Photo: Mark Hirsch
How much responsibility do humans have for the floods disastrously deluging the Midwest? Of course the rain poured for days, but it fell on plowed-up prairies, drained fields, altered streams, no-longer-wetlands, and developed flood plains -- all unable to absorb precipitation to the best of their natural ability. Between 2007 and 2008, more than 160,000 acres of Iowa land (mostly covered with deep-rooted, water-absorbing grasses) was taken out of a federal conservation-reserve program to be farmed (mostly for corn). Near St. Louis, Mo., nearly 30,000 homes have been built on land that was submerged by flooding in 1993; despite taller, stronger levees -- which some say are part of the problem, not the solution -- the area may very well be swamped again as floodwaters roll south. "Cities routinely build in the flood plain," says Kamyar Enshayan, a city councilmember in Cedar Falls, Iowa. "That's not an act of God; that's an act of City Council."
source: The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal
see also, in Grist:As corn and soy fields drown in rainwater, the food crisis deepens
see also, in Gristmill: As Midwest floods recede, what’s being washed into the groundwater?
see also, in Grist:A special series on the Army Corps and the Mississippi River
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Comments View as Flat
Wolverine Posted 4:49 am
19 Jun 2008
Messing With Mother Nature
An apparently very wise Native American said long ago that all natural disasters were due to the ignorance of white men. This is exactly what he meant. Heavy rains and flooding rivers, aside from those caused by human-induced global warming, are totally natural. What makes them harmful is the selfish and idiotic insistence on living in flood plains and trying to contain rivers with levees instead of letting them flood and recede naturally. And of course, anything caused by human induced global warming is obviously part of the ignorance.
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rpasichnyk Posted 9:26 am
19 Jun 2008
There's More to the Story
The plowed-up prairies, drained fields, altered streams, no-longer-wetlands, and developed flood plains also offset the net charge of the area. This shift in charge attracts storms electrically. After the flooding subsides it should be noted that life will regain the area and stabilize it. This took place the last time there was flooding there, but then human stupidity and greed took over and here we are again.
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amazingdrx Posted 12:55 pm
19 Jun 2008
A solution
Turn those former wetlands back into wetlands, they will absorb and cleanse the storm overflow, as it gradually works it's way into the aqufier.
Put flood gates in the sides of the rivers, instead of damns, then let overflow go into resevior/wetlands. Keep the levies that protect cities and drain the water away from them with this wetland restoration.
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