Learning From Floods

I was heartened to see an article which clearly spelled out the point of view long held by many environmentalists and Native Americans regarding the management of lands along the Mississippi; click

Settlers well documented their efforts to drain the swamps of Iowa, and other places along the great river. click

Is it time to take a clear approach to land management, yet?

When it is the consensus view that land management is a National issue, I and how many others I am unsure are here and ready for that correction of vision and consensus, as it relates to our connection and stewardship of this planet.

When we are truly ready to step up to the plate in a comprehensive manner, we would have to address the issue of using, storing, transporting, and disposing of toxins in sensitive wetland, watershed, and high water table areas.

Floods in Louisiana, and now recent flooding has provided a real, serious, and accurate depiction of the problem. This is another opportunity for our people and its government to learn from its mistakes. click

The industrial agricultural techniques, which rely on chemicals that are in concentration, or combination harmful to water need to be eliminated from sensitive water table zones, and reduced in general for the sake of our hydrosphere click

The industrial farm techniques, which concentrate animal wastes, also considered a major source of global warming “greenhouse” gases, rather than effectively manage the waste stream must also be reconsidered. More so, such masses of effluent should be better contained in general, and not stored on or near water sources and water table (or Phreatic) zones.

Although it may take the better part of what is left in this century to totally create a non-toxic consumer culture, the toxic sludge created in flood zones is arguably an excellent negative example of how the things we store in our garage to make our lives, houses, and vehicle go need to be utilizing non-toxic and biodegradable substances (see IV.D. but the rest is fascinating click )

Even recent studies on flame-retardants in our furniture demonstrate the highly toxic nature and transferability of such toxins, and this is the same stuff that seeps into waters that flood houses. click

Building materials contain hazardous substances that when combined with water are harmful to the environment.

And modern automobiles, aside from their fuel-inefficiencies, and other inefficiencies, are also a hodgepodge of chemical substances in terms of construction and required fluids. click

So, when you dunk this toxic tea bag of a typical American farm, suburb, or city into 4, 8, 12, or more feet of water for a period of hours, days, and even weeks at the end of the day you get a toxic sludge which can only be absorbed by the environment in three direction— water, air, or land.

We drink the water, we breathe the air, and we eat food from the ground. Talk from farmers struck by these floods is phenomenal in its ignorance, as in ignoring science, when they mention replanting these same fields with food crops. Those crops will absorb some parts of the pollution, and that goes into the food system. Therefore, faulty levees are a food security issue, but its not the levees fault entirely.

These toxins are dangerous to our health, and therefore the rebuilding along major waterways, water sources, and water table zones becomes a matter of not just public health and safety but National Security.

In every crisis there is an opportunity. We need to carefully consider rebuilding along areas that have been flooded, and take this as a major opportunity for long-term planning, coordinated efforts to create a less (if not entirely non-) toxic building standards, and clearly permit what can and can’t be done on these flood plains.

Farming, Families, and Cities can co-exist in harmony with the Great River. She has taken care of us, and now it is our turn to seriously consider how we are treating her.