Mega-canals could slice through continents for giant ships
Third Party Content: Newscientist ANALYSIS 11 April 2017 The Panama Canal may soon have a giant neighbour across Nicaragua – and two huge waterways could be built in Asia. Will they help or hurt the environment? Venice it ain’t Plainpicture/Sabine Vielmo By Fred Pearce AFTER years of protest, the world’s biggest civil engineering project yet is now cleared for takeoff. Late last month, the Supreme Court in Nicaragua turned down the last environmental claim delaying the construction of the $50 billion Interoceanic Grand Canal. It will carve a 273-kilometre channel through the small Central American country to connect the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean – even though the Panama Canal, 1000 kilometres to the south, already does the job, and received a massive upgrade less than a year ago. Why the duplication? Proponents of the canal say it will ease congestion that the upgrade can’t address, and create new economic opportun...