Ecology shows repeatedly that systems cannot be altered one element at a time without system-wide effects. It also shows us that we are elements of the environment - not outside of it, or above it - we are natural. Any definition of nature that denies this is profoundly wrong. As parts of the environment we can be forces of enrichment or degradation. What we cannot do is avoid having any impact whatsoever. Dams, especially older dams, degrade environments. We need to use other low-zero emission energy production methods. Even pumped hydro would be a better alternative. These dam demolitions are a very good thing.
US regulators approved a major milestone Thursday in a plan to demolish four dams on a California river and open up hundreds of miles of salmon habitat that would be the largest dam removal and river restoration project in the world when it goes forward.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission vote on the lower Klamath River dams is the last major regulatory hurdle and the biggest milestone for a $500 million demolition proposal championed by Native American tribes and environmentalists for years.
The project would return the lower half of California’s second-largest river to a free-flowing state for the first time in more than a century.
Native tribes that rely on the Klamath River and its salmon for their way of life have been a driving force behind bringing the dams down.
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