“Environmentalists will be riveted" - Publishers Weekly
Steven Hawley
Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World
Hawley’s strong narrative voice brings the history of dam building to life along with its manifold environmental and economic consequences. The book is a primer for the current movement for dam removal to reverse ecological harms exacerbated by shifting weather patterns and climate change.
“A teaching tool and a call to action, this well-researched and well-illustrated book should be required reading for outdoorsman who care about rivers and watersheds.”
The ugly truth about dams revealed.
During the first two decades of the twenty-first century, the whole messy truth about the legacy of last century’s big dam-building binge has come to light. What started out as an arguably good government project has drifted oceans away from that original virtuous intent. Governments plugged the nation’s rivers in a misguided attempt to turn them into revenue streams. Water control projects’ main legacy will be one of needless ecological destruction, fostering a host of injustices.
The estimated 800,000 dams in the world can’t be blamed for destroying the Earth’s entire biological inheritance, but they play an outsized role in that destruction. Examples from the American West reveal that the costs of building and maintaining a sprawling water storage and delivery complex in an arid world—growing increasingly arid under the ravages of climate chaos—is well beyond the benefits furnished. Success stories from Patagonia and the Blue Heart of Europe point to a possible future where rivers run free.
Listen to Steven’s interview on Climate Cast
Book Reviews
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"Steven Hawley exposes us to a view of this crime against nature, showing how many of these concrete erections are past their use-by date.”
- Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild
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“This book is a must-read for anyone who loves rivers and for anyone who recognizes the importance of water in the world of tomorrow.”
- Tim Palmer, author of Endangered Rivers
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![Dam workers ride a pipe Grand Coulee Dam construction]()
“The dam building frenzy has stolen world wonders. Let the return of wonders begin with the energies set free in this river lovers’ bible.”
- David Duncan, author of The River Why
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“Provocative, well-written, and splendidly illustrated, Steven Hawley’s Cracked is a ferocious critique of dammed-up rivers in the west.”
- Blaine Harden, author of A River Lost
Stay informed on critical issues threatening salmon in the American West and how dams play an outsized role.
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About Steven
Steven Hawley is an environmental journalist who writes about rivers, dams, and the ecological impacts they have on salmonids in the American West. His book Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World, was released in May 2023. He is the writer and co-producer of an award-winning documentary, Dammed to Extinction (2019), and the author of Recovering a Lost River.
Lin Laughy’s latest take on the good reasons the lower four Snake River Dams should be reduced to rubble as soon as possible.