Cheap hydro power from new dams lured the corporations that poisoned the river

Evidence

In 1949, the St. Lawrence Seaway and Moses-Sanders Power Dam were built and hailed as the eighth wonder of the world. Dams and locks allowed huge ships to enter the Great Lakes from the Atlantic Ocean and produced cheap hydro-electric power that lured giant corporations to the St. Lawrence. In the late 1950s, General Motors, Reynolds, and Domtar (in Canada) became the Mohawks’ neighbors, and the majestic river became a toxic cesspool. — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 96

Categorization

• XREF: The dam-driven industrialization causal chain ties directly to the ‘dams as infrastructure’ thread and Reading the Landscape river history. — connects to: Aluminum plants emitted staggering fluoride volumes downwind of Akwesasne — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 97; The Mohawk must absorb industrial costs while corporations never change — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations: Native Struggles for…, 78; Construction of dams was actually destruction of ecosystems (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Canada’s green-energy dams enable larger industrial destruction #corroborates (0.85) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 371
• Hydro dams and mercury dumping destroyed the Grassy Narrows river ecology. #exemplifies (0.80) — Winona LaDuke, All Our Relations, 520
• Corporations shift blame for poisoning onto the victims themselves #expands (0.80) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1773
• Construction of dams was actually destruction of ecosystems #expands (0.75)
• Forced individualism damages society the way dams damage watersheds #complicates (0.70) — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 510