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A consortium of environmental scientists has expressed strong concern about the impact of a controversial Central American canal across Nicaragua.
The path of the Nicaragua Interoceanic Grand Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will cut through Lake Cocibolca (aka Lake Nicaragua), Central America's main freshwater reservoir and the largest tropical freshwater lake of the Americas; this plan will force the relocation of indigenous populations and impact a fragile ecosystem, including species at risk of extinction, according to Rice University environmental engineer Pedro Alvarez and other members of the consortium.
Alvarez is co-corresponding author of an article that includes 21 co-authors from 18 institutions in the United States and Central and South America who gathered at a multidisciplinary international workshop in Managua, Nicaragua, last November to discuss the project. The paper, titled "Scientists Raise Alarms About Fast Tracking of Transoceanic Canal Through Nicaragua," was published this week by the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology.
http://phys.org/news/2015-03-scientists-nicaragua-canal.html
[Abstract]: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.5b00215
[Source]: http://news.rice.edu/2015/03/04/scientists-question-rush-to-build-canal-2/
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zafiro17 on Saturday March 07 2015, @07:06PM
I have pretty good connections to Nicaragua, probably better than most Soylentils. I lived there for many years, own property, married a Nicaraguan, and am the author of three selling non-fiction books about Nicaragua, including the best-selling travel guide to Nicaragua, a guide to living and investing in Nicaragua, and a political book called "The Dictator's Handbook: a practical manual for the aspiring tyrant", which was largely focused on examples from Nicaragua. A couple of points:
1. The USA was interested in building a canal through Nicaragua about 100 years ago, but the Panamanians cleverly won the deal when a postage stamp showing Nicaragua and a volcano became part of a lobbying effort to portray Nicaragua as seismic and therefore a bad place for a canal.
2. I can assure you the idea of a canal through Nicaragua has been studied extensively by the world's experts over the past 100 years, and especially in the past 20. Every study every conducted has concluded it's a bad idea for economic, ecological, and social reasons. But especially economic and environmental. Water level in the San Juan River has been dropping severely year-on-year with droughts so low that in the past several years, navigation in the river has been close to impossible and several of the rapids have been absolutely unfordable. The rainfall studies and hydrologic models show there is currently little hope that enough rainfall can be coaxed into that river basin to make it seriously navigable.
3. Lastly, and for bonus points, a fool and his money are soon parted. President Ortega has conducted a totally opaque deal with a single Chinese investor. This isn't a government-to-government deal. And the Nicaraguan economy hasn't seen a dime of that money - it was paid, but probably went straight to Nicaragua. The people remain as poor as ever and Nicaragua remains one of the world's most indebted economies.
4. Oh yeah, finally: they're busy kicking people off the land and buying up the canal-side land as fast as possible. This is the real estate deal of the century and Ortega and his select inner circle of cronies knew when and where the deal would be signed, and bought up the land before the deal was announced. Guess who just made a killing in real estate, sometimes by forcing poor farmers off the land?
Everything about this deal stinks. If you've made it this far through my post and still want more, contact me: rsw@therandymon.com and I'll send you a free digital version of the Dictator's Handbook (or see www.dictatorshandbook.net for more details about what kind of deals this guy is capable of enacting).
Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis - Jack Handey