Spike Jones wrote:
>
> > mlorrey@datamann.com writes:
> >
> > > filling the Caspian basin up to a level of 200 meters
> > > above sea level (its surface is now at ~200 below sea level as I recall)
> > > would reqire no dam construction to retain the water,...
> > >
>
> CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Technically it's doable but you would have to pay
> > Russia, Azerbaijan, and Khazakstan astronomical
> > sums of money to justify flooding so much of their land.
>
> Astronomical by their standards or ours? If we manage
> to extrapolate our technology another 20 years, the sums
> of money available to do this kinda thing will be difficult
> to imagine. If GM works out the way I expect, farmland
> will be cheap indeed. China is going ahead with flooding
> huge tracts of land for a dam. Seems like Mike's Caspian Sea
> notion is workable.
NOTE: my entire idea could be financed by the sale of the hydropower
generated from flooding it up to sea level. Selling that power at retail
to consumers, then building nuke plants to power the pumping to fill it
above sea level (and getting that power at cost) would likely break even
or close to it. If the local governments also bought all the land along
the projected new coast line, then sold it to land owners displaced by
flooding at sea-shore prices (note with a bigger sea, there will be more
sea shore), they could definitely break even.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 12 2001 - 14:39:41 MDT