Exploration 2: Snake River Alliance

Exploration 2: Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover
I experienced an epiphany observing Snake River Alliance for the second time. I realized that they are an influential group in several ways. During this observation, I simply observed their office environment while they worked on a typical Thursday. I noticed flyers about the meaning of the peace sign, protecting the environment, the Idaho Energy Collaborative, all the different threats shown on a U.S. map, the types of energy we are currently using, and many others. The room was actually cluttered with posters, flyers, photographs, and things such as those. The variety of flyers and posters made me wonder about how many things Snake River Alliance was involved with. Snake River Alliance is mostly known for their opinion on nuclear power; they are referred to as the “nuclear watchdogs”. But, were they just an “anti-nuclear” group? This question made me curious about their reputation as well. I wondered how other people and organizations viewed Snake River Alliance. From what I observed, the Snake River Alliance was definitely more than an anti-nuclear group. I was actually surprised to hear about all of the things this organization does. Although Snake River Alliance oversees what is going on in the nuclear industry, they are also working towards a clean, renewable energy source. They deal with energy policy on city, county and national levels. They analyze nuclear proposals. They analyze cost, benefits, risks, and probability on new energy developments. They are supportive of other environmental groups and put on events or memorials with them; such as the Idaho Peace Coalition. Overall, Snake River Alliance is really spread out.
In the office I also noticed that all of the members were extremely busy; on conference calls, searching for things they needed, or working quickly at their desks. There were also certain items that interested me. There was a large home-make wind mill with different questions related to nuclear power. It was used as an activity to find out how educated people were on nuclear power. The most organized and interesting thing in the room was a long table full of different forms of information. The Snake River Alliance magazine, many different handouts, books they recommended, newspapers, news articles, current events, interesting facts about energy, and many more. They had a small library in their office. I was shocked to see so much information. At that moment I realized how important it was to Snake River Alliance to spread their knowledge and education. It wasn’t that they were spreading an opinion, but just general information on things people don’t usually think about. Such as, where does my electricity come from?
This observation really expanded my image of Snake River Alliance. I don’t think people realize how spread out Snake River Alliance is. They truly believe in making change, and they are doing everything in their power to be successful.