Does Megaengineering ever work?

[Faeelin]

I've been thinking about the major efforts of a lot of major attempts to reshape the planet for human use in the 20th century, and how many of them were epic failures. The Tanzania Peanut Scheme, the Virgin Fields Disaster, the destruction of the Aral Sea....

Have there been any attempts to engage in major projects to change a region's climate or agriculture that have succeeded?

 

[Thalyr]

"God created the world, but the Dutch created Holland"

Not to mention the Delta Works.

 

[Henriksson]

Hmm... how successful would the Atlantropa plan be? Free electricity and farmland or failure of epic proportions? I must confess it has fascinated me ever since I heard about it the first time.

 

[ZombieSlayer54]

Hmm... how successful would the Atlantropa plan be? Free electricity and farmland or failure of epic proportions? I must confess it has fascinated me ever since I heard about it the first time.

So, how's that completely destruction of the ecosystem working for you?

Seriously, you do something like that, chances are you're going to completely screw over the environment of the Mediterranean.

 

[Tallest Skil]

...farmland...

The saltiest land on the planet would not good farmland make.

 

[Enigmajones]

Well they said a tunnel could never be bulit from the Key West to Cuba but Amerigo Vespucci proved them wrong.

 

[kellineil]

East Anglia. There is a reason Ely is known as the Isle of Ely

 

[Kerblo]

Hmm... how successful would the Atlantropa plan be? Free electricity and farmland or failure of epic proportions? I must confess it has fascinated me ever since I heard about it the first time.

It seems that you couldn't use the Suez canal any more. At least by areas not bordering the Mediterranean.

 

[Faeelin]

It strikes me that the megaengineering success stories are all "piling land on the sea," and not "altering the climate." Hrm...

 

[strangeland]

Atlantropa wouldn't work, and if it were "successful," there's a good chance it would destroy the economy and ecosystem of the entire planet.

 

[asnys]

It strikes me that the megaengineering success stories are all "piling land on the sea," and not "altering the climate." Hrm...

This is on a pretty small scale, but there's Ascension Island.

 

[carlton_bach]

There are huge areas of Northern Germany that used to be swamps. That seems to have worked out OK, too. And AFAIR the spread of paddy rice cultivation did remarkable things to the South East Asian environment.

 

[Faeelin]

There are huge areas of Northern Germany that used to be swamps. That seems to have worked out OK, too. And AFAIR the spread of paddy rice cultivation did remarkable things to the South East Asian environment.

Yea, I thought of Southeast Asia, and terracing in Peru was also successful. (Plus, if you buy the theory that the Amazon is basically the product of native american agriculture...). But it seems like the 20th century hasn't really seen any successful projects. So even an artificially created Sea of Qatarra, for instance, would be a white elephant.

 

[Lycaon pictus]

The Salton Sea was created more or less by accident. Does that count?

 

[RamscoopRaider]

Regarding Alantropa, Guess whose favorite ASB Imperialists are mentioned as building it in a throwaway line?

 

[Kerblo]

Something tells me that Atlantropa would be something the Peoples Republic of China would have done in the 1960s.

 

[RamscoopRaider]

It does sound like something the PRC would have done then

 

[Henriksson]

All right, I guess that's "failure of epic proportions", then.

Regarding Alantropa, Guess whose favorite ASB Imperialists are mentioned as building it in a throwaway line?

The first time I heard about it was in an essay talking about the philosophy of colonialism and fascism. The second time was when reading about an "Axis wins" scenario. I can kind of guess in which crowd the idea has been most popular.

 

[Kerblo]

Could the Bosphorus Straight be dammed?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosphorus

 

[Germaniac]

But, the Virgin Lands Campaign could have been successful. The lack of access to the large amounts of fertilizer needed to keep the nutrients in the soil led to its complete failure... If they have access to the necessary tools it can be a very large success.