Resistance: A Reflection on Hope, Power, and Persistence

Merced River. Photo credit: BigWest1 at Getty Images Signature

On a Serious and Hopeful Note:

As summer turns to fall, I watch the wind swirling the fallen leaves and reflect on the whirlwind of events so far this year. Since January we have experienced a slow rolling anti-democratic wave and daily federal acts of tyranny, persecution, oppression, and cruelty. Some of us are drinking more and enjoying it less. Most of us are deeply troubled. It’s truly a time of great uncertainty as we teeter on the edge of losing the public agencies and laws that protect and restore our lands and waters, along with the overall degradation of American democracy. 

However, we have an important role to play – to resist tyranny and threats to our rivers. Undemocratic decision-making has driven bad water management decisions for decades, and opposing it is what FOR and the environmental movement have been doing for over 50 years. We are very good at it. We have immense power in slowing and stopping bad things, while seizing the opportunity to accomplish the good things when we can. Do we ever decisively “win”? Usually not. Does it ever feel good? Usually not. Can we “prove” we made a difference? Usually not. Does it look good in the press? Usually not. But how it feels and how it looks can be managed. NEVERTHELESS - IT WORKS.  

Earlier this year I had my head turned around on environmental strategy. This past spring, I attended a water conference. Many attendees were from the entities who view water as a private resource, to which they are entitled to make as much money as possible. At that conference, from the stage and out on the floor I heard executives saying there will likely be no more big water infrastructure projects. Those environmentalists slow things down, while inflation increases costs. The yields on new water are low, the climate risk is high, and the investment returns are shrinking. My blinding flash: IT’S WORKING.

Cases in point: funders of the Los Vaqueros Dam Raise pulled out; Pacheco Reservoir supporters abandoned the project; last year Centennial Dam on the Yuba Bear was stopped; the Sites reservoir and the Delta Tunnel are facing huge cost increases. RESISTANCE IS WORKING.

Our role, for rivers, water, and America is to resist. We play our position. The world looks to California for environmental leadership. We are an important component of the bigger resistance movement. This is not some marginal policy backwater. Every day we keep our rivers and our country from teetering over the edge is a victory. Raise a glass, the next time you have one in your hand. WE ARE ALL - THE RIVER RESISTANCE