White wants his readers to think about nature and its relationship with humanity. White explains how the river is energy. The Columbia River works as gravity pulls it to the Pacific Ocean. The Columbia is continuously cutting into the terrain that it flows through. Over millions of years water rushed through the Columbia Basin to form the Columbia River.
Water carries soil, silt, and debris downstream.
The constant movement of material in the river cuts and shapes the river basin into the land. This movement is a slow and inefficient use of energy. According to White, only two percent of water s potential energy results in the work of erosion. The other ninety-eight percent of water s energy was lost as water molecules rub against themselves, the river bed, and the river banks. This energy was released as heat into the river.