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Cracked

The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
The ugly truth about dams is about to be revealed.
During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the whole messy truth about the legacy of last century’s big dam building binge has come to light. What started out as an arguably good government project has drifted oceans away from that original virtuous intent. Governments plugged the nation’s rivers in a misguided attempt to turn them into revenue streams. Water control projects’ main legacy will be one of needless ecological destruction, fostering a host of unnecessary injustices.
The estimated 800,000 dams in the world can’t be blamed for destroying the earth’s entire biological inheritance, but they play an outsized role in that destruction. Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Crazy World is a kind of speed date with the history of water control — its dams, diversions and canals, and just as importantly, the politics and power that evolved with them. Examples from the American West reveal that the costs of building and maintaining a sprawling water storage and delivery complex in an arid world—growing increasingly arid under the ravages of climate chaos—is well beyond the benefits furnished. Success stories from Patagonia and the Blue Heart of Europe point to a possible future where rivers run free and the earth restores itself.
* This audiobook edition contains a downloadable PDF that includes definitions and illustrations from the book.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      March 27, 2023
      Dams are ineffective and an ecological and humanitarian hazard, contends journalist Hawley (Recovering a Lost River) in this impassioned exposé. He surveys the environmental damage caused by dams alongside stories of people displaced and ill-served by their construction. Explaining how dams destabilize ecosystems, he tells how putting up dams in the Westlands Water District near Fresno, Calif., in the 1960s disoriented migrating salmon by disrupting river currents and poisoned bird populations after poor irrigation led to the buildup of toxic chemicals. Hawley argues that the purported benefits of hydroelectric dams—green energy production and a steady water supply—are largely myths; the decomposition of organic flotsam that builds up in reservoirs produces methane at rates that can rival fossil fuel production, and as the globe heats up, evaporation will take an increasingly large cut of reservoir water. Highlighting the heartbreaking humanitarian consequences of dam construction, the author describes how the Bureau of Reclamation forced the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes off their ancestral land in North Dakota for a pittance of the tract’s value, destroying their way of life. Hawley’s thorough research makes a damning case for rethinking how to source water, and anecdotes about ecosystems that have flourished after dam removals strike an optimistic note about the road ahead. Environmentalists will be riveted. Photos.

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2023

      From ancient Romans to robber barons, generations have demonstrated a "lust for water control," environmental journalist and filmmaker Hawley (Recovering a Lost River) writes in this in-depth analysis of the obsession with making rivers productive and profitable by building dams. At best, dams have a negligible, often negative economic impact; at worst, they create ecological devastation, destroying entire aquatic populations and generating pollution that will outlast humankind. Hawley also examines the colonialism and cultural invasiveness associated with dams, focusing on how the United States' hydropower infatuation has impacted Indigenous peoples. As the primary narrator, Hawley lacks the expressiveness necessary to make nonfiction audio engaging. Paired with an excess of acronyms and architectural jargon, this yields a sometimes-stodgy listening experience. Casual listeners may wish to skip "Dam Removal 101," which veers from the thought-provoking narrative and instead provides detailed advice on how to prepare proposals and permits for dam-removal projects. A brief foreword is narrated by Danny Campbell, and an accompanying PDF includes definitions and illustrations. VERDICT This audio will interest listeners seeking well-researched, issue-oriented nature nonfiction. A worthwhile purchase for most libraries, but the appeal is more niche than universal.--Lauren Hackert

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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