as larger than normal quantities of mud move down through the confinement system we have created, sultry, silty dunes move along the bottom of each straight away in the riverbed.
as levees are being destroyed to sacrifice one thing over another. as each and every spillway is opened. as coastal cities are sandbagged to feel some sort of sense of protection.
we use systems of control for an environment that is constantly in flux. obviously, for the lives we maintain, efforts to restrict the mighty, muddy waterscapes surrounding us are entirely necessary. however, as we keep providing barriers to protect ourselves, we are surprised when the world knocks down that wall. so we build larger ones. this practice seems to be blatantly ignorant and self indulgent.
im not suggesting that we give up and let nature take its course, the river shift to the basin and saltwater innundate the entire industry.
by any means.
i do think we are promoting a method that is superficial compared to the issues with which we are dealing.
why do we rebuild on lands that were previously swamp and marsh in the same manner that we had built upon them previously? why do we think that we can forsee every potential solution with mere calculations? why do we not expect floodwaters and the pumping stations to occasionally exceed capacity? what if we provided a sloping, changing infrastructure that has vegetation and incline, beginning to naturally deal with the issues we are having? instead of surrounding sinking land with obstacles for nature to hurdle. . . . taking advantage of gravity and ecologies instead of fighting them.
why is it so terrifying to admit that we cannot always be in control of everything?
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