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Argument Against The Hetchy Dam

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Mahatma Gandhi once said that “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.” 1 The quote talks about how Earth gives us beauty and our basic needs, but when people get greedy it disappears and in my opinion I feel like this quote relates to the topic about the debate of Hetch Hetchy Dam. Back in 1913, there was a Congress hearing debating whether or not the Hetch Hetchy Dam should be built into a part of the California’s Yosemite National Park. The dam was being built so water could be brought to the city of San Francisco. However, during the debate there were some people who were about the dam being built and there were others who weren’t. The people who were for the dam being built were known as preservationist. An example of a preservationist was John Muir; he thought building the dam was being more useful to the nation compared to not disturbing it. But then there were people who argued against the debate like Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot was known as a conversevasionlist, and they were the people who cared more about nature and wanting …show more content…

As recent April 2015 there was a lawsuit against San Francisco from the Restore Hetch Hetchy group, to shut down the dam. 2 In my opinion I agree with the shutting down of the dam; I believe that nature should be left the way it is. The Hetch Hetchy Dam is destroying a piece of land that is the homes of multiple types of animals. Back in the early nineteen hundreds, when the debate start about The Hetch Hetchy dam being built a large majority of people did not realize or care how valuable nature is. Now in the present day, people are realizing how valuable our national parks are, and how we should stop destroying them. There are alternative ways of supply water the people of California, that does not destroy

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Paul Galley an accomplished environmentalist enters the controversial debate about Hydrofracking in New York, with his article “Hydrofracking: A bad Bet for the Environment and the Economy” published in the Huffington Post on January 05, 2012. Galley states “Net-Net, fracking is simply bad bet” fracking poses serious risk to New Yorkers. Galley, president of Hudson Riverkeeper has worked for over twenty-five years to protect the environment and support local communities, as a non-profit, public official and educator. This piece continues his devotion to protection of the Hudson River, and the drinking water supply of New Yorkers. Galley effectively convinces his audience through his use of appeals to pathos and logos that hydrofracking will have negative impacts on New Yorkers.

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Pearl Woodrum saw her fears realized when the dam burst in 1972. As the residents of Buffalo Creek slept soundly in their beds, they would not be able to envision the horrors that would occur on that dreary February morning. They knew that any time there was a substantial amount of rainfall in Buffalo Creek, the creek would rise and the lack of an early warning system meant they might never know if a heavy rain heralded disaster until it was too late. Residents also knew that the dam was not stable, a fact the U.S. Geological Survey confirmed when it concluded that the dam was “basically stable but could be overtopped and breached.” William Davies was the federal geologist who conducted the study and stated that if the dam broke, “flood and debris would damage a church and two or three houses downstream, cover the road and wash out the railroad.”

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In the 1800s, the first national debate occurred over the idea of damming Hetch Hetchy. The two sides include Preservationists who wanted to preserve Hetch Hetchy and Conservationist who believed that we should take advantage of the resources Hetch Hetchy provides. This created conflicts between the Conservationists and the Preservationists over the thought of building a dam in Hetch Hetchy. However, the Preservationists ultimately failed to convince Congress to stop the damming of the Hetch Hetchy due the ability to make money off the reservoir and the resources Hetch Hetchy provides that would benefit the people of San Francisco. This is proven through several of documents written by Gifford Pinchot and John Raker, San Francisco District

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Over the past years Native Americans had cared for their own sacred lands, the story and religion that their primogenitors had taught them. The Native Americans had still carried the strong belief, that their land shall stay the same as if it should've been until new people had come in from elsewhere to change the land to something we all see outside till this day. However, there is a new project “The Dakota Access Pipeline” that had crossed the line of Native American trust between the new people that had changed everything the Natives had had since their ancestors were still living. No matter what effect the pipeline puts on most people there are some positive causes that can change a person such as protesters to think positive towards the pipeline being built on Indian reservation land. Even if the pipeline can cause many people to have a thought that the pipeline should not be built, only if they can hear from both sides, they can have a second thought and allow the pipeline to be built.

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Environmentalists have dreamed of restoring Hetch Hetchy to its original state for years and scientists concluded that it was possible. Measure F is a government policy that would empty the reservoir and replace the electricity and water it provides to citizens in the Bay Area, and San Francisco voters could be voting on it within the next year. This would require funds consisting of millions of dollars, which excludes the potential issues that could arise in the process, especially concerning the landscape. On the other hand, species of animals and plants could return to the valley in just as quickly as five years. Sarah Null, an assistant professor of watershed at Utah State University, states, “Most people could go there in 40 or 50 years and not even realize that there was ever a dam

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The dam is now more social and recreational. Just because not all of the trees grow anymore doesn’t mean it’s still not beautiful.you did’t have to come at the readers so negative. Someone could be in a wheelchair in their family and it could really offend someone. You could have worded it another way instead of attacking a certain group of people personally.(people in wheelchairs) The argument

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