More than 400 dams planned for the Amazon and headwaters

[GliderGuider]

More than 400 dams planned for the Amazon and headwaters

Rainforest under threat from a "hydrological experiment of continental proportions" as well as oil, gas and mining, says report

412 hydroelectric dams will be built across the Amazon basin and its headwaters if current plans are fulfilled, it was announced on 25 April in Lima, potentially leading to the "end of free-flowing rivers", contributing to "ecosystem collapse", and causing huge social problems.

According to Little, 151 of the 412 dams involve five of the six main rivers that drain into the Amazon after birthing in the Andes.

"The construction of many large-scale dams in the vast headwaters region of the Amazon Basin – encompassing parts of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia – will produce critical changes in continental water flows, with little knowledge of the ecological consequences of this policy," the report states. "This new wave of dam building in the headwaters of the Basin is a "hydrological experiment" of continental proportions, yet little is known scientifically of pan-Amazonian hydrological dynamics, creating the risk of provoking irreversible changes in rivers."

[hunter]

1. Yikes.

People who risk only themselves with dangerous experiments, we can't stop that. (Keep those YouTube videos coming!)

But we've got people promoting dangerous experiments that could kill millions of people and destroy much of the biosphere that supports us, and we call that "progress."



Humans ought to be removing dams on natural watercourses, not building more.

Maybe our entire civilization is simply a dumb reality show for space aliens.

[Massacure]

2. I'm not condoning these dams, but here is a little bit of perspective

The Amazon discharges approximately 209,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic ocean. If you captured 100 meters of head with these dams and assumed a 90% turbine efficiency, you could generate 1.6 trillion kilowatt-hours per year. In comparison, all of Central and South America used 976 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity in 2012.

Granted I don't know how much of that water enters the Amazon at least 100 meters above sea level, but the point is that there is a lot of energy at stake there. Is the environmental damage from the damming of the Amazon worth running an entire continent on 100% renewable electricity? I leave that whoever reads this post to decide.