I feel that the effect of the dam you say is a little over-exaggerated and wrong. I feel the reserve is a much better idea for the people because the dam brings in people to fish and do other adventurous things on the river but before since it was just a river there wasn’t much attention to Glen Canyon. Edward abbey uses a sense of anger, sadness, and other emotions to try and convince the audience that he is right, I’m here to beg the differ.
If the government didn't build the dam then the amount of water that was filled up in the dam would have overfilled Lake Powell. Lake Powell would have made it impossible to get to the canyon if this dam wasn’t built. “Much more significant is the fact that plant life, because of the unstable water line, cannot establish itself on the shores of the reservoir”- Hardin says. But, if it means it brings in more money I think the government would build it and make more money than listen to Hardin and not make any money on it.
They needed to use the lake to store waste and other disposable things. Even though, Lake Powell is a very good place to go. I'm sure the government would much rather have a place to put all waste than to have it on the streets and all the canyons. Yes, they know that they are taking away a beautiful place but that's why they built a reservoir to make up for that and to be able to keep everywhere else clean just not Lake Powell anymore. Dams are also a very good source of electric energy that could provide a lot of energy to homes.
Edward Abbey’s sense of sadness is very disturbing and will make an audience feel bad for him and be on his side for the lake.“You will rediscover a small and imperfect sampling of the kind of experience that was taken away from everybody when the oligarch and politicians condemned our river for purposes of their own”- Hardin says, He uses ethos as a way to make you feel bad, and also uses logos to get the point around to all readers and to really enforce it with anger. Audiences should really look past this and look at the bigger picture, Would you rather have a whole canyon of waste or just have lake Powell?