> [WS:] I do not get it. Why did hydroelectric dams promote development in
> the USSR or even the US, but not in the Third World countries? Is it
> because they displace subsistence farming?
Russia and the US both have huge amounts of land, and relatively few concentrated masses of people were displaced by dams. Building dams in places like China and India involves uprooting millions of people, with dire economic and ecological complications. Today, there are better choices: invest in wind energy, solar, mass transit, biofuels.
-- DRR