Close Encounters: The River

I've just started the Third and final part of Encounters with the Archdruid, called "The River." It begins with a history of the settlement of the Western United States, telling of the many difficulties encountered by pioneers. The principle obstacle to settlement of the area was the limited access to water the settlers had. Survival was possible, but thriving in the American desert, as it was called, was nearly impossible given the limits of the frontier act. Families simply weren't given enough land on which they could profitably raise cattle, because the grasses were so sparse. In addition, unreliable and infrequent rainfall prevented them from setting down roots in the agricultural sense. And so, enter Floyd Elgin Dominy. Born in Nebraska long after the Homestead act of 1862, he's devoted his career to what would eventually make the settlement of the west possible: the dam.

And after the merits of the dam are portrayed in a Christlike light, the reader in immediately presented with the conservationist's view of the dam (and it's hilarious):

"In the view of conservationists, there is something special about dams, something- as conservation problems go- that is disproportionately and metaphysically sinister. The outermost circle of the Devil's world seems to be a moat filled mainly with DDT. Next to it is a moat of burning gasoline. Within that is a ring of pinheads each covered with a million people- and so on past phalanxed bulldozers and bicuspid chain saws into the absolute epicenter of Hell on earth, where stands a dam... Conservationists who can hold themselves in reasonable check before new oil spills and fresh megalopolises mysteriously go insane even at the thought of a dam. The conservation movement is a mystical and religious force, and possibly the reaction to dams is so violent because rivers are the ultimate metaphors of existence, and dams destroy rivers. Humiliating nature, a dam is evil -placed and solid."

Brower, the Archdruid of conservationists he is, falls into this group of dam haters. He counters an accusation of "you conservationists are always against things!" with a calm reply of "If you're against something, than you are also for something. If you are against a dam, then you are for a river."

Dominy, on the other hand, doesn't understand why the conservationists have their panties in twist about it. "Let's use our environment," he says, "Nature changes the environment every day of our lives -why shouldn't we change it? We're a part of nature. " In addition, he goes on to tout the environmentally-friendly attributes of a dam, as well as the benefits they have to man. "Hydroelectric power doesn't pollute water and it doesn't pollute air. You don't get any pollution out of my dams... In addition to creating economic benefits with our dams, we regulate the river and we have created the sort of river that David Brower dreams about. Who are the best conservationists -doers or preservationists? I can't talk to preservationists. I can't talk to Brower, because he's so Goddamned ridiculous."

So imagine taking Dominy, the minister preaching salvation by the hydroelectric dam, and Brower, the Archdruid, and putting them both in a little inflatable raft and sending them down the river into a canyon with each other for company. Aside from being the setup for an interesting joke or reality TV series, this is what actually happens.

Can't wait to find out who kills who first.