In class the other day we talked about a dam in china that altered the rotation of the earth. I was so intrigued by this that I decided to write about it. The Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River in the Hubei Province. The construction of the dam started in 1994 and was finished in 2006. The dam is the world large single producer of electricity with its 32 generators. The dam is a total of 2335 meters across. This is equivalent to about a mile and a half. This is truly something enormous. The amount of resources that went into the building of this energy producer is beyond unbelievable. At a cost of 180 billion dollars the dam is a main asset to the Chinese government. As of September of 2009 the damn has produced about 60 billion dollars worth of energy.
As great of a manmade structure as this is, is it beneficial to the environment or is it detrimental? We immediately see the benefit of having a damn of this magnitude. The amount of energy it produces with no bi-products is absolutely something that is a positive. We need to start switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy. This may be the start. But is it the start we need? The issue with dam is that they have dramatic effects on local wildlife upstream and downstream. Every dam creates a reservoir upstream which floods the entire area and downstream there is often drought. This will mean that every living thing will have to change their lifestyle drastically, including humans. In the Three Gorges case a total of 1.1 million people had to be relocated to accommodate the dam. Humans are easily relocated but animals are not so easy. They have been living in their habitat for years and that is all they know. They need to adjust quickly to the changing environment and it is not something that animals can do. Many animals died in the Three Gorges Dam aftermath because they could not keep up with the changes. Herbivores died because their vegetation could not take the water changes and that led to the carnivores perishing due to their food source.
So here is the question I have. Are the benefits of having this “Super Dam” greater than the detriments? Is the wildlife loss worth the clean energy that we get from it? Finally, Should we start building more of these structures to benefit us financially? The floor is yours.
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