On Constructions Of Hydro Projects In The Western United States And The Anti-Dam Movement In The 20^th Century

In the beginning of the westward movement of the United States, water was the first problem to be solved of industrial and agricultural economic development in the west region. Therefore, since the end of the 19th century to the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, making great efforts to construct water conservancy officially became the mainstream in the United States. However, everything has two sides, water conservancy construction brought great social and economic benefits, at the same time, it also induced serious ecological disaster. With the rise of modern environmental movement in the United States, the environment problem caused by water conservancy construction was drawing more and more attention. In the 1980s,to protect the river nature and to save endangered fish became calls of a campaign against the dam. However, America’s anti-dam movement was not new things which happened overnight, it was along with the history and development of the water conservancy construction, there were different characteristics about anti-dam movement in different historical periods.In this article, through searching a large number of documents, periodicals, newspapers and other materials, the key problem is to be explored carefully, namelyrthrough the anti-dam movement of "River of Dam" of Columbia river to comprehend the cause, process and impact of the movement in America. Through putting the anti-dam movement of Columbia river as the research subject, and applying a detailed case analysis, the whole and individual and interdisciplinary research methods are to highlight its particularity and typicality and understand the social strength and cultural background of anti-dam movement which blossomed in the United States, and the conflict between modern environmental movement and anti-environmental movement in United States.Besides preface, conclusion and reference documents, the main body has four chapters:First chapter is reconstructing the process of water conservancy construction in entire western region and Columbia river basin in the northwest part of United States since the 20th century respectively, explaining the huge benefits of water conservancy construction to the social economy. The second chapter in this paper is about the environmental and social economical problems of water conservancy construction, especially the Columbia river basin of fisheries crisis, fully understanding that the severe ecological crisis and social economical problems are the inevitable reality factors which cause the anti-dam movement. The third chapter is introducing the rise and development of the America’s Anti-dam Movement and analyzing the influence of Anti-Dam Movement Of Columbia river basin. The fourth chapter is reflecting on the American campaign against the dam and analyzing the reason of its success and challenges to comprehend the outline of the American campaign against the dam from a small angle.The conclusion is that as part of the modern environmental protection of America’s Anti-Dam Movement, it has some success, but at the same time it fails to occupy the mainstream in the United States and still faces severe challenges.