The Last Days of Glen Canyon Dam

These are heady days for dam-busters. Six dams in the American West have come down in the past year. Last month the Federal government agreed to remove four more dams on the Klamath River.

Dams are like clogs in the earth’s arterial system. Removing dams is like performing angioplasty for the planet. On rivers from the Amazon to the Yangtze we’ve dammed enough water to change the speed that the planet spins. Dams decimate communities in the flood zones, prevent fish from swimming up river, and often bury archaeological and geographic treasures.

We’re now learning that some of those dams are also wasting the water they were built to protect.
The holy grail for dam-busters is Glen Canyon Dam in Southern Utah. The giant concrete dam on the Colorado River forms the second largest American reservoir, Lake Powell. Today it’s less than half full, with a giant bathtub ring stain formed at an old high-water mark. Before inundation, Glen Canyon was an explorable maze of Native American archaeological sites and 2,000 side canyons. Today Lake Powell is a popular houseboating destination. You can steer your houseboat to the pinnacle of a three hundred foot spire that’s 90% submerged.

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The Last Days of Glen Canyon Dam

Adam Werbach is an Environmental Activist, author, and entrepreneur. In 1996, Werbach became the youngest person ever elected as national president of the Sierra Club, at the age of 23. He has spoken at hundreds of venues including Apple, Inc, Harvard, and the World Economic Forum, small gatherings of corporate & non-profit boards, and activist organizations. Know More - http://adamwerbach.com/

The Beginning of a New Adventure…

Since I was very young, I’ve loved planting seeds. In high school I co-founded the Sierra Student Coalition, the Sierra Club’s student program, in the hopes of passing legislation to create Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks. Many years later the SSC has grown into more than I could have ever dreamed on campuses across the U.S. In a way, this early experience was a seed of its own — my life has followed the inevitable and unpredictable twists and turns, the branches and changes of season, but the roots are still there. Of course, I could never have known where my path would take me — I certainly could never have imagined Yerdle when I was mapping desert canyons to be protected.

And now, I face another branch, another fork in the road. Yerdle recently moved its 1 millionth item, a 16 CD French language set. With that milestone achieved, I feel that it’s time for me to pass on my day-to-day responsibilities and begin my next adventure towards a sustainable world.

I’m enormously proud of what we’ve accomplished so far, and I know that my co-founder Andy Ruben will lead Yerdle to scale. We’ve built an amazing community of dedicated people who truly believe in the mission.

Their commitment gives me faith that Yerdle will build on our success:

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