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Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,749 posts, read 23,822,981 times
Reputation: 14665
I hate this idea, not to mention we don't have a population of over a billion people. We have plenty a land left to settle. not to mention plenty of cities with room for infill without topographical obstacles.
This is really stupid and gives me another reason to dislike the Chinese government even more than I already do.
Also, isn't the entire middle third of our country called "The Great Plains"? Even if the idea wasn't manifestly stupid and massively damaging, it's just not necessary here.
Methinks the Chinese do a lot of these things not out of practicality, but just to prove they can.
The cost of destroying 700 "mountains" might be a couple of billion dollars in China, but for most of the developed world, where safety and wages are at least marginally important, the cost would probably be in the trillions, if I had to guess...and it would take decades. China has the pretty much unique ability to organize something and pass it through at will, and then accomplish it with an inconceivably massive workforce. They build cities, skyscrapers, malls, dams, and superhighways on an extraordinary scale without a whole lot of consideration to the economics (which is why many of them end up being underused or nearly uninhabited).
If such a project were to be attempted in the US (and I can't think of why), it would likely be the collaboration of a number of large companies bidding to undertake the project. But just thinking about it would be an exercise in fantasy, because we all know that environmental groups would oppose the hell out of this (and for good reason) because of the mammoth impact it would have on local environments and wildlife, not to mention untold damage to streams, rivers, and entire ecosystems. The damage would be irreversible, and we would be left to deal with any unforeseen consequences after the fact. There are already numerous examples of how poor development decisions have had huge negative impacts on the environment (flooding, destruction of watersheds, mudslides, even the Dust Bowl)...so why would we even attempt something that could potentially be exponentially more destructive?
Last edited by JMT; 12-10-2012 at 05:13 PM..
Reason: Removed off topic portion of the post
Oh, it's perfectly acceptable to displace people if they're Pittsburghers. They're second-class American citizens. Who needs them?
What does that even mean? You seem to imply that I agree with the whole idea, giving mining companies that kind of power results in those things. That's why its a bad idea.
A city like Reno could use this technology to expand its buildable footprint. Places like Pittsburgh that built on bad land could retain this contractor, eminent domain large tracts of land, improve the land with flattening, and allow the city to reemerge from the land improvements much stronger.
If China can do it, so can we. 2.2B is actually pretty cheap, as public works projects go. Cities often spend 1B on a single sports stadium.
This technology could help reform and rebuild many areas in Appalachia and the Rockies and allow these places to become open to economic activity.
I cannot tell if you are trolling or if you actually think this is a good idea.
I cannot tell if you are trolling or if you actually think this is a good idea.
I cannot tell if you are trolling or pretending to feign opposition to needed public works land improvement projects.
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