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The largest hydroelectric dam in the world has been approved
- rapsey 2y agoChina is the only country in the world with ambition right now. The west can't build anything anymore.
- Abekkus 2y agoTikTok and Fox News and twitter and friends working as intended, sapping ambitions and attention spans and political wills.
- rapsey 2y agoDEI and environmental road blocks come from the other side of the isle.
- loloquwowndueo 2y ago*aisle unless I’m missing something and you’re talking about an actual island?
- consumer451 2y agoDEI is to blame for the lack of infrastructure projects in the USA? Please, do share how this could possibly be connected!
- purple_turtle 2y agoI guess that DEI add some % of paperwork and costs, but it hardly a main problem or cause.
- rapsey 2y agoGoogle: chips act and dei.
- consumer451 2y agoThat's an assignment, not an explanation.
- gosub100 2y agoIts not technically DEI , but if you tried to build a dam in the US some tribe would object it because (of course) that was the site of a sacred burial ground, or it would (allegedly) impact some specific animal that is sacred to them. Then CNN would rail about how the eminent domain "disproportionately affects PoC" and how "far-right congressman Badman voted to cut govbux to the poor women and children affected by this horrible infrastructure project". Of course the energy company would only do it with liberal corporate welfare, awarded only on the condition of guaranteed DEI positions or strong preference toward subcontractors that were "women-owned " or Black owned.
- consumer451 2y agoThat's quite the tale of victimhood!
- gosub100 2y agoTales -> outrage for "victims" -> clicks -> ad revenue. Welcome to the modern news industry.
- purple_turtle 2y ago"anything anymore" is blatant overestimate and mistating the problem. See from space telescopes to Poland catching up after Russian occupation.
- wumeow 2y agoWe’ve flown a drone on Mars. When the west achieves something, the focus is on the thing achieved and not on glory for the Motherland as it is with China.
- disambiguation 2y agoThe west already had its industrial revolution, and it's getting a lot of mileage out of it's infrastructure. China on the other hand is building for the first time, as opposed to updating and maintaining old infra. It's a different problem and cost benefit analysis.
- tomohelix 2y agoEven before clicking, I already knew it would be in China. It has been a while since the US or other western countries have done a major public infrastructure project (compared to what have been done before). The US especially is lagging behind. How long has it been since the high speed rail system was proposed? China built a national network in less time than the US took to argue about how to build just one line between its two hub cities...
- Mountain_Skies 2y agoCalifornia is actively working on their high speed rail system. They're just doing it very slowly and at great expense.
- rapsey 2y agoActively is a strong word for what California is doing with their high speed rail.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> California is actively working on their high speed rail system It's billions short on just the useless Merced-Bakersfield segment [1]. Given "its sole source of ongoing funds, from the state’s cap-and-trade program, expires in 2030," and there is zero chance of new federal funding through 2026 (and realistically, through at least 2028), the chances that this gets killed in its entirety are quite high. [1] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ca-high-speed-rail-100-billion-18979091.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ca-high-speed-ra...
- wat10000 2y agoTaking orders of magnitude more time and money is very close to not doing it at all. China built a countrywide network in less time than California has spent so far on preparing to build this one line.
- tokioyoyo 2y agoMostly North American problem, not Western. Europe is still building gigantic bridges, rails, ports and etc. Not as fast as China, but it still happens. US/Canada is stuck on financial engineering loop, instead of… engineering. Big things happen when it’s required, but it feels like there’s no public nor political appetite for it.
- apopapo 2y agoThis will mess up the planet's rotation speed. These mega dams are very bad.
- belter 2y agoYes big dam do redistribute mass and alter the Earth's rotation. But by my rough calculations the Three Gorges Dam should lengthen the day by roughly 0.05 to 0.06 microseconds. So around 1 second every 50,000 years. You are more likely to get late to work because your alarm run out of battery :-)
- clayhacks 2y agoThese dams have drawbacks, but the planets speed is so far down the list. The rivers ecosystem and the watershed would be much more impacted. Not that they can’t take those into account and try to minimize, but it is an inevitable side effect
- esperent 2y agoThey really avoided all but the briefest mention of the most important thing for any large project like this: the potential ecological effects, not to mention geopolitical since said ecological effects will be across the border in India.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago> not to mention geopolitical since said ecological effects will be across the border in India China is taking full advantage of India's military dependence on Russia. (India cannot afford, let alone win, a conflict with China right now.)
- gmuslera 2y agoThere are ecological effects for not doing it too, and in global scale this time. Hydroelectric energy is pretty clean, specially compared with burning oil/coal/gas to make an equivalent amount of energy. At least if the priority is to keep growing and not some massive worldwide degrowth agreement.
- SJetKaran 2y agoThis is in a highly geologically active zone though.
- SJetKaran 2y agoYeah, this article has bit more details https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmn127kmr4o https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crmn127kmr4o
- briandear 2y agoInteresting reading on the “snail darter” that “environmentalists” used to oppose a U.S. project: TLDR: so-called environmentalists will use any excuse to oppose infrastructure projects https://reason.com/volokh/2025/01/04/there-is-technically-no-snail-darter-but-the-snail-darter-still-delayed-the-tellico-dam/ https://reason.com/volokh/2025/01/04/there-is-technically-no...
- rmbyrro 2y agoIf I were an Indian resident living downstream this river, I'd relocate