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The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

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Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#51
post #25

While not directly related, it reminded me of another plan (from 1963), sponsored by the US to create an alternate to the Suez Canal, through the Israeli Negev Desert using... 520 nuclear bombs: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-planned-suez-canal-altern...

They had a similar plan to blow a second Panama Canal through the Darien Gap with nuclear bombs. Just batshit crazy stuff.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#53

The Mediterranean sea is, to me, the most beautiful place on earth. Be it mainland Spain (with, sadly, way too many concrete all along the coast), France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, ... It's just beautiful. Then the islands: Corsica, Sicily, Ibiza, Formentera, ... It's heaven on earth. I drive my kid to school on the french riviera, along the coast and among the vineyards every day. Famous poets and painters would go an…

> It requires a very special kind of a sad fuck to want to destroy that.

On the other hand it's recreating a different entirely natural state the sea was once in, beautiful in its own way.

I'd still say it's wrong but I don't think it's a "special kind of sad fuck". The status quo is not king.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#55
post #7

There are strong currents at work in the strait of Gibraltar. Would be interesting to harness their energy in some way.

Like an underwater turbine. Japan is apparently going to give it a shot: https://www.inputmag.com/tech/japan-kairyu-ocean-turbine-dee... Looks like Scotland’s is a roaring success: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetl... No need to evaporate the sea.

This also draws energy out of the sea, a net positive for climate change mitigation.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#56
post #3

Smaller scale project - Czech dam (the red lines are dams): https://www.abclinuxu.cz/images/screenshots/7/3/242837-ceska...

I believe this project would greatly improve the capabilities of the Czech Navy. http://cz-fleet.info/index_en.htm

"At present, the Czech Republic is working on the design of their own non-nuclear aircraft carriers. Planned to build at least two aircraft carriers."

Neither Wikipedia nor a quick DDG have anything about this. Fake site probably.

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#57
post #25

While not directly related, it reminded me of another plan (from 1963), sponsored by the US to create an alternate to the Suez Canal, through the Israeli Negev Desert using... 520 nuclear bombs: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-planned-suez-canal-altern...

Un-paywalled: https://archive.ph/muZg5

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#58
post #50
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It definitely sounds like that. > But - purely as an exercise in trying to answer hilariously daft questions - how much would it cost to lower the level of the sea? Never answered? > But this is far from the worst thing about Atlantropa. > It’s alarming to look back just a century and realise just how deeply baked and widely-disseminated these kinds of racist assumptions were in Europe. > It’s proper shivers-down-the…

> Which reasons? The article notes that even just the dam in the Gibraltar Strait (ignoring the others) would have required more concrete than existed in the entire world at the time. I think that single reason is enough.

Yes, that's one reason.

But if you're going to take the words and sentence to refer to reasons... list the reasons. Or, don't refer to them and write about something else.

The entire post felt like "We're going to go over {X}. So here are a bunch of things that are {not X}."

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#59
post #44

Someone with more engineering sense than I can debunk this: The Baltic is dramatically less saline than the Atlantic. That's why the Vasa [1] was so well-preserved after 300 years at the bottom. So could we not take advantage of that salinity difference, somehow? [1] https://www.vasamuseet.se/en Edit: Every engineering student sees the movie of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapsing. To me, the Vasa is a much better ca…

We beat you by over 80 years with the Mary Rose, although she at least managed to get into battle before she went over.

TIL the Mary Rose. [1] doesn't say for sure it was top-heavy, though.

"Marsden has suggested that the weight of additional heavy guns would have increased her draught so much that the waterline was less than one metre (c. 3 feet) from the gunports on the main deck."

gosh, you'd think someone would have noticed that.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Rose

Re: The worst dam idea: evaporating the Mediterranean to power Europe

#60
post #25

While not directly related, it reminded me of another plan (from 1963), sponsored by the US to create an alternate to the Suez Canal, through the Israeli Negev Desert using... 520 nuclear bombs: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-planned-suez-canal-altern...

The US had an entire national project around using nukes for excavation and construction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Plowshare
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