Say what you will about the Chinese, but they think big - and long term.
Of course let's not forget the German engineering that went into this project.

Let's not forget (always keep in mind) the true genius behind hydro-electric power, NIKOLA TESLA.

The Three Gorges Dam will crank out 18 gigawatts of power. It will continue to produce 18 gigawatts of power as long as the sun shines.

hmm.. that's almost enough for 15 trips in Doc's modified time-travelling DeLorean.

Just goes to show you what you can have in a racially unified country.

Just think, a half dozen damns like that would supply all our electrical power for decades to come, would be totally safe, (no radiation/radioactive waste, no co2, no sulfer dioxide, no nitric oxides, no acid rain). there would be no cost of mining, buying oil, drilling natural gas, or refining Uranium, all free, in the sense that the water flows through the hydro-electric turbines freely, as long as the river flows.
hydroelectric damns are relatively simple constructs, you damn up the water to a sufficient height, then let the water flow down, through the hydroelectric turbines,and the energy is generated in the same basic way as in any other power producing turbine. Water flowing through a turbine generates alot more power than steam, much more force.

Acid rain has sort of become the spurned lover of the environmentalist libs, but just remember, acid rain has done more damage to the ecosystem than global warming ever will. the primary reason for tens of thousands of dead streams and lakes in all over the world, was acid rain, produced by sulfer dioxide and nitric oxide emissions from power plants. If China were to burn coal to supply 18 gigawatts of energy, the acid rain produced would do alot more damage.

And what is this crap about killing fish? Damn are always a great place to fish, as I recall. It might, MIGHT reduce water levels, TEMPORARILY, as the damn builds up, but upstream, there will be MORE wildlife and fish.

And, don't let this make you cry,
THE COST OF THE DAMN IS 25 BILLION DOLLARS.

FOR WHAT WE'VE SPENT ON THIS MISTAKEN WAR, WE COULD HAVE BUILT 20 THREE GORGES DAMNS. WE COULD HAVE SUPPLIED OUR CHILDREN, GRANDCHILDREN, GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, WITH ALL THE ELECTRICITY THEY WILL EVER NEED, FOR FREE!!!!!

All that we lack is a common intelligent will to do these things. That's all.

I'm sure people here won't mind moving either. The three gorges displaced over a million people- I doubt they had a choice. Things are different here.

yeah, you'd never get selfish Americans to move for the good of the country, and world peace. They'd rather see everyone drop dead than move out of a flood path. EVeryone cries over other people getting their legs blown off, in foreign wars for limited geo-political resources,for , but ask them to relocate in order to create a giant hydro-electric damn and their face would turn red and they'd start screaming profanity like that little girl in the exorcist. Tell them it would save millions of Us soldiers from dying in wars over oil and natural resources, and they'll say you're a liberal, and should be shot.

The Tennessee VAlley Authority was built 30 years ago, and supplies a massive amount of electricity to that region of the country, likewise with the Hoover Damn. Ever wondered how Las Vegas can afford all those lights?

And if we built 20 massive Hydroelectric damns, and had the government cover the entire cost, and provided 500 gigawatts of electricity for free to Industry, can you imagine what that would do for business costs of all US businesses? the price of goods and services would be cut in half, the costs of metals would become virtually nothing. Costs of producing solar panels would be 1/10th the cost, because the cost of producing solar panels is largely the large amount of electricity the production consumes.

Let's not forget (always keep in mind) the true genius behind hydro-electric power, NIKOLA TESLA.

no, hydro-electric power is very simple, based on the same principle as any electrical, turbine generator.

Take an ordinary household fan, spin the fan around, and you'll produce a voltage across the two prongs of the plug.

Just take ten or so fans, stack them on one another, build a small dam, let the water flow down through them, and you have a hydro-electric generator.
you can buy books showing you how to do it-yourself, if you live near a river or stream.

And plus, don't forget, damn CONTROL flooding. You got 50 miles of waterfront property along

the two sides of a river, that may flood, and so is worth much less.
NOw you damn the river, now you got 200 miles of water front property around the damned lake,

with no danger of flooding, much more valuable land, you got a lake you can boat in, more fish.

you can channel the damned waters in canals, flood nearby areas, create more lakes easily, more

valuable waterfront property. It would require a massive, selfless collective effort on behalf

of many individual land owners.(LOL, yeah, right, we're in the USA).

hmm.. that's almost enough for 15 trips in Doc's modified time-travelling DeLorean

That was 1.21 JIGAWATTS. I think a jigawatt is 1000 gigawatts. We could have actually almost generated one Jigawatt continuously for what this war, based on a mistake, has cost. That part is not funny, not at all.

this is a really good article on HydroPower.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/hydropower-plant.htm

I didn't realize 25% of the WORLD'S electricity is generated by HydroPower.

That howstuffworks website is one of the best sites on the web. There is NOTHING it doesn't have an article on, and I mean NOTHING.

"jigawatts" and "gigawatts" are the same thing. 1,000 Megawatts, 1,000,000 kilowatts, or 1,000,000,000 watts.

Just depends on if you say the G as a hard g or a soft g. "jiga" always sounded strange to me, but then again, I grew up hearing it as "Giga", as in "gigabytes".

actually, though , I guess you gotta have just the right circumstances to build a hydro damn, it's gotta be a fairly narrow pass through the mountains, and be a fairly deep gorge.

actually, though , I guess you gotta have just the right circumstances to build a hydro damn, it's gotta be a fairly narrow pass through the mountains, and be a fairly deep gorge.

Grand Canyon ----> Grand Reservoir

actually, though , I guess you gotta have just the right circumstances to build a hydro damn, it's gotta be a fairly narrow pass through the mountains, and be a fairly deep gorge.

BINGO , there just aren't that many places to locate a dam, especially in the US .

3 gorges sets astride a major fault . It cracked in 2000 . Will it be another Banqiao Dam , which burst in 1975 causing mutliple dam failures downriver .

damning the grand canyon would be a pretty cool idea, what, 100 gigawatts of power?

If the three gorges damn burst, I read it would kill millions of people. The three gorges damn flooded 25% China's farmland, I read in an article, which I find hard to believe. Doesn't seem like they could afford to lose 25% of their farmland.

If the three gorges damn burst, I read it would kill millions of people. The three gorges damn flooded 25% China's farmland, I read in an article, which I find hard to believe. Doesn't seem like they could afford to lose 25% of their farmland.

Makes a great strategic target for any potential adversary, Russia or the USA .

So, does this mean we will be able to electrocute every jew charged with hate crimes against humanity simultaneously?