Jason Frederick Lambacher delivers paper on the politics of dam removal at the Western Political Science Association

Jason delivered a paper on the global dam removal movement at the recent 2024 Western Political Science Association meeting in Vancouver, BC. Titled “Unplugged: Climate Change, Free Flowing Rivers, and the Politics of Dam Removal,” Jason traces how a movement to bring down dams and other diversions on large rivers around the globe is accelerating (60% of the world’s major rivers have already been significantly fragmented and plans for major new dams are in the works, particularly in Africa and SE Asia). Dam removal on the Elwha and Klamath in the PNW are given close attention in the paper, as well as the fight over removing dams on the Lower Snake in Eastern Washington. The dam removal movement sits at an illuminating crosscurrent of issues in environmental politics that inspire deeper reflection on the intersections between “green” energy (both hydropower and hydrogen), anadromous fish cycles and local extinctions, indigenous rights, the rights of nature, industrial agriculture, ecological restoration and rewilding, and the techno-engineering of natural systems. The dam removal movement is sure to increase in the coming decades even as the world transitions to greener sources of energy such as hydropower. As it does the politics of dam removal will offer new arenas for conflict, new models of environmental resistance, and hope for more sustainable riverine communities of people and species alike.