Nature always finds a way.
This is a saying I have always found fascinating as it Makes me realize just how small human life and our evolution can seem in the grand scale of what this earths been through over time.
We are being told that today we face many global crisis’s brought on by the unnatural practices of man which is adversely affecting the planets ability to cope. But is all this Unnatural? Surely everything that has happened on this earth so far can be classified as natural occurrences. We were born of this earth as we are told and we evolved (some say unluckily) into the dominant species. With domination comes development and through this mankind has in some ways altered the earth’s appearance.
But on a planet estimated to be over 4 billion years old, this alteration becomes a minor event as the earth continually shifts and evolves its climate, its landscapes, its temperatures and its water management.
We may think we have managed to tame the planets natural resources but in many incidents this has been made to be proven wrong.
In 1927 the Mississippi river flooded nearly the entire length of its course displacing over 700 000 residents. This great river and its tributaries flooded more than 26000 square miles of land over seven states. Heavy rains had persisted since the autumn of 1926 and had by early spring soaked the soils of the surrounding land to a point where excess moisture could do nothing but run off. Unfortunately the snow falls from winter on the northern tiers of America began melting in the early spring of 1927 and that excess melt water drained directly into streams and tributaries feeding the Mississippi. The river at its peak was almost a mile wide at certain locations and almost 32 meters deep. At the time authorities thought that the use of levees would be sufficient to stop a disaster of this magnitude from happening. They were sadly mistaken and measures were taken shortly after for a multifaceted approach to water management. These measures included meander cutoffs, upstream reservoirs and flood outlets.
But yet again in 1993 these measures were not enough and this great river reared its powerful head. In this year 60% of the land affected by the 1927 disaster was hit again. 77% of the Levee’s in place failed due to the sheer power the water bombarded these defenses with. Most of these failures occurred south of St Louis. In this incidence the flooding was caused by a crest in the water levels in the June to July summer period.
In 2005 New Orleans felt the raw power of this planet when Hurricane Katrina hit. It was the third strongest recorded hurricane to make landfall and caused the flooding of more than 80% of the city with almost all levee’s being breached within hours of the hurricane hitting land. Estimated to have cost more than 80 billion US dollars it is the costliest natural disaster in American history. This is yet another example of how the earth’s waters can display uncanny amounts of power to which our apparent controls fail.
In the United Kingdom fears have arisen that the Thames barrier protecting the capital city of London may not be sufficient to stop a rising threat of flood waters and new measures are being discussed for the creation of a secondary barrier in the county of Kent. Their worries stem from a 1 in 1000 year chance that the Thames will flood its banks threatening the capital city. Ideas for an emergency flood plain east of London are also being discussed. Government officials are also finally admitting that the imminence of this threat is real as was shown on a smaller scale by the flooding last summer in Gloucester.
Last year in august Bangladesh was hit by massive flooding which displaced an unthinkable 28 million people and caused widespread devastation across South Asia. Unfortunately flood measures in this region are nearly non existent and with approximately 150 rivers running across the country including the Jamuna it was almost impossible to prevent. Yet another example of the earth’s river power
Man is known to strive for perfection and for changing his surroundings but all examples seem to point to the fact that no matter how much We believe ourselves to be in control, the earth will show us often in a deadly way how mistaken we are.
The great rivers may be held back temporarily by man made structures such as Dams, levees, flood controls and reservoirs but the fact is that the earth is in a continual state of change. And so are the rivers. They will evolve and cut new paths through the obstacles they encounter albeit man made or natural. And the fact that the earth has stood through billions of years of change and seen its share of species rise and fall points to the conclusion that only when this planet becomes part of the universe again will we see the death of our great rivers.
