Should All Dams Be Removed?

Dams were first put into rivers around the world as one of the earliest sources of clean energy. And while dams have done a lot of good, they have been found to drastically alter river ecosystems with dire consequences. In this episode of Impact of Everything, we not only explore how dams affect rivers and what solutions are available, but we’ll also take a look at one of the largest dam removal projects in the world and how its river is recovering. » Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker (then hit the little 🔔 icon and select "all.") » Watch more of this series! https://bit.ly/Impact_of_Everything » Visit our shop at http://shop.seeker.com Today, hydroelectric energy creates about 16% of the world’s electricity and over 70% of the world’s renewable energy. Which is great, much better than burning coal. But, as more and more dams were built to do good in the world, more and more people started to take notice of their negative impact on the environment. To understand how rivers make electricity and dams negatively affect the environment, we have to talk about the flow of rivers. It’s all about the volume of the water and its speed. That combination changes over the seasons and it's that change that nature has grown and coevolved with. When a hydroelectric dam goes in though, it disrupts that flow and creates a reservoir in order to control the flow of water, releasing it to spin turbines to create electricity at the times people need it most. When you disrupt the flow of a river, there are so many negative consequences to the surrounding ecosystem that it's hard to fit them all into one video. Trees rely on the flow to redistribute seeds. Lessening the flow increases water temperature, which is terrible to the health of the plants and animals . Water being held back by dams can also become toxic or lose oxygen, both of which are not good when that water is eventually released . Dams also stop the flow of sediment downriver, which is, again,