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Nicaragua canal

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Nov 23, 2014.

  1. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Can read about this thing here

    History, Travel, Arts, Science, People, Places | Smithsonian

    as well as many other places. This new canal requires much longer 'cuts' through land than Panama canal, and passes through the largest lake in Central America. It will allow passage of bigger ships than Panama. An economic plus, one would think.

    Humans now 'dominate' nature, and have insignificant effects on it. Such is the the diversity of perspectives that can be read here at PC...

    This one differs from Panama in several interesting ways, The land cuts are much longer, and now we know (better than in Teddy Roosevelt's time) that effects are possible on animals that use large areas. Can read in Smithsonian that Lake Nicaragua could become importantly polluted. Well, maybe, but it is really large (dilution...). The point raised about more hurricanes there than at the latitude of Panama is correct. Not considered in this article is that Nicaragua is also more tectonically frisky than Panama (volcanoes and earthquakes). Apparently the environmental impact study is not (yet) public, and one would hope that such matters have been adequately assessed.

    Panama canal traffic has been curtailed in years with low rainfall. Their upgrade (an interesting story in itself) addresses this with water recycling, and accommodates larger vessels.

    Nico will be even bigger (accommodating vessels that not all ports can handle), but is it dought-proof? do not know. Environmental impact study. Is another, larger Atlanic/Pacific canal needed? do not know. Somebody thinks so. I mention it here just to give it a chance to show up on everybody's radar.

    US had initial plans to excavate a similar route with nuclear explosions in the fifties. I am glad that did not happen, even though radioactively labeled critters could have enabled a lot of interesting ecological studies.