reservoir is only about 45 years old.

I don't know how the Yangtze's silt load compares. The reservoir itself is larger.

Epic silt-avalanches lie some time in the future, when the dams eventually fail.

[phantom power]

3. Discovery channel had a program on the archaeological loss.

The archaeologists have been digging 24/7 just to get stuff out of the ground before it's flooded. They catalog the location, position, etc, and ship it all to warehouses. Whatever they save, they'll sift through later once everything is drowned. They figure they might save 10% of what was there. Maybe less.

To say nothing of the environmental destruction. It must be the largest single riparian habitat loss in history.

[blindpig]

5. Say goodbye to the endemic dolphin and alligator. n/t

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Flip a coin...

On the plus side, it's down to produce 10% of china's electricity (220TWh, or nearly an exajoule a year) which would otherwise be coming out of some of the planets worst coal-fired plants.

:shrug: Not good for the three gorges, good for the polar bears. Pick a box...

[blindpig]

7. heads you lose, tails you lose. n/t

[Celtic warrior]

8. China' Dam

The problem here is that the dam crosses a major fault line and many well respected engineers the dam will fail... millions will die and the environmental damage will be incalculable

Celtic Warrior