River Killers: The False Solution of Megadams
October 31, 2012
Destroying wild rivers to generate electricity is a false solution to humanity’s need for energy, with extremely high costs to individuals, communities, and ecosystems. The negative impacts of large dams are multidimensional—degrading watersheds, riparian zones, coastal ecosystems, and even oceans. We must reject the lure of megadams and the energy gluttony they perpetuate, which deters society from deploying distributed power generation at a much smaller scale, consuming less energy, and letting nature produce more beauty.
This is a chapter from The ENERGY Reader: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth (2012).