Journal Name:
- International Journal of Applied Research and Technology
Key Words:
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Abstract (2. Language):
Power generation (including energy generated from renewable sources) impacts local ecosystems and communities. There is a tendency to turn a blind eye to these impacts and treat all renewable technologies as unconditionally good because they do not emit greenhouse gases. Renewable power must be sited, designed, and operated in a manner that also protects the local ecosystem. Hydropower dam operations are responsible for the extinction and near-extinction of a number of species, and are a major contributor to the significant loss of aquatic biodiversity. Hydropower dams have flooded forests (causing the irretrievable loss of carbon sinks), damaged entire fisheries, and diminished recreational opportunities, and decimated the local – mostly rural – economies that depend on those resources. Hydropower dams are a significant source of water pollution. Scientists and legal scholars have long acknowledged that hydropower dams cause pollution by altering the temperature and chemical makeup of water that is impounded behind and released through dams, harming the biological integrity of river ecosystems. The cumulative impacts of multiple hydropower dams are often much greater than the simple sum of their direct impacts. Even a very small single dam can entrain fish, block fish passage and displace wildlife. A series of dams can severely impact an entire watershed, even if each of the individual dams seems relatively low impact when considered in isolation. The extent of this damage can be much greater when combined with a whole host of other threats to rivers: poor water quality, a growing demand for scarce water, encroaching urbanization, and poor land-management decisions. We must encourage the development of low emissions energy sources, but this development must be protective of our natural environment.
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