Home > Blogs > THREE GORGES DAM CRUISE TO HADES?
THREE GORGES DAM CRUISE TO HADES?
Peter NavarroPosted August 30, 2007
Topics: General Business, Geo-politics, Sales & Marketing, Publishing, Management & Strategy, Author Interviews, Self Improvement, Global Business, Human Resources, Business books, Politics, Ideas, Advertising, Leadership, Finance & Investing, Author Tips
There is an excellent front page article on the Three Gorges Dam in the Aug. 29 edition of the Wall Street Journal. In The Coming China Wars, I discuss the problems with the Three Gorges Dam in detail. Here’s an excerpt:
Today, the poster child for
The dam has a ship lift with a carrying capacity of 11,500 tons that is more than twice the height of any existing ship lift. Three Gorges also sports the largest hydroelectric station in the world, with an installed capacity equal to about 15 large nuclear power plants—18,200 megawatts.
At present, the Three Gorges Dam is basking in the glow of its apparent success. Mind-boggling in its size and audacity, and often likened to
Now here’s the other side of the Three Gorges coin: If ever there were a disaster waiting to happen, it is this very same dam. For starters, the dam is located close to a major earthquake fault line, which is even more a concern because the dam has experienced numerous cracks. At one point,
For more details, check out The Coming China Wars and the WSJ. If that dam ever fails, it will kill more people than any single engineering failure in history. Even if it doesn’t fail, it is likely to do considerable damage in
Click here to watch the complete webstream of Book TV’s presentation on The Coming
Comments
This is an exaple of a debate I took place in, the essay was my own writing and my presentation. Many people believe this dam will cause more harm than good, and so do I, the reservoir created by the dam is causing waste problems, environmentalists believe that the damage caused by the dam makes the energy un-renewable and the energy provided is not as cheap as planned. Although less coal will be burned with the dam, the water ecosystem will be terribly affected. Silt and toxins accumulate in the dam and they are not allowed to be flushed out to sea as they once were. Over 265 million gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the Yangtze River ever year, when the reservoir is at full depth all of this degusting waste will be backed up in the reservoir. About 1,700 once active factories and mines will be submerged upon completion of the reservoir, Chemicals and other harmful materials will also be backed up in the reservoir, from these places. If the Chinese gov’t had made more of an attempt at removing these toxins the people and animals would be better off by a little because these chemicals could be fatal. In 2006 a large drought occurred in China and they happen all of the time. When these droughts occur and the reservoir level goes down, all of the submerged garbage is exposed, and when the reservoir raises again all of this garbage will float back up to the top. Experts believe that the dam actually is not a source of renewable energy. Tons of damage is caused by the dam and since many of these things are irreplaceable, it eliminates the ability to call the electricity renewable. Only 10% of China’s landscape is good fertile land, but the reservoir will be eliminating a large amount of this land. If they lose farming areas, they lose farming. As the reservoir gets deeper the water temperature changes, as sunlight is not able to reach further down into the water. Over 300 species of fish could become extinct because of this change. If the fish die off, species that eat these fish could also die off. 47 rare or endangered animals feed on the fish, and they could be at an even larger risk. The total building cost is $30 billion. Prices like these will bring down China’s already bad economy and will make it worse. Since this dam was built to help China’s economy a price tag like this is very alarming. This dam is placed right on an active fault line, earthquakes are very common in this area, and as the reservoir grows, pressure is put on the fault line, which may make it cause an earthquake more often. If an earthquake does happen, the dam may break causing many to die, and making many more homeless, as floods come through. When all of the repairs are made, the total money spent could be millions. The dam’s turbines are now considered very advanced, but in a few years, they will be a thing of the past. More effective and cleaner ways to generate electricity are now in the works. Things like, solar and wind power are now available. I believe China should us one of these ways rather than building more dams. Some experts believe that China’s electrical systems will not be able to absorb and use the electricity produced by the dam. When China shuts down some of the coal burning sites to use the dam electricity, many cities many not have enough energy and could be left in the dark. All of these things I have told you, Water pollution, the cost, the risk that the energy may not be absorbed and the fact that the energy is not renewable, are all reasons why my team and I believe China should not build anymore dams, these reasons support my belief. Sincerly, Mack M.
By mackk511, Apr 23, 2008 09:17 PM
This is an exaple of a debate I took place in, the essay was my own writing and my presentation. Many people believe this dam will cause more harm than good, and so do I, the reservoir created by the dam is causing waste problems, environmentalists believe that the damage caused by the dam makes the energy un-renewable and the energy provided is not as cheap as planned. Although less coal will be burned with the dam, the water ecosystem will be terribly affected. Silt and toxins accumulate in the dam and they are not allowed to be flushed out to sea as they once were. Over 265 million gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the Yangtze River ever year, when the reservoir is at full depth all of this degusting waste will be backed up in the reservoir. About 1,700 once active factories and mines will be submerged upon completion of the reservoir, Chemicals and other harmful materials will also be backed up in the reservoir, from these places. If the Chinese gov’t had made more of an attempt at removing these toxins the people and animals would be better off by a little because these chemicals could be fatal. In 2006 a large drought occurred in China and they happen all of the time. When these droughts occur and the reservoir level goes down, all of the submerged garbage is exposed, and when the reservoir raises again all of this garbage will float back up to the top. Experts believe that the dam actually is not a source of renewable energy. Tons of damage is caused by the dam and since many of these things are irreplaceable, it eliminates the ability to call the electricity renewable. Only 10% of China’s landscape is good fertile land, but the reservoir will be eliminating a large amount of this land. If they lose farming areas, they lose farming. As the reservoir gets deeper the water temperature changes, as sunlight is not able to reach further down into the water. Over 300 species of fish could become extinct because of this change. If the fish die off, species that eat these fish could also die off. 47 rare or endangered animals feed on the fish, and they could be at an even larger risk. The total building cost is $30 billion. Prices like these will bring down China’s already bad economy and will make it worse. Since this dam was built to help China’s economy a price tag like this is very alarming. This dam is placed right on an active fault line, earthquakes are very common in this area, and as the reservoir grows, pressure is put on the fault line, which may make it cause an earthquake more often. If an earthquake does happen, the dam may break causing many to die, and making many more homeless, as floods come through. When all of the repairs are made, the total money spent could be millions. The dam’s turbines are now considered very advanced, but in a few years, they will be a thing of the past. More effective and cleaner ways to generate electricity are now in the works. Things like, solar and wind power are now available. I believe China should us one of these ways rather than building more dams. Some experts believe that China’s electrical systems will not be able to absorb and use the electricity produced by the dam. When China shuts down some of the coal burning sites to use the dam electricity, many cities many not have enough energy and could be left in the dark. All of these things I have told you, Water pollution, the cost, the risk that the energy may not be absorbed and the fact that the energy is not renewable, are all reasons why my team and I believe China should not build anymore dams, these reasons support my belief. Sincerly, Mack M.
By mackk511, Apr 23, 2008 09:17 PM
This is an example of a debate I took place in. This essay was my presentation along with a closing I read aloud as apart of the debate, in my 6th grade social studies class: Many people believe this dam will cause more harm than good, and so do I, the reservoir created by the dam is causing waste problems, environmentalists believe that the damage caused by the dam makes the energy un-renewable and the energy provided is not as cheap as planned. Although less coal will be burned with the dam, the water ecosystem will be terribly affected. Silt and toxins accumulate in the dam and they are not allowed to be flushed out to sea as they once were. Over 265 million gallons of raw sewage are dumped into the Yangtze River ever year, when the reservoir is at full depth all of this degusting waste will be backed up in the reservoir. About 1,700 once active factories and mines will be submerged upon completion of the reservoir, Chemicals and other harmful materials will also be backed up in the reservoir, from these places. If the Chinese gov’t had made more of an attempt at removing these toxins the people and animals would be better off by a little because these chemicals could be fatal. In 2006 a large drought occurred in China and they happen all of the time. When these droughts occur and the reservoir level goes down, all of the submerged garbage is exposed, and when the reservoir raises again all of this garbage will float back up to the top. Experts believe that the dam actually is not a source of renewable energy. Tons of damage is caused by the dam and since many of these things are irreplaceable, it eliminates the ability to call the electricity renewable. Only 10% of China’s landscape is good fertile land, but the reservoir will be eliminating a large amount of this land. If they lose farming areas, they lose farming. As the reservoir gets deeper the water temperature changes, as sunlight is not able to reach further down into the water. Over 300 species of fish could become extinct because of this change. If the fish die off, species that eat these fish could also die off. 47 rare or endangered animals feed on the fish, and they could be at an even larger risk. The total building cost is $30 billion. Prices like these will bring down China’s already bad economy and will make it worse. Since this dam was built to help China’s economy a price tag like this is very alarming. This dam is placed right on an active fault line, earthquakes are very common in this area, and as the reservoir grows, pressure is put on the fault line, which may make it cause an earthquake more often. If an earthquake does happen, the dam may break causing many to die, and making many more homeless, as floods come through. When all of the repairs are made, the total money spent could be millions. The dam’s turbines are now considered very advanced, but in a few years, they will be a thing of the past. More effective and cleaner ways to generate electricity are now in the works. Things like, solar and wind power are now available. I believe China should us one of these ways rather than building more dams. Some experts believe that China’s electrical systems will not be able to absorb and use the electricity produced by the dam. When China shuts down some of the coal burning sites to use the dam electricity, many cities many not have enough energy and could be left in the dark. All of these things I have told you, Water pollution, the cost, the risk that the energy may not be absorbed and the fact that the energy is not renewable, are all reasons why my team and I believe China should not build anymore dams, these reasons support my belief. Sincerly, Tim's Daughter
By mackk511, Apr 23, 2008 09:19 PM
I was just thinking about THREE GORGES DAM CRUISE TO HADES? and you've really helped out. Thanks! http://www.pinkuin.com
By rajkumar.singh.sv, Jan 28, 2009 07:55 AM
Log in to comment