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Colorado River Update: Save The Colorado Is Getting International Attention!

Hi Friends of the Colorado River

We’ve had a busy few weeks branching out across the U.S. and across the planet. Check it out!

First, two weeks ago our Rights of Nature for Rivers program was profiled at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) conference in Marseilles, France. We participated in a press conference during which we told the story of how the rivers across the Colorado River basin are threatened by dams, drought, and climate change, and thus how we developed a Rights of Nature program to battles those threats.

We joined groups including the Earth Law Center and International Rivers to discuss the global threats to rivers and movement to protect rivers with Rights of Nature. I was delighted to discuss our first victory in Nederland, Colorado, where we helped guide the community to establish Rights of Nature for the Boulder Creek Watershed. You can read about the IUCN press conference by clicking here.

Second, we were excited to participate in a webinar for the New York City chapter of the Sierra Club! Save The Colorado, and our new program Save The World’s Rivers, are at the cutting edge of the science and movement to highlight to the climate pollution caused by hydropower. New York City is trying to come up with clean energy solutions and has proposed running massive transmission lines down the Hudson River all the way from Quebec.

But, here’s the problem: the best available science indicates that Quebec hydropower — created by a massive network of dams in the province, emits as much methane pollution as natural gas powerplants and can be as bad as a coal-fired powerplant. We were joined in this webinar by indigenous leaders, Sierra Club staff, and elected officials in New York. Save The Colorado is a world leader in describing and sharing this new science, especially about how much climate pollution is emitted by Lake Mead and Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.

Third, our Writers on the Range column about tearing down Glen Canyon Dam was made into a fancy video by The Daily Unseen (click here to watch the video). The video has nearly 60,000 hits on Youtube. In addition, the original column syndicated by Writers on the Range was placed in newspapers with over 600,000 subscribers.

The concept of draining Lake Powell and tearing down Glen Canyon Dam is getting more attention than ever. Our lawsuit against the dam is still pending in federal district in Prescott, Arizona, and we continue to advocate for the dam’s removal. Climate change dictates that there’s simply not enough water to keep both Lake Mead and Lake Powell alive. Glen Canyon Dam is doomed.

Finally, our ongoing campaign opposing all proposed new dams and diversions was highlighted on KJZZ Radio in Arizona. It’s insane that at the same time there’s cutbacks and shortages of water at the bottom of the Colorado River in Arizona, the states at the top of the river in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming are doing everything they can to drain more water out of the river.

We track and OPPOSE! every proposed new river-destroying project. You can listen to the discussion on KJZZ by clicking here.

We greatly appreciate your support!

It’s your support that keeps us working hard to protect and restore the Colorado River.

You can donate online by clicking here.

Thank you!

Gary Wockner, Director
Save The Colorado

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