Did God mess up on the river? Catholics support dam removal

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March 8, 2024

An All Our Relations event organized by Se’Si’Le’ at United Churches of Olympia in Olympia, Washington, Sept. 23, 2023, featured a hand-crafted steel sculpture created for the Snake River Campaign by Lummi Nation members A. Cyaltsa Finkbonner and master carver Jewell James. (Courtesy of the Nez Perce Tribe)

Today at EarthBeat, Rebecca Randall reports that two years ago, the Indigenous nonprofit Se'Si'Le approached the Washington state Catholic bishops for support in advocating for dam removal, to aid the restoration of salmon populations in the Columbia River watershed. The bishops responded with a statement that said in part:

A serious decline in salmon, a keystone species, is an indicator of environmental damage. Southern Resident orcas are also increasingly endangered as their food source diminishes. In response, we urge federal and state policymakers to care for creation, address the loss of biodiversity, and ensure the Lower Snake River ecosystem and its neighboring communities are able to thrive.
A comprehensive plan developed with the input of affected communities is needed to address the health of the Lower Snake River and the decline of species in the region. In taking action to care for God's creation, we urge policy makers to respect the dignity of every human person and serve the common good, two important pillars of the teachings of the Catholic Church.
In respecting the dignity of every human person, we first consider the Original Peoples of Washington state. Native American tribes of the region have a long-standing relationship of care and respect for the salmon of the Lower Snake River. We acknowledge that the decline of salmon and loss of their original habitat poses a threat to the spiritual lifeways of the Original Peoples of the Northwest. In response to requests for solidarity with Indigenous leaders, we recognize that deliberate action is necessary to find ways to restore the health of the salmon of the region. (Read the full statement here.)

Despite the bishops' support on the issue, Will Rutt, executive director of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center in Seattle, told Randall, "I don't think the faith community has been very strong on this."

He said Catholics have struggled to connect the dams to their faith, and that struggle is connected to "our perceived superiority to the Earth and Indigenous communities — that hierarchical relationship we've imposed on ourselves, the church. It's an identity crisis that we're encountering. We don't identify as part of creation. We identify as apart from creation," adding that, "It's a colonial mentality. It's really hard to deconstruct that."

But he and others are working together, with the Native American tribes, to do exactly that.

What else is new on EarthBeat:

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An Apache group that has fought to protect land it considers sacred from a copper mining project in central Arizona suffered a significant blow March 1 when a divided federal court panel voted 6-5 to uphold a lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction to halt the transfer of land for the project.

Collapse of illegal gold mine puts focus on needs of Venezuela's Indigenous people

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What's happening in other climate news:

Alabama Supreme Court IVF Ruling Renews Focus on Plastics, Chemical Exposure and Infertility — James Bruggers and Lee Hedgepeth for Inside Climate News

Biden to Target Industrial Pollution in a 2nd Term, if He Gets One — Coral Davenport for The New York Times

Researchers coax people to envision greener cities using AI images of familiar streets —Sarah DeWeerdt for Anthropocene

UN warns of climate change impact on farms and rural households run by women in poor countries —The Associated Press

Prisoners in Texas and Florida face biggest risk of increasingly deadly heat —Nina Lakhani for The Guardian

Final Beat:

The "Bechdel test" is a protocol for measuring women's representation in film. To pass, a film must contain at least two female characters and they must speak to each other about something other than a man.

Zack Budryk reports for The Hill that a nonprofit, Good Energy, has now created what's being called a "Bechdel test for climate change." To pass this new test, a film must acknowledge the existence of climate change and at least one character must know about it.

Academy Award-nominated films that passed the test this year include "Barbie," "Nyad" and "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One."

The 2024 Oscars Ceremony will be on Sunday, March 10.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat!

Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org
Instagram: @stephanieclaryncr