I Disagree with Me (Thoughts from  Lake Powell)
Channel: vlogbrothers
Date: 2017-03-24

In which Hank kayaks around a lake that was bought with the destruction of fragile and irreplaceable ecosystems and also men's lives. Also, like, a lot of money. 

And he likes it.

Lake Powell is the reservoir created by Glen Canyon Dam. A reservoir is a lake formed by a dam and right there in the name you can see it's main purpose...to reserve. It was part of the Colorado River Storage Project, the goal of which was to store water from the flood times to be used during the dry times. And it's worked, it has allowed a lot of people to live and far in arid parts of the South West US. 

It's also a very pretty and very cool lake that a lot of people enjoy recreationally. But the fights against dams on the Colorado river were a huge part of the early environmental movement in the 1960s, and the reaction against technology that that movement created set up a dichotomy that I don't love.

I am a big fan of the environment, but I often think that a bias toward "naturalness" (whatever that means) can cause a lot of pretty big problems, like a fear of vaccines or genetically modified foods. 

There are lessons to learn from these projects, of course. Glen Canyon Dam's construction left it vulnerable to floods, which almost caused a massive disaster in the 1980s. And so there is much to be said for caution.

Basically, it's complicated...and I like having a chance to look at a complicated issue and admit that I'm a little bit on both sides.

Here's a documentary about people who want to remove the dam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eCytLfHaPw&t=3759s


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