Recommendation
I agree that the Colorado River dams have indeed benefited the American people. However, there is always a good and bad side of everything. Environmentalists might argue that these dams shouldn’t have been built in the first place as these can obviously do any good to the environment. However, instead of complaining on what has been done, we could look more closely on what we can do to address these issues. There is no doubt that technological advances such as the building of these dams have brought us more convenience, but there are some adverse impacts that we cannot avoid.
1. Create protected/environment-friendly areas.
People all around the world are aware of our need to be more environment-friendly. Citing some regions along the Colorado River to be off limits to the constructions of dams shouldn’t be as difficult as it was years ago. Also, a lot of local NGOs are more than willing to support such environmentalist move. Political support should also not be a problem as politicians with the initiative to save the environment are more likely to be popular among the people.
In these protected regions, the usual flow of the ecosystems can be well-preserved. The native fishes can continue to thrive in their surroundings. Beaches can also be tagged as protected regions. In this way, their natural beauty will be conserved.
2. Promote alternatives should there be a need for future dam constructions.
People around the world are aware of our environmental concerns. I believe extensive researches are being done to come up with better solutions to acquire energy with less or no damage at all to the environment. Initially, these new technologies may be quite expensive and the government might be tempted to resort to old school practices of building dams that produce damaging effects to Mother Nature.
However, I strongly recommend that this huge price is worth it – especially because it means saving our world. Examples of these environment-friendly alternatives are: mini-hydroelectric dams, wind turbines and solar arrays. The government should spend on further researches to improve such energy-generating alternatives.
