I've recently returned from a trip through the Panama Canal. Built by American engineers after a two failed French attempts (the remains of which can still be seen in Panama today), it has been called "The Eighth Wonder of the World." Seeing it caused me to consider some of the great engineering projects built in the U.S. -- Hoover Dam, Mount Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Interstate Highway System. All awe-inspiring achievements. And all built long ago.
Such big engineering just isn't possible in the U.S. any longer. New dams, bridges, canals, tidal power stations, even nuclear reactors or oil refineries -- the list goes on and on. Should such a project even be proposed, a well-funded army of environmental activists quickly shuts it down, lest it disturb a bird's nest, or the home of a field mouse. Masquerading as environmental concerns, in reality its simply blind worship of "Mother Earth" ... and the belief that any change man makes is by definition bad. Evil, in fact.
Even on land already developed, ersatz environmentalism slows projects and adds enormously to the price tag. Boston's "Big Dig" was dug almost entirely through reclaimed landfill, and even still required an 11 year billion-dollar environmental impact study, which included concerns over disrupted habitat for sewer rats. New York's Freedom Tower being built to replace the WTC is enduring an expensive, multi-year environmental review, even though its site hasn't been home to a single plant or animal in well over a century. And one of the U.S.'s most succesful civil engineering projects -- the massive system of drainage canals which converted Central/South Florida from dangerous, malarial swampland into one of the most vibrantly growing regions of the country -- has not only been halted, but today is slowly being rolled back. Truth, my friends, is stranger than fiction.
Big engineering is still being done, just not in America. As examples, I give you Japan's Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge (nearly twice as long as the Golden Gate), Dubai's Burj Dubai or its astounding, artificial Palm Islands, China's Three Gorges Dam (five times the size of Hoover), India's $70 billon National Highway Development Project. All exciting, inspiring engineering projects with enormous economic benefits. And all of which could not possibly have been built in America's current political climate.
Denying the U.S. such projects means real economic losses of course. But it also carries a deeper, more pernicious impact. People go where the action is. How long will the world's most skilled firms and engineers continue to remain in a country that refuses to use their talents
A century ago, similar factors caused Europe to lose its preeminent position to the USA. What nation will hold that top position in the 21st Century? I don't know ... but I'm sure it will be one not afraid of large engineering projects.