50,000 large dams
The International Commission on Large Dams counted about 5,200 large dams worldwide in 1950 and lists more than 58,000 today, most built in the last sixty years. The World Commission on Dams documented their toll on displaced communities, fragmented rivers and trapped sediment.
A large dam, by the definition of the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD, founded 1928), is one at least 15 metres high, or between 5 and 15 metres and holding back more than 3 million cubic metres of water. ICOLD's World Register of Dams counted about 5,200 such dams in 1950 and lists more than 58,000 today, most built in the last sixty years for irrigation, hydropower, water supply and flood control; the World Commission on Dams (1997-2000) documented their displacement of communities, fragmentation of rivers and trapping of sediment.
Cited among the scale of destruction offered as evidence for the Capitalocene framework: "building over 50,000 large dams, fundamentally rerouting rivers".
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Entries this one is tied to through the book.
Examples
- Investments of 125 billionaires vs. France · both placed under Capitalocene
- 70% decline in wildlife populations since 1970 · both placed under Capitalocene
- Anthropocene or Capitalocene?: Nature, History, and the Crisis of Capitalism · both placed under Capitalocene
- Carbon inequality: richest 1% vs. poorest two-thirds · both placed under Capitalocene
- Conquest of the Americas · both placed under Capitalocene
- Climate already warmed by over a degree Celsius · both placed under Capitalocene
- Subsistence farmer in the Global South · discussed together in section 007
In the framework
- Capitalocene · concept
In the book
- Chapter 1, section 007 · Confronting the Anthropocene and Assuming the Capitalocene
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