This is an entirely useless response.
How exactly would you propose the US might exert diplomatic pressure on China in the specific case of financing an alternative canal?
Pardon me if this is a bit naive, but I was wondering if because of the sheer scale of the project, the Monroe Doctrine could be invoked and the proposed new canal zone taken over. Not arguing the right or wrong of such a move, just wondering if it could be done.
Of course it could be invoked as a pretext for almost any intervention the US wished to justify, where there was any kind of involvement of a non-Western Hemisphere countries in the Americas. But the Monroe Doctrine has no legal standing whatsoever. It is simply a unilateral declaration of policy by the United States. It is not recognized as valid by Latin American countries, and there would be no reason for China to recognize it either. China could declare its own policy that gave it a right to invest its resources wherever it wanted to in the world, and this would be equally valid. So although the US could cite it, I doubt this would get much traction internationally.
That makes Orion, as a surface to orbit launch vehicle, look sensible. :eek:
The soviets, who spent a lot more time on this than their pussy counterparts, found that if your gas field is leaking, nuking it gets-er-done like nothing else. Nukes are also good if you’re looking for oil or have some gas trapped in a pocket. Throwing earth into the sky, though, is not such a good idea… all the dust is radioactive. But they were mostly playing with 2-kiloton toys. I say we try the whole thing again, but this time with fusion.