Apr 9, 2020 05:23 AM
(This post was last modified: Apr 9, 2020 05:50 AM by C C.)
What if the Hoover Dam broke? ("what if" future history)
https://science.howstuffworks.com/engine...-broke.htm
EXCERPT: . . . If catastrophe struck the Hoover Dam and it somehow broke, a catastrophic amount of water from Lake Mead would be released. That water would likely cover an area of 10 million acres (4 million hectares) 1 foot (30 centimeters) deep. To put that area in perspective, the entire state of New Jersey is 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares). Downriver towns and cities would see the most damage, which could include loss of life depending on the amount of warning before the wave. The towns include Laughlin, Nevada; Needles, California; Lake Havasu, Arizona; and even as far south as Yuma, Arizona and San Luis Rey, Colorado, a border community in Mexico.
There are also three Native American reservations along the Colorado River that would be affected. [...] Approximately 25 million people depend on water from Lake Mead. The reservoir supplies water for the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City, Nevada, as well as municipal and industrial water and irrigation water for downstream users.
[...] Farmers in the Imperial Valley get most of their water from the Colorado River, and these irrigation systems would collapse. ... half a million acres of farmland [...that...] produces more than a billion dollars in fruits and vegetables every year. ... According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Hoover Dam generates on average about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power, annually, for use in Nevada, Arizona and California. That's enough to serve 1.3 million people... (MORE - details)
Globalisation is scarcely new: it dates back to the year 1000
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/glob...-year-1000
EXCERPT (book review): For many tenth-century Christians, the year of the expected doom was 1000 AD. Valerie Hansen’s book focuses on this non-apocalyptic but significant year as the beginning of what we would think of as globalisation.
Her claim is that our interconnected world dates back much further than we think. She suggests that it was in 1000 that Norse explorers ‘closed the global loop’ with their voyages to North America. [...] Hansen argues quite persuasively about the role of the Norse in creating new ways of trade and exploring different parts of the world. ... Meanwhile, one of the biggest international exchanges going on in 1000 was the slave trade, bringing people from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and the Middle East. Arabic texts report ... Enslaved people were a commodity: regions with no natural resources simply exported people instead. And it was along those slave routes that other goods would come too.
Religion was also an export — and a key factor in trade. [...] According to Hansen, 1000 was a point of realignment on this front, as regional rulers decided to choose a religion for their followers based on realpolitik. ... Hansen ... depicts China as the most globalised part of the world. Through its early participation in trade along the Silk Road and connections to south east Asia, China does offer examples of what we think of as modern economic systems — in terms of specialisation of production and regional trade. Hansen suggests that the reason China didn’t industrialise [...is...] because they never lacked manpower.
Much of what is described here has only been fully understood in recent decades, as science has advanced to aid archaeology... (MORE - details)
https://science.howstuffworks.com/engine...-broke.htm
EXCERPT: . . . If catastrophe struck the Hoover Dam and it somehow broke, a catastrophic amount of water from Lake Mead would be released. That water would likely cover an area of 10 million acres (4 million hectares) 1 foot (30 centimeters) deep. To put that area in perspective, the entire state of New Jersey is 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares). Downriver towns and cities would see the most damage, which could include loss of life depending on the amount of warning before the wave. The towns include Laughlin, Nevada; Needles, California; Lake Havasu, Arizona; and even as far south as Yuma, Arizona and San Luis Rey, Colorado, a border community in Mexico.
There are also three Native American reservations along the Colorado River that would be affected. [...] Approximately 25 million people depend on water from Lake Mead. The reservoir supplies water for the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City, Nevada, as well as municipal and industrial water and irrigation water for downstream users.
[...] Farmers in the Imperial Valley get most of their water from the Colorado River, and these irrigation systems would collapse. ... half a million acres of farmland [...that...] produces more than a billion dollars in fruits and vegetables every year. ... According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Hoover Dam generates on average about 4 billion kilowatt-hours of hydroelectric power, annually, for use in Nevada, Arizona and California. That's enough to serve 1.3 million people... (MORE - details)
Globalisation is scarcely new: it dates back to the year 1000
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/glob...-year-1000
EXCERPT (book review): For many tenth-century Christians, the year of the expected doom was 1000 AD. Valerie Hansen’s book focuses on this non-apocalyptic but significant year as the beginning of what we would think of as globalisation.
Her claim is that our interconnected world dates back much further than we think. She suggests that it was in 1000 that Norse explorers ‘closed the global loop’ with their voyages to North America. [...] Hansen argues quite persuasively about the role of the Norse in creating new ways of trade and exploring different parts of the world. ... Meanwhile, one of the biggest international exchanges going on in 1000 was the slave trade, bringing people from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa and the Middle East. Arabic texts report ... Enslaved people were a commodity: regions with no natural resources simply exported people instead. And it was along those slave routes that other goods would come too.
Religion was also an export — and a key factor in trade. [...] According to Hansen, 1000 was a point of realignment on this front, as regional rulers decided to choose a religion for their followers based on realpolitik. ... Hansen ... depicts China as the most globalised part of the world. Through its early participation in trade along the Silk Road and connections to south east Asia, China does offer examples of what we think of as modern economic systems — in terms of specialisation of production and regional trade. Hansen suggests that the reason China didn’t industrialise [...is...] because they never lacked manpower.
Much of what is described here has only been fully understood in recent decades, as science has advanced to aid archaeology... (MORE - details)