More than two years ago, in a post entitled Is a fish more important than a tortoise?, I said
The Glen Canyon Dam provides renewable energy too, and yet I don’t see too many “big picture” enviros like Mark and Lipow self-righteously demanding new dams be put up on free-flowing rivers. Big hydro is a cost-effective source of huge amounts of electricity, and new large dams could conceivably replace a significant amount of fossil-fuel-generated power. Why aren’t enviros demanding new dams, and spattering fishermen and river rafters with the figurative blood of their straw victims?
My intent, of course, was to imply that environmentalists have a double standard when it comes to desert habitats, that forests and free-flowing rivers are revered by Greens while dry washes and ancient scrublands are considered to be something closer to worthless “empty space.”
As luck would have it, not even salmon-killing dams are beyond rehabilitation by those who would address the climate crisis by worsening the extinction crisis. Last week, environmental historian Joseph Taylor posted an essay on the High Country News site that said, in part,
The implications of climate change on the Fraser, awareness that hydroelectricity may be a critical means of reducing carbon loading, and the ability of dams to regulate river temperature for fish life may quickly shift the ground in this debate. Add to that the Bureau of Reclamation’s report last week [pdf] detailing plans to add hydroelectric generation capacity at perhaps seventy sites around the West, and a crappy western economy still needing federal stimulus, and my gut says the thirty-year hiatus in western dam building might be coming to an end. If that is the case, then the old arguments may no longer be germane. Which is okay, really. The more I watch ecology and technology change, the more persuaded I am that our political conversations about dams must grow more nuanced.
We who care about fish in the West also need to evolve or die.
[Links in original.]
The desert is merely the first biome to reach the auction block. What happens here will happen in your favorite biome soon. Like the redwoods? They’re a great source of biomass. A fan of tidepools? Too bad: wave energy capture is green. Free-flowing rivers? Nothing is free. Make no mistake: if we set the top-down utility-scale renewables precedent in the desert, the developers will be in your neighborhood soon after.
See, that’s why I just want panels on every roof in the country. C’mon!
I mean, I recognize that this has its own trade-offs regarding heavy metals and the like, but still, it’s the best option outside of everyone somehow miraculously using less energy.
The… but… he…. Aw, jeez.
Honestly, I’m okay with some natural resource management, but if western dam construction gets going again, before or after the Elwha Dam comes down, that just might be what drives me to the barricades.
(And also, long-time reader, first-time commenter: you’re a heck of a writer, Chris. Thanks for all our thoughts over the years.)
It is long past time for the financial connections between some advocates for renewable energy and renewable energy investing to start coming out. Tip hotline anyone?