Trump's Border Wall Will Be Awful for the Environment

[OKIsItJustMe]

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603524/trumps-border-wall-will-be-awful-for-the-environment/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]Trump’s Border Wall Will Be Awful for the Environment[/font]

[font size=4]It will create millions of tons of carbon dioxide and cause ecological damage—but on the bright side, it may raise gas prices.[/font]

by Jamie Condliffe | January 27, 2017

[font size=3]Donald Trump’s border wall doesn’t make financial sense. But it’s also a disaster in terms of the environment.

We’ve already shown that the wall could cost as much as $40 billion to build. But the materials required to build it would take their toll on the environment. A 1,000-mile wall that's 50 feet tall with 15 feet underground and one-foot thick would require 9.7 million cubic meters of concrete and 2.3 billion kilograms of (presumably American) steel.

According to figures from the Institute for Sustainable Energy and the Environment at University of Bath, there are about 380 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions for every cubic meter of concrete poured. So the wall’s concrete could produce up to 3.7 million tons of CO₂. (Some of that will actually be absorbed by the concrete over time, but only slowly.)

Then, depending on the quantity of recycled metal within it, there are around 1.8 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions embodied within a kilogram of steel. That means the steel would contribute a further 4.1 million metric tons of CO₂.

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[shraby]

1. It reminds me of the Great Wall of China (built to keep people out) and the Berlin Wall

(build to keep people in)

Walls in this day and age of air travel, water travel, car travel makes no sense whatsoever.

[SHRED]

2. Yes it is

[dhill926]

3. Really don't think there's gonna be a wall...

Even if they try to build, I can see a lot of sabotage. In fact, would hope to see some…

[dubyadiprecession]

4. What bothers me besides a wall that can be tunneled under and flown over is..

That the Mexican government still shuttles illegal immigrants (that accumulate in mexico from South America) from within its country to the US border, so that they may be closer to crossing here illegally.