The four Lower Snake River dams are like tourniquets that have been tied too tightly, cutting off the flow of life up and down the river.
Below the dams, fisheries are decimated and orcas are starving. Above the dams, high-altitude forests that are best-situated to survive climate change are also starving, lacking the nutrients that used to be deposited there by the ton by the returning salmon who would spawn and then die, nourishing the habitat with their bodies.
The dams violate the treaties we made with the tribes (who gave us 64 million acres in return) to give them access to the salmon that are their spiritual bedrock. The dams have brought the salmon to the brink of extinction, despite over $28 billion spent on hatcheries and other mitigation efforts. The slack water lakes behind the dams are greenhouse gas factories. They also allow the water to get too hot, killing the salmon.
The dams provide only 5 percent of our power. Replacing them with solar would now be cheaper than maintaining the aged turbines.
The time has come for us to honor our laws and do what is best for us and breach the dams.
