Book Review On The Monkey Wrench Gang: Book Report

The basic issue currently being faced by humanity throughout the world is “Environmental Pollution”. Regardless of the billions and trillions spent on reducing the environmental pollution, we always find a way to increase it by other means.
The book chosen was “The Monkey Wrench Gang”, which is always considered as one of the greatest works of the author Edward Abbey. The book was chosen as it is one of the most famous books on environmental pollution issues and because the author, Edward Abbey, was himself an environmentalist.
This book directly or indirectly led to the birth of various environmental advocacy groups around the world of which “Earth First!” has become vastly famous.

The book is set in 1970’s Western Regions of America around the Colorado River.

The main theme of the book is about four ecologically minded misfits, who decide to clean up the environmental hazards in their own ways such as destroying bulldozers by filling the fuel tank with sand, driving quarry Lorries over canyon rim, blasting power lines, disrupting strip mines, destroying billboards, which they think, are potential dangers to ecology, etc.

The four characters of the book are:

A.K.Sarvis, a middle-aged rich surgeon

George Washington Hayduke, 25-year-old former member of US Army Special Forces

Seldom Seen Smith, a river trip business professional
Bonnie Abbzug, 28-year old feminist, acting as an assistant to A.K.Sarvis
These four characters created their gang, which they named “The Monkey Wrench Gang” which would later coin the term, Monkeywrench meaning environment-friendly activities.
The Monkey Wrench Gang has core feelings of people who have seen their ecology/environment being drastically changed due to various constructions works mainly “The Glen Canyon Bridge”.
The chief environmental issue of the book is the destruction of once beautiful region around the Colorado River. The main characters of the book try desperately to stop/destroy the development of the dam. The main intention of the gang was to create a sense of environmentalism in the society. The Glen Canyon Dam, built to provide hydroelectricity and flow regulation from the Upper Colorado River Basin to the lower, has led to major physical and ecological changes in the Colorado River. It was built at an approximated cost of 245 million dollars.
Special physical features that have characterized the Glen Canyon prior to the construction of the dam include cliffs, gorges, grottoes, and spires. Biologically, the Glen Canyon has been home to 34 different species of mammals. Additionally, 189 birds’ species and 79 plant pieces have existed in the Glen Canyon and with around 3000 ancient ruins; it was an enlightening treasure (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009).
Figure 1: Colorado River; source (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009).
Of all the main characters of the book, Seldom Seen Smith was truly devastated with what has become of the Glen Canyon. Being a professional in the river trip business, he knew the areas in and around Glen Canyon very well which would often help the gang in escaping or devising a plan to destroy something. The other main characters were also equally hurt by what has happened in Colorado River.
The main environmental effect seen in the book is one, which is still causing many controversies even after many decades of heavy protests from various environmental organizations. The environmental issue seen in the book is continuing and threatens to continue for many years to come.
The chief responsible factors for the degradation of post dam Glen Canyon ecosystem are reduced supply and transport of sediments. After the completion of the dam, the Colorado River’s flow was stopped, and the sediments traveling along with it were also blocked to become the famous Lake Powell reservoir. The Colorado River has many downstream tributaries flowing into it. Due to the poor water flow, the sediments being flown through the tributaries were also stopped. The poor flow of sediments led to a great decline in the organic matter which was essential to the various species of beings in the Glen Canyon ecosystem.
It is widely believed that the Glen Canyon Dam was directly responsible for the extinction of three species of fish. The Colorado Squawfish, the round tail Chub, and the bony tail Chub are completely wiped out from the earth. Along with these species of fish, another five fish species have become endangered and main thanks to the Glen Canyon Dam, many more species of animals are on the verge of being endangered or extinct due to the limited availability of resources, sediments, and organic matter. The extreme drop in temperature is drastically affecting the flora and fauna.
Generally, due to flow properties of water, the temperature shows daily fluctuations and in case of Glen Canyon, the usual water temperature was between 32F - 80F. However, after Glen Canyon Dam was built, the temperature stood at an almost stable 46F (Kenyon College Website, n.d). This low temperature of water leads to improper reproduction of many warm water species. In recent times, due to the reduction of various exotic species around the Canyon, various general species have been introduced into Lake Powell, which are capable of outmuscling the endemic and exotic species already available. Such recent introductions include various species of trout, striped, large, smallmouth bass, black crappie, walleye, bluegill sunfish and channel catfish (Kenyon College Website, n.d).
The Colorado River is considered to have one of the poorest qualities of water bodies in America due to the obstruction of free water flow. Re-circulation of water usually provides quality of minerals around water along with sand. However, as these are missing, the water quality has depleted.
Increasing needs to cater for water supply necessitated the need to develop and construct the dam initially. Supply and storage were targeted the lower basin areas while ensuring that water supply in the Upper basin areas is protected (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009). According to original miscalculations, the yearly flow level was 16.5 million acre-feet. However, even after many decades, the average yearly flow has demonstrated to be close to 13.5 million acre feet (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009). Due to these miscalculations, nearly 1 million acre feet water deficit is hounding Colorado River system. In addition, because of its location being high in the desert and consequently having a large surface area, Lake Powell has recorded water losses of up to 860,000 acre-feet yearly flow of water attributed to seepage along the banks and evaporation. Statistically, the loss of water coming from Colorado river that is lost in Lake Powell is about 6 % of the total flow from Colorado River and compared with Nevada this figure is thrice Nevada’s yearly water allotment Nevada’s annual water allotment. Following the completion of construction of the dam major water losses from Lake Powell amounting to 34 million acre-feet have been attributed to seepages along the bank and evaporation. Water loss from Lake Powell, each year is worth 225 million dollars considering the average cost. This is more than nine billion dollars to date since the construction of the dam in 1960’s.
The Glen Canyon Dam has been progressively filling with an equivalent of 30,000 tipper trucks of sediment daily. Annually, this amounts to 100 million tons of sediment (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009). These sediments eventually decrease the water storage capacity of the dam, for which it was originally built. The huge piles of sediments eventually lead to filling of the reservoir completely. Due to these high sedimentation problems, heavy metals such as Arsenic, Lead and Mercury are unable to flow to the sea and cause great damages to every living being consuming this water. Flooding experiences in the Glen Canyon was responsible for occupying a uranium site near Hite, which created a health hazard for both aquatic, land and human life using Lake Powell using (Glen Canyon Institute, 2009). Recent scientific studies provide investigations that suggest that flushing out of sediments is possible from the river channel if the reservoir is removed and such a process can take a period of approximately five years.
Figure 2: Glen Canyon Dam (Source; RitchieWiki, n.d)
The actual facts of Glen Canyon Dam, power plant, bridge and Lake Powell are briefed in the table below (Upper Colorado Region, 2008).
Many small towns had to be vacated for the accommodation and construction of Glen Canyon Dam. The construction of Glen Canyon Dam sidelined the small town of Page, and it was not recognized in the state of Arizona until 12 years after the construction of the dam. Though the Dam was a huge construction, it had many miscalculations and eventually in 1983 when there was a heavy snowfall, runoff space for excess water of Lake Powell was not created.

Huge dams like these lead to many environmental impacts Such as:

Water storage and exploitation are leading to modification of hydrological regime, change of ground water levels, high concentrations of suspended matter during flushing events.
Detrital sedimentation leading to decrease of downriver sediment transport, decrease of downriver flux of nutrients, contaminants, and decrease of groundwater level (Wildi, n.d).
Authigenous production, sedimentation and degradation leading to increasing of DOC in downstream water, depletion of dissolved oxygen, decrease of nutrients and major element concentrations.
Temperate cycles, lake stratification and heat budgets leading to modification of physicochemical water parameters, change of downriver water temperature and viscosity.

Evaporation that causes an increase of river water and groundwater salinity.

Causing a reduction of phosphorus downstream and in the ground water.
No further input to floodplain siltation and fertilization.
Change in river dynamics and capacity of erosion.
Increase in earthquake chances.
Increase in water sourced illness like typhus, typhoid fever, malaria, and cholera (Tahmiscioğlu et al., 2011).

These impacts are limited, and there can be many more impacts due to a huge dam construction.

Though dams are constructed for the betterment of human lives, many people hardly show any interest in moving away from their own towns. This causes discomfort to many people, and this may lead to many people settling back illegally leading to great danger to ecosystem and environment around them.
Dams are built for the betterment of human lives. However, during the construction of dams, general facts and issues are not considered. During constructing dams, the common problems faced by humans and the environment should be considered. The book “The Monkey Wrench Gang” gives a message to public in a crude and complicated way that the environment should always be protected which will eventually protect human life. The author Edward Abbey said of Glen Canyon as a portion of earth’s original paradise.

References

Why Glen Canyon. (2009). Glen Canyon Institute Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.glencanyon.org/glen_canyon/why-glen-canyon
Colorado River Storage Project. (2008). Upper Colorado Region Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.usbr.gov/uc/rm/crsp/gc/gcFacts.html
Glen Canyon Dam Controversy. (n. d). Utah History to Go Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://historytogo.utah.gov/utah_chapters/utah_today/glencanyondamcontroversy.html
History of Glen Canyon-Lake Powell. (n. d). Online Utah Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.onlineutah.com/glencanyonhistory.shtml
Glen Canyon Dam. (n. d). Ritchie Wiki Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.ritchiewiki.com/wiki/index.php/Glen_Canyon_Dam#Unique_Facts
Glen Canyon Dam: Biology. (March 26, 2002). Kenyon College Web site. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www2.kenyon.edu/projects/Dams/gbe03hol.html
Wildi, Walter. (n. d). Environmental hazards of dams and reservoirs. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.unige.ch/sciences/near/pdf/Wildi%202010.pdf
Tahmiscioğlu, M. Sait., Anul, Nermin., Ekmekçi, Fatih., & Durmuş, Nurcan. (2011). Positive and negative impacts of dams on the environment. Retrieved February 10, 2015, from
http://www.creditvalleyca.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/60.pdf