Encounters Reading Guide

From “The River” in John McPhee’s Encounters with the Archdruid:

Floyd Dominy as Reclamationist:

154: not enough water to support agriculture in West

156: nature is cruel

171: Lake Powell made area accessible to people

172: irrigation, hydroelectric power, flood control, recreation, economic benefits from dam

173: we need to use our environment

174: seal of Bureau of Reclamation https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-us-department-of-the-interior-bureau-of-reclamation-sign-at-hoover-30708629.html

188: dams have not been inundated by river silt

202: Lake Powell = a place for the many instead of the few (utilitarian model)

203: Lake Powell allows more people to appreciate nature

240-1: one needs to be objective (and not emotional) about uses of nature

David Brower as Preservationist:

159: against dams but for a river

160: Hetchy Hetchy dam was not needed then and is not needed now

166: Lake Powell made beauty of area accessible to people but “should we flood

the Sistine Chapel so people can get closer to the ceiling?”

195: Edward Abbey wants to explode the dam

188: dams will be inundated by river silt

198: we need to think ecocentrically and preserve ecosystems, not scenic

201: Cathedral in the Desert is slowly being consumed by the reservoir

220: Brower admires the power of nature and respects it by preservation

240-1: objectivity is the greatest threat to nature

ANTHROPOCENTRISM: a human centered view of the world that contends that all things in nature serve the needs of humans.

ECOCENTRISM: an ecosystem centered view of the world that contends that all things in nature serve to support the sustainability and viability of the ecosystem.

1995 Debate between Brower and Dominy

https://www.deseret.com/1995/10/10/19197967/3-decades-later-2-still-arguing-over-glen-canyon