Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Crazy Idea From the 1950s - Part 173

From an old Vox feature of maps and plans that never came about:

North American Water and Power Alliance

Alaska is too cold to be of much use to farmers, and much of America's warm, sunny landscape is on the dry side. In the 1950s, the US Army Corps of Engineers devised the only sensible solution — use "peaceful" nuclear explosions to divert several Alaskan rivers through the Rocky Mountain Trench into the Colorado and Yellowstone rivers, whence the extra water flow could be used to further bolster irrigation projects in the American southwest. The cost of the project was thought to be comparable in scope to the original construction of the Interstate Highway System, with the complicating factor that it would also require the cooperation of the Canadian government.
Geez, nuclear weapons caused scientists and engineers to dream up some pretty crazy ideas.  Thank God they didn't follow through on this lunatic shit.

No comments:

Post a Comment