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If you look at the example of the Suez canal, where some 700 species from the Red Sea have now colonized the eastern Mediterranean, the idea of directly connect
by marssaxman 3y ago
If you look at the example of the Suez canal, where some 700 species from the Red Sea have now colonized the eastern Mediterranean, the idea of directly connecting the Pacific and the Caribbean sounds like an environmental disaster. Not to mention the difference in sea level - there would be a lot of water flowing west to east before that balanced out, and raising the sea level in the Caribbean does not seem likely to make anyone happy.
- ProfessorLayton 3y agoWhile I don't disagree with the environmental concerns, ships use HFO (a very dirty type of fuel that's essentially tar) and account for ~3% of all greenhouse gasses. It may be a net win overall if a proper canal can save many more ships thousands of miles of emissions per trip. The Caribbean is facing seal level rise anyway if we don't find a way to reduce emissions. Again I'm not an expert on this subject, but it doesn't seem cut and dry that a canal would be an environmental disaster if it were possible to excavate.