[olliej]

Siphoning only works if the destination is lower than the source, otherwise you're looking at free energy, which would definitely be a win for everyone :D

Suez is (was? lets ignore geopolitics instead of physics for now) so successful because it's lock free (ha! tech joke on HN, I'm rocking this :D). The Panama canal was made by creating a massive artificial lake above "sea level" rather than digging a path down to sea level through mountains. Historically this worked, but alas enough corporations profit enough by offloading the costs of their industries onto everyone else as a form of socialism we call subsidized global warming.