Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World by Steven Hawley

Introduction

During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the whole messy truth about the legacy of last centurys 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 nations 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 cant be blamed for destroying the earths entire biological inheritance, but they play an outsized role in that destruction.Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Crazy Worldis 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 worldgrowing increasingly arid under the ravages of climate chaosis 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.