The Three Gorges Dam, Examined

The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s biggest dam. Everything about it is huge. And that includes the controversies. It has changed China forever.

In this video, I want to talk briefly about this massive, titanic piece of infrastructure and look at it from multiple angles.

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[DwayneScriven]

My father (jack scriven) was the president of the canadian company
Teshmont Consulting Inc. They were the company tasked with allocating
where all the electrical power the dam would produce would be sent to
and how it was split up!! I remember as a child having dinner with
chinese business executives and their CCP Handlers at our house in
winnipeg, manitoba, canada where Teshmont Consulting was based. I even
have a picture of me and my family and all the chinese staff at winnipeg
airport when they left! great video, thanks for your work.

[UpNfamish]

The most balanced and informative about this 3G Dam. Thanks.

[lucasprado]

Itaipu in South America actually produces more energy annually than the three gorges, even though it is smaller, due to higher river flow throughout the year

[armamentarmedarm]

With the dam in place, the Taihu area still fills its flood control basins pretty often.

[ponchotran]

My father and I took a cruise in Fall 1999 from Shanghai up the 1800 miles of the Yangtze. The pollution in the river and the skies was heavy.

[SilentStorm_]

Great video man! A lot of good information that I haven’t heard yet! (Assuming it is all true, there are A LOT of bad channels on YouTube when it comes to the 3GD, it’s all the same stuff repeated) but you sound VERY informed, so I think I am safe to assume you are being completely honest. (It’s just new information to me, and I am to lazy to fact check it 😂 well at least I’m honest🤦‍♂️😂) so great job on the research and how you put it all together, and you did a great job with the narration! I am guessing this had to be a decent amount of work for you, but I think it was worth it! I know most people will just say good video, so sorry for the long comment, I just wanted to let you know why I thought it was good👍 happy to give a like for this video and subscribe to your channel!

[chavdarnaidenov]

There is always a price to pay, but many times it is worth it. Austria gets 2/3 of it's energy from hydro, which means it's energy is abundant, it's goods are competitive, jobs stable and environment clean. The US is no guiding light in this, because it's business-culture is inimical to long-term investments. The interesting thing in 3GD is, can that fertile silt be scooped up or bailed out and transported to agricultural fields.

[hsooi]

Well, you can't hold on to your past forever, sometimes you just have to move on.
It is sad, but that is how it is.
旧的不去，新的不来。
If you don't let go of the past, you will never appreciate the future.
As long as something survives, it is worth trying something different and learning from mistakes.

[skipperson]

Thank You for this, best I've seen on this subject.
One question: silting is known to put an age on dams, that is they'll eventually silt up, won't run as planned forever. It seems to me that if China would crack down on water polluters, they could harvest the silt out of the dam for farmers to apply to their fields as a combo fertilizer/carbon source, this would allow the dam to 'age' longer, win/win.

[joaosabino]

Hydroelectric dams are the best generators of electricity, and water storage for farming; perhaps there are problems with this one, but there should be many more around the World.

[bigbob]

What would the river basin look like today if the dam had not been built ? Would the floods have been acceptable compared to others ?

[cpcattin]

It is built in a gorgeous setting. To bad it has such an industrial look.

[chinguunerdenebadrakh]

China's dam construction can't really be compared with the US' because US receives much less rainfall which means less water throughput through rivers (Yangzte has 4 times higher discharge at their midpoint versus the Mississippi) and also much more of that riverwater flows through flat plains like the Mississippi River does instead of through narrow gorges which is prevalent in Western and Southwestern China (Western US being the exception, but they receive even less rainfall).

The US today is basically at dam capacity and can't meaningfully expand capacity even if they wished to.

[henrichretien]

Tout va très bien, Madame la Marquise ... tout va très bien ... Tra la la la ....

[meowmeowbobo]

When you say it can generate 14gw of nominal clean power any cons isnt important anymore. That is an absurd amount of energy.

[hobog]

gobi desert sand -> more silt for Yellow and Yangtze rivers?

[nerinavshrestha]

Mother of all rivers.
This river is Dragon.

[ehfik]

dam son.

good video, just like the rest of your uploads

[shazmosushi]

3:20 Interesting pronunciation of Tiananmen. (though in English everybody pronounces way different to the original language eg, Genghis Khan as "Gen-gis Karn" instead of "Chingus Harn")

[marcheck]

Back in the 90s when I was still a child, hydroelectric power was seen as green renewable sources of electricity and generally better than fossil fuels. But as impact of large dams are better understood attitude towards hydroelectric power changed. Back in the 90s I would have supported the Three Gorges Dam, but now I am not so sure anymore. And I really find China's large dam building craze that is still going on today very concerning.
Another thing to add here is that the Three Gorges Dam sits on an earthquake active region, and despite this more dams are being added upstream to control silt and to take advantage of the mighty tributaries of Yangtze river for power generation. I am not sure whether this is a good idea to begin with.