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Thursday, Sept. 01, 2005 - 10:37 a.m.

Back to McPhee

What McPhee wrote in 'The Control of Nature' about the Mississippi has been prophetic in light of what has happened in N O and elsewhere this week. He didn't factor in a hurricane but the breaching of the levee unexpectedly would have done much the same. It is a tragedy, but most of us choose to sit somewhere in harm's way and trust it won't happen in our lifetime.

Our place lies directly in the destruction zone (600 mile radius) if the predicted Yellowstone super volcano ever happens. There are no 'safe' places on the earth, only in Heaven.

Part of my Control of Nature report: The boldest attempt to control nature has been the long battle the Corps of Engineers has waged with the Mississippi River, and the jury is still out on the success of this war. Even now the Mississippi has an inexorable desire to make a new channel down the Atchafalaya River to the sea. Naturally(!) this cannot be allowed. The loss of property resulting in such a channel change would be great, but nothing compared to the cost of losing the great Gulf ports at the Mississippi�s mouth. Still, anyone who remembers Izak Dinesen�s Out of Africa can still hear the Kikuyu tribesman telling coffer grower Countess Blixen, �This water wants to go home,� as the fragile levees on her African farm fail.

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