North American Megadam Resistance Alliance stands in solidarity with people across the globe taking bold steps to expose and fight systemic racism, discrimination, and colonialism in all its forms. Our mission is inextricably linked to equity and justice for black and indigenous people and all people of color in communities disproportionately affected by the climate crisis and large dams.
In particular, the shameful legacy of Canadian hydropower development embodies the most destructive and racist aspects of colonialism including resource extraction, land grabs, and the ongoing cultural genocide of Indigenous people. We are committed to this fight and ending this long history of injustice.
About our alliance. The North American Megadam Resistance Alliance is a coalition of organizations whose mission is to protect rivers and their communities by resisting megadams and associated transmission corridors.
NAMRA seeks to:
- Debunk the myth that Canadian hydropower is “clean” and renewable energy, and
- Shut down markets for dirty Canadian hydropower by stopping transmission corridors to the U.S.
- Promote alternatives to fossil fuels and megadam hydropower– such as conservation and efficiency.
To learn more about why importing Canadian hydropower to the U.S. is morally wrong and a climate disaster, read our most recent blog post.
Canadian Megadams & Voices of the Resistance: Why Hydropower is Dirty Energy
The North American Megadam Resistance Alliance film by Maine-based Teagan Wright features community members from Innu, Inuit, and Pimicikamak lands in Canada who are on the front lines of the destruction caused by Canadian megadams.
In November 2019, Indigenous community members and allies came to the US to tell their story of the exploitation of people and the environment for hydropower in Canada. The film documents the speakers’ visit to Maine where the Central Maine Power transmission corridor will cut through forests to deliver destructive Canadian hydropower to Boston. For over 100 years, the Canadian hydropower industry has caused cultural genocide of Indigenous people, displacing them from lands they occupied for millennia.
Megadam hydropower is an extreme form of energy production on par with fossil fuels. It destroys rivers, biodiversity, and poisons people and the environment with methylmercury. It is a climate disaster, not a climate solution.
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