October 12, 2007
AND YOU THOUGHT THE TVA WAS DESTRUCTIVE?:
Three Gorges Dam could be environmental disaster (Richard Spencer, 11/10/2007, Daily Telegraph)
China plans to relocate 4m people from the hillsides around the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest, in an unprecedented effort to stave off an environmental disaster.Posted by Orrin Judd at October 12, 2007 12:09 AMThe huge project will take between 10-15 years to complete, but was necessary as the area's "ecological safety" was at risk, according to senior officials.
The announcement comes in the wake of increasingly panicked reports of the environmental effects of the £13bn dam, one of the world's most ambitious infrastructure projects, whose first stage opened in 2003.
Not only that, but except for the dam, the other parts of the design are not complete (and probably never will be). The ship-lift portion of the project (to allow navigation through) is rotting away, and the power generation is proving to be much less than envisioned. All the Chinese have done is stuck a very big (and expensive) rock in the middle of the Yangtze.
Posted by: jim hamlen at October 12, 2007 10:57 AMI think the technical term for this project is "target".
Posted by: Bob at October 12, 2007 11:50 AMThe Sierra Club is no doubt protesting diligently.
Posted by: Gideon at October 12, 2007 12:52 PMThey are currently preparing to go to the moon to see if it's visible from there.
Posted by: Genecis at October 12, 2007 1:22 PMJust wait til they invade Taiwan and the latter (desparately) lob a few cruise missiles into the dam. The downstream flood will kill tens of millions.
Posted by: Steve White at October 12, 2007 9:13 PMDoes anyone know how many workers died building the dam? My totally wild guess would be about 300 (considering the 15 years or so that it took to build it), but it could be much higher.
Posted by: ratbert at October 13, 2007 9:41 AM