What engineering projects could humanity do to have the biggest impacts on environment?

Jiraiyathegallant

Things to the effect of filling the Bering Strait, flooding large parts of Australia, cutting major inland lakes and seas off of water, etc...

What are the biggest non ASB things we could do with technology already developed? And let’s not discuss global warming.
 

yogsothoth

Well we can't do it right now because the computing involved has to be very fast and very precise but space mirrors and space sunshades are within the bounds of known science and could alter the climate on a global scale.
 
Grimbald

Grimbald

Monthly Donor
Mankind could build a lockless sea level canal through Nicaragua that would mix Atlantic and Pacific life forms and possibly disturb the Gulf Stream.
 

Alex Zetsu

Are we talking about pre-industrial? The Suez canal could be finished a millennium earlier, but I don't know if they could break even on that, trade and industry being a lot less valuable that today.
 

Arkenfolm

Flooding large parts of Australia (you really can't except for those mostly dry lakes in South Australia) would be a quite useless project with not particularly dramatic effects. Almost certainly can't be done pre-1900, although you might be able to flood Lake Torrens/link it to the ocean pre-1900 if anyone wanted to for some reason.

The Sahara Sea (canals plus new lakes behind the Atlas Mountains) might be able to be done pre-1900 with enough money and willpower. Same with the Qattara Sea. They'd have a somewhat moderating effect on the Sahara, but not too drastic. They'd be rather salty and not usable for irrigation, with climate effects, mining, and transport being the main benefits.

While best known for the utterly ridiculous Strait of Gibraltar dam, Atlantropa also included putting a giant dam (note this is rather different than the Inga Dam projects) on the Congo river which would flood about 1/3 of the current land area of Congo-Kinshasa as well as about half of Congo-Brazzaville. The point was to then make further canals and dams to recreate the prehistoric Lake Chad which would then be used to irrigate the Sahara desert. It would require massive amounts of concrete and steel to dam the Congo, but it does seem rather feasible compared to the Gibraltar dam. Could it be done with late 19th/early 20th century tech? It would take about 150 years to fill and would create the world's largest inland sea. This post here describes in some more detail. Now who would build something like that is the question. King Leopold knows a damn big dam will cost a lot of money and won't get the rubber out of the jungle any faster.

Unless you have an alt-King Leopold who has some megalomanic dream to leave his mark on the world (which this literally would) and builds the dam to create Lake Leopold (or whatever). It would certainly make for an interesting alt-Heart of Darkness, and how the Congo Free State's infamous mass murders and mutilations would be carried out likewise. Maybe have half the rubber harvesting or so (to help pay for the dam), the rest can be seized as "labor" for the dam project.

Overall, somewhat ASB, and possibly likely to fail halfway through since people dragged from their village and forced to endlessly work under Congo Free State conditions building a dam which would have to be at the cutting edge of technology doesn't strike as producing a quality project. Perhaps it would last a few decades and then fail, producing a massive flood which would drown Kinshasa and Brazzaville and be a nice capping off to King Leopold's death count. Or perhaps it succeeds to this day, reinforced precisely because the world wants to avert yet another humanitarian catastrophe in the Congo, and we have a literally world-changing creation.
 

Panhomo

Ooh! I worked this out on another forum. Stopping the circum-antarctic current by constructing a collosal dam between the Antarctic Peninsula and south america is actually on the very edge of possibility, provided a large part of humanity work together on it.

This would have incredibly vast, global, and relatively rapid effects.

Argentina would get much colder, starting before the structure is even complete.

The edges of Antarctica would rapidly melt each summer, leading to the collapse of large parts of the Western Antarctic ice sheet, and several metres sea rise, within a century.

Global increase in earthquakes and volcanoes.

Weather and climate patterns shifting unpredictably around the planet.

And all this for only 10 or 1000 trillion dollars!
 
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kernals12

Banned
In the 1954 book, Engineer's Dreams, there was a proposal to dam the mouth of the Congo river which would eventually create an inland lake that would overflow into lake chad, recreating the ancient paleo-lake chad. I think it's feasible if extremely stupid.
africa.jpg
 

Arkenfolm

Panhomo said:
Ooh! I worked this out on another forum. Stopping the circum-antarctic current by constructing a collosal dam between the Antarctic Peninsula and south america is actually on the very edge of possibility, provided a large part of humanity work together on it.

This would have incredibly vast, global, and relatively rapid effects.

Argentina would get much colder, starting before the structure is even complete.

The edges of Antarctica would rapidly melt each summer, leading to the collapse of large parts of the Western Antarctic ice sheet, and several metres sea rise, within a century.

Global increase in earthquakes and volcanoes.

Weather and climate patterns shifting unpredictably around the planet.

And all this for only 10 or 1000 trillion dollars!
Click to expand...

That makes Atlantropa look like a beaver dam.

kernals12 said:
In the 1954 book, Engineer's Dreams, there was a proposal to dam the mouth of the Congo river which would eventually create an inland lake that would overflow into lake chad, recreating the ancient paleo-lake chad. I think it's feasible if extremely stupid.
africa.jpg
Click to expand...
The ideal point is somewhere downstream from where the Kasai River meets the Congo. The Chad Sea in that map is a bit too big--a lot would evaporate in the Sahara although it would still be the size of Lake Mega-Chad minimum and possibly even bigger.

What I wonder is if that's feasible with the technology King Leopold II would in theory have access to, or if there's any non-ASB way to advance technology so that dam could be built in Congo Free State. I believe it would be very interesting as a colossal monument to an evil dictator's brutality and also as a stark memorial to the people who died building it, the millions of people who died in the Congo Free State, and the millions displaced because of it. We have places like Auschwitz as memorial of the Holocaust, but the ATL Leopold II who was mad enough to build it would have the world's largest lake and probably the world's largest dam producing by far the most power in the world of any power plant (turbines would be installed later to salvage something of it) as a memorial to his brutality, something so massive it literally changes the map. It would be the very symbol of colonialism and the exploitation of Africa like nothing else could possibly ever be, and it would be on every globe and every world map. It's literally the heart of darkness, yet the very energy the dam could produce would be a key economic force developing Africa and practically center Africa around the dam and the country which controlled it. Just thinking of the very concept and its ramifications are incredible, it would make for a fascinating TL.
 
History Learner

History Learner

Banned
TFW everyone forgets you brought it up first (x'D)

The map showing the African lakes and the river discharge comes from this Xefer article, which goes into some detail on the project:
The plan was originated by the German architect and engineer Herman Sörgel in 1935. His plan was to dam the Congo River where it passes through a string of deep, narrow gorges after it merges with one of its tributaries, the Kwa River. It would create a lake 350,000 square miles in area - larger than the areas of California, Nevada and Oregon combined.

Once the lake filled, it would be forced to overflow from another one of its tributaries, the Ubangi, into the Shari River which is one of the feeders for the present day Lake Chad.

Lake Chad would swell to the dimensions it was thought to have had over 10,000 years ago, spreading across the Ahaggar plateau. A river would then be created that would lead through Algeria, turn east into Tunisia and then eventually empty into the Mediterranean Sea at the Gulf of Gabes. This river could made navigable allowing ships to directly access the interior of Africa.
Click to expand...

Mapalomania also has two articles, one on each of the to-be-created Megalakes: Lake Congo and Lake Mega-Chad. To get a better idea of size, here's one of their maps:
Great+Lakes+of+Africa+copy.jpg


The previously mentioned river to be formed by this is also extremely interesting because, looking at its projected course, it would also likely restore the Chotts and Ahnot-Moyer Megalakes before discharging into the Mediterranean. Increased rainfall and vegetation growth in the region might also likely spur the reforming of Lake Megafezzan as well. Here's a map of all three lakes:

africa_with_megalakes.jpg
 
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The Professor

The Professor

With regards to the Dam of Darkness, considering its iconic status would that not make it a target of anticolonial terrorism?
It would certainly be a target for anticolonial forces to seize, regardless of what they do with it?
Does it come under multinational control? Perhaps spurring an early League of Nations and subsequent Mandates.
 

AussieHawker

Banned
The Professor said:
With regards to the Dam of Darkness, considering its iconic status would that not make it a target of anticolonial terrorism?
It would certainly be a target for anticolonial forces to seize, regardless of what they do with it?
Does it come under multinational control? Perhaps spurring an early League of Nations and subsequent Mandates.
Click to expand...

Well if they don't mind the floods that damaging the dam could result in.
 
Skallagrim

Skallagrim

Banned
This is rapidly becoming "Ways We Can Really Ruin Everybody's Day: The Thread".

Has this one been mentioned yet? Probably not as world-shattering as some of the other ones, but it would no doubt have been a disaster.


Interestingly, from what I gather, the whole 'seas of Africa' idea, while truly absurd in its megalomania, could probably have had a number of positive effects. The main objection is that it would have drowned a vast amount of people's homes, thus displacing staggering numbers.
 

kernals12

Banned
Skallagrim said:
This is rapidly becoming "Ways We Can Really Ruin Everybody's Day: The Thread".

Has this one been mentioned yet? Probably not as world-shattering as some of the other ones, but it would no doubt have been a disaster.


Interestingly, from what I gather, the whole 'seas of Africa' idea, while truly absurd in its megalomania, could probably have had a number of positive effects. The main objection is that it would have drowned a vast amount of people's homes, thus displacing staggering numbers.
Click to expand...
The other problem with the seas of Africa is that all the rainforest drowned by the water would remove a massive carbon sink.
 

Nik

"We could flood the Dead Sea from the Med."

That's actually a viable proposal, provided you only do it part way...

IIRC, the idea is to use the hydraulic head to assist reverse osmosis, supply lots of fresh & agricultural-grade water to area, run the waste brine down to the shrinking 'Dead Sea' and its salt-pans.
Win / Win / Win.
Assuming no sabotage, of course, of course...

==

Wasn't there a project to drive a canal through the Sudd swamps ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonglei_Canal

Last time, they got about 60% of the way before 'civil war' halted work. IIRC, there's going to be another try...
Upside, Egypt and Sudan get a lot more water.
Downside, the Sudd may dry out and blow away...
 
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