Abstract
Terraforming is not science fiction but reality: humans are remaking the surface of our planet. We are altering the composition of the planet’s atmosphere and fundamentally changing the entire global climate. We remove mountains and dig miles beneath the surface for minerals. We cut down and destroy entire forests. We wipe out species and communities of species. We divert and consume entire rivers. We’ve stored so much water behind artificial reservoirs that we’ve actually (very modestly) changed the planet’s orbital dynamics. But we’ve lost sight of a fundamental principle: “can” does not mean “should.” Modern civilization must learn that the ability to do something doesn’t mean that we actually should, especially in the field of large-scale geoengineering. And this is especially true in the field of large water projects.
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Notes
- 1.
It remains so to this day, having built large projects, such as a Washington, DC, airport and the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, and securing a $243 million contract in 2004 to build 150 hospitals in Iraq. The latter project erupted in controversy when it was later found that only twenty hospitals were completed (Mandel 2006).
- 2.
In early 2013, the TAB website said the company was owned by Cove Partners LLC, an investment and hotel company located in Lebanon, Oregon.
- 3.
However, it is not the only transboundary basin potentially affected.
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Gleick, P.H., Heberger, M., Donnelly, K. (2014). Zombie Water Projects. In: Gleick, P.H. (eds) The World’s Water. The World’s Water. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-483-3_7
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