This episode we discuss the highly controversial Three Gorges Dam built on the Yangtze River. Completed in 2012, it is the world’s largest and most expensive hydroelectric dam and the second most expensive project ever undertaken other than the International Space Station.

The dam spans 2.3km, nearly 5 times the distance of the Hoover Dam, and cost approximately $30 billion USD over the 17 years it took to construct. The project was first suggested by China’s first President in 1919 and was officially approved in 1992 for the purpose of controlling flooding along the river, generating power, improving navigation along the river, and generating tourism. The approval finally took place after a lengthy 8 year environmental study, and as John points out, “if your environmental assessment takes 8 years in a dictatorship, there’s a lot to assess.”

And while many of the dams goals have been achieved, reducing flooding in the region from once a decade to once a century, and generating 84.7 billion kilowatt hours of energy every year (or the equivalent of 50 million tonnes of coal) it has been shrouded in controversy and had irreversible impact on the people, wildlife, and historic sites in the region. To date 1.3 million people have been displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, 1,300 excavated and 8,000 unexcavated archeological sites have been flooded and completely lost, and numerous species have been driven to the brink of extinction including the Chinese alligator, the Yangtze River dolphin, the Yangtze soft-shell turtle, and leading to the complete extinction of the Chinese pufferfish.

The Three Gorges Dam and its upstream 12.4 trillion litre reservoir have led to a significant reduction in the speed of the river, and as we learned in Episode 2 - The London Sewers, slow moving rivers lead to a great deal of pollution, and even the massive power generation of this dam only accounts for 1.7% of China’s energy demands.

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Learn more at: MeasuredInMetric.com

Edited by: Astronomic Audio

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