Earth Day: Keeping all the pieces
Commentary by DAN SKINNER
Dan Skinner is Conservation Organizer for Idaho Rivers
United.
Earth Day is a time for all of us to ask what part we play
in the landscapes surrounding us while acknowledging the importance of
clean water, clean air, healthy forests and quiet spaces. It’s also a
time for us to evaluate how good a job we’re doing as stewards of the
earth. Are we keeping all the pieces?
With that in mind, we are facing some tough choices this
year.
Literally half of Idaho’s salmon and steelhead will die
this year in the uppermost reservoir on the lower Snake River. There will
be inadequate flows to push them through the pool behind lower Granite Dam
due in great part to some of the worst drought conditions in thirty years.
At the same time, farmers are being asked to forego
planting their crops in order to save the water for electricity production
and lower their own energy needs.
As consumers of both food and electricity, we should be
honor bound to help in any way we can. Neither the fish nor the farmers
should bear the brunt of our current energy shortage.
There are many things we can do to keep water in the river
for fish, power in the system for agriculture and towns, and still live
quite comfortably. As consumers, making wise choices in our use of
electricity will take the pressure off of our farmers, fish and wildlife.
If we were to cut our energy use, we might not be facing a
year where farmers are being asked not to plant crops or the stark reality
that salmon and steelhead will be sacrificed for energy production.
The simplest actions are obvious.
The trick is to get more out of the energy that you use.
Change your air conditioner and furnace filters once a month, replace your
regular light bulbs with highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs
and install low-flow showerheads and faucets. Wash full loads of dishes
and laundry and air dry. Shut off lights. Use a microwave or toaster oven
for smaller items. Make sure your house is properly insulated. And when
you go to buy new appliances, make sure they are certified as energy
efficient with the "Energy Star" label.
Energy conservation should be the status quo in the
Northwest. We should all be vigilant in our consumption of electricity and
lower our use whenever possible. The more energy we can conserve, the more
water we can send downstream to help our salmon and steelhead while also
keeping electricity abundant enough to sustain our agricultural needs
Beyond immediate conservation, we need to call for a
diversified energy system in the future. Right now we get 70 percent of
our electricity from hydropower dams. If low water years mean we are
asking farmers not to grow crops and are killing off this year’s class
of salmon and steelhead, then we should not focus any more of our
electricity needs on hydropower. Rather than building more dams with the
same shortcomings, we need to continue expanding wind farms, solar power
and truly renewable non-hydro energy.
Let’s remember to do what we can as consumers this Earth
Day and look into the future with an eye towards truly renewable energy.
Save the juice for a fish and a farmer and we’ll all be here tomorrow!
