Day 64: #SunriseProject
May 29, 2020
Sunrise: 5:37am
Photo taken from County Road 60 in Granby, Colorado at 5:41am.
Damming rivers.
The Colorado River has 15 major dams.
This dam is the Granby Dam.
You’ve heard of the Hoover Dam (what allows Lake Mead to be Lake Mead) and the Glen Canyon Dam (what allows Lake Powell to be Lake Powell)? They’re two big ones on the Colorado.
Dams are weird to me. They’re built to flood portions of the river.
Like, where that water is…there used to be land. I think there might have even been people that lived in that valley before the dam was put in.
River water that is collected behind the dams are used to generate hydroelectricity, revenue from tourists, and water for humans, plants, and animals.
The thing is the river is pretty strong and there is just a cement wall holding it back.
Last year, I saw a short film about the Glen Canyon Dam. Katie Lee, an avid Glen Canyon activist, wholeheartedly believes that someday, the Colorado River will break through that dam…
...that the pressure will be too much, and the manmade structure won’t be able to hold it back any longer.
If you haven’t noticed lately, the dam of society is breaking...which is to be expected. It wasn’t very well built to begin with. It was built as a bandaid to cover up past indiscretions. It was built as a “quick fix.” It was built with the short term in mind...not the long term.
I don’t know what comes next.
I don’t know how to make it better.
But I know I want to make it better.
So I think I’ll start there.
