Category Archives: New Attitude to Nature

The Long and Winding Road to Extinction

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, Extinction, Indigenous People before Contact, New Attitude to Nature

 

Humans have been damaging the world and its biodiversity for thousands of years. Can we change what we do? Only if we change our attitude to nature.

Phoebe Weston of The Guardian saw a long and ignominious trail of corpses and decided to investigate the crimes.

The first cold case she investigated was the case of the disappearance of the huge mammals from North America—mammoths. They seemed invincible because they were so big. But they had vulnerabilities and one creature on the planet was able to take advantage of the opportunity. That was us. As Phoebe reported in the Guardian:

“The story of the biodiversity crisis starts with a cold-case murder mystery that is tens of thousands of years old. When humans started spreading across the globe they discovered a world full of huge, mythical-sounding mammals called “megafauna”, but by the end of the Pleistocene, one by one, these large animals had disappeared. There is no smoking gun and evidence from ancient crime scenes is – unsurprisingly – patchy. But what investigators have learned suggests a prime suspect: humans.”

 

The Pleistocene, was the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, which covers the Earth’s most recent period of repeated glaciations covering large parts of the world.

Weston also looked at Genyornis, which was one of the world’s heaviest birds. It inhabited Australia and was more than 2 metres tall. Can you imagine encountering a bird as tall as a basketball player?  North America used to have beavers as heavy as fridges. It also had a glyptodon which was about the size of a small car. It went extinct 12,000 years ago. About 178 of the world’s largest mammals went extinct between 52,000 years ago and 12,000 years ago. Scientists used to believe their extinctions were caused by changes in the environment. Now they believe the primary killer was—again—us. So much for ancient humans living in harmony with nature!

But hunters were not actually the main cause of extinctions. That dubious achievement was made by farmers. Farmers who also claim to be working in harmony with nature. Sorry, they are killers too.

In particular, farming is the primary reason to eliminate the habitat of animals. As a result, now the UN has estimated that of all the mammals on earth 96% are livestock and humans.  Instead, 1 million species on the planet are now on the verge of extinctions. They need to make room again for more people and more livestock. Isn’t that sick?

Indigenous people who were both hunters and farmers, lived more sustainably on the planet, though they were not entirely innocent either. After all they drove those large mammals to extinction I talked about earlier.

Weston discovered that Professor Mark Maslin from University College in London said one of the driving forces that led humans to domesticate animals was their own unsustainable hunting practices. They killed all their food, so they turned to farming. As Weston said,

“Although the debate is far from settled, it appears ancient humans took thousands of years to wipe out species in a way modern humans would do in decades. Fast forward to today and we are not just killing megafauna but destroying whole landscapes, often in just a few years.”

 

It is now widely accepted that humans were in fact serial killers. The evidence is in. The jury has spoken. Humans are guilty. Pogo was right; we are the enemy.

That’s why we have to change our attitude to nature. The current path is mad.

 

 

Serial Killers of the Planet

2023 Grand Finale Tour, New Attitude to Nature

 

Early on in this journal of our trip to the Southwest of the United States in 2023 I mentioned that I wanted to talk about 2 themes on the trip that are closely related. One is the decline of western civilization and the other is our need for a new attitude to nature.  [see https://themeanderer.ca/2023-grand-finale-tour] I have not been posting much about the need for a new attitude to nature. I intend to start remedying that deficiency now.

In that earlier post I talked about a Professor at the University of Manitoba who influenced me a lot, even though I never took a course with him. A friend of mine did and I was jealous of that. In a video tape of one of his lectures in Ireland many years later, I heard him opining about humanities’ dysfunctional relationship to nature. This was professor John Moriarty and he likened humans to a virus on the planet.

Years later in Phoenix on another trip a few years ago, one day, when days when the weather was bad (there are very few of those here) we hang around reading or do something inside. Like going to an Aquarium. Phoenix has a wonderful one called “OdySea”.

We saw many sharks that day. We learned that they are not as dangerous or as vicious as legend would have it. They are not humans after all.  The word “vicious” should likely be reserved for humans, not sharks. More people die from exploding champagne corks or falling out of bed than from shark attacks. In some years only 1 human was killed by a shark attack in the whole world. Who should be scared of whom? Yet it is sharks that we fear.

We also learned that sharks, like so much of life in the natural world are declining. We learned that shark fining accounts for the death of 75% of all sharks that are killed each year. Shark fining is the process whereby the fins of sharks are cut from their bodies while the sharks are alive because the harvesters do not want to bother transporting their heavy bodies. So usually they discard the sharks, which more often than not die a horrible death. They die of suffocation and blood loss in the water. Our species does not just kill sharks, we torture them! What other species does that?

The fins are used in shark soup. Mainly Asians enjoy such soups. In some cultures they are believed to have medical qualities. Others, like me, suspect that it is mainly superstition. Many Asians think eating something strong will make them strong. 75% of shark deaths each year are because humans think eating the fins will make them strong. And usually the death is horribly painful.

Where sharks are found they are apex predators Scientists have started to realize that apex predators are very important for ecosystems. They help maintain a balance with other predators and this helps to maintain biodiversity.

Some species in ecosystems are considered “keystone species.”  That means that they are necessary to maintain the health of the ecosystem. Without the keystone species the entire ecosystem can collapse. Sharks keep smaller predatory fish under control and this helps to balance the biodiversity by preventing over population of any species. Mother nature usually knows best. Humans not so much.

Even though sharks have been around for 400 million years many species of sharks might be extinct within the next few decades. They can’t seem to live with us!

Of course, this is entirely consistent with the loss of all kinds of life. A recent Living Planet Index compiled by researchers at the WWF and the Zoological Society of London from scientific data, shows vertebrate populations are set to decline by 67% of 1970 levels unless urgent action is taken to reduce humanity’s impact. We are destroying life on the planet. And doing very little about it. That is the long and short of it.

That day at OdySea we also learned things about the ocean. Although we enjoyed watching the penguins (who wouldn’t) they posted information that  like most other birds, penguins are in serious decline. The main causes are a decline due to a loss of nesting places and a loss of suitable food due to overfishing and pollution.  In other words, we are the problem. The old story keeps coming back. As the cartoon character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

In the movie called Dirt: The Movie a speaker pointed out that the biggest pest was us. He asked an amazing question, “If there was a United Nations of Organisms would we be voted off the planet?”  Would earth reject our species as a virus just like our bodies reject viruses? It does seem appropriate doesn’t it?

Humans are the serial killers of the planet.

 I think it is obvious. We need a new attitude to nature. The old one is bankrupt.

The Way of Water

Movies, New Attitude to Nature

 

I am sorry that I have got stuck in Salina Kansas, but I have realized the Academy Awards show is fast approaching so I must post my thoughts on the awards before the show. Otherwise you might not believe that I had predicted the winners correctly. Each year I try to see as many of the films nominated for best Pcture a possible. I think with one week left to go I have seen all but 2 of them. I think I have a week to go.

The film The Way of Water supports the view of Professor Moriarty who influenced me so strongly more than 50 years ago when I was a first year university student at the University of Manitoba. Moriarty, in an old lecture I discovered on YouTube. Moriarty was of the view that humans were the Aids virus of the earth.

I think James Cameron, the co-writer, co-producer, and director of the film would likely agree with that assessment. Humans, in that film are clearly on the side of mechanized death fighting with life.  The original Avatar was not that different.

In this film we are once again shown the ubiquitous plot of a group of ‘good guys’ fighting a larger group of ‘bad guys.’ Frankly, I am getting tired of this template for every action film, but this film did have some redeeming social merit that ought to free it from the grip of artistic censors.

Though the narrative may be weak and overdone, the technical production values in this film are indeed immense and worth the trip to see the film all by themselves.

In the film the humans once again lead an assault not just against the Na’vi but actually against nature itself. This caught my eye because it is one of the two themes of this Grand Finale Tour I am on. The humans in the film frankly look at lot like Americans with their awful mechanized war equipment. To me this was the most interesting aspect of the movie. Americans, as “leaders of the free world”, at least in their minds, are leading the charge of humans against all life. Yet, amazingly Americans seem to love the movie that attacks them!

There is actually one sympathetic human in the movie, namely, Spider, who is the apparent son of Colonel Miles Quaritich who was born in Pandora, the land of the Na’vi but is allied with the humans who want to colonize Pandora which unsurprisingly is losing the war with humans from earth and is dying.

The invaders include ‘recombinants’—Na’vi avatars implanted with the minds and memories of deceased human soldiers.  Quaritich is the mainly evil leader of the recombinants.

The film is filled with suggestions that humans ought to appreciate and respect non-human life. This is of course an idea that is foreign to many humans. This is a lesson I endorse.

The whaling vessel manned by humans, brought me fresh reminders of that classic book Moby Dick I that read last year. In that book the fanaticism of Captain Ahab’s relentless pursuit of whales was severely critiqued, much as Cameron does in this film. The “whalers” pursue the hapless creatures for the purposes of harvesting their inner liquids which are the most valuable substance on earth. Of course, the rest of the carcass is dismissed. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Tonowari, the chief of the Metkayina clan who accept the arrival of the newcomers who are seeking asylum from the invaders, again pointing to a lesson to which Americans, and the rest of us, ought to pay attention. Many of the Metkayina lack sympathy with the Na’vi because they have human blood in them, but their leader teaches them the evil of discrimination and racism. More valuable lessons again.

Showing the respect to other creatures that humans at times seem incapable of, the Metkayina respect the intelligent and peaceful cetacean-like species called Tulkun. They consider these creatures part of their spiritual family much like Indigenous people of North America have for creatures other than their selves. Clearly, Cameron believes, as do I, that the indigenous have a better attitude to nature than American, and amazingly, from watching Americans viewing this film so do many Americans! Maybe a new attitude to nature is actually possible. Or is this pure science fiction? In any event the film explores some interesting ideas though often in a too conventional and clumsy manner.

All in all, it is a good but not great film. To me it was interesting.

 

2023 Grand Finale Tour

2023 Grand Finale Tour, Decline of the west, New Attitude to Nature, Sunsets

This is the symbol of our trip?

 

I have started this trip with my wife Christiane at the end of 2022. We intend to spend about 3 & ½ months in Arizona and then tour a part of the Southeast United States. I intend to report in this blog on what I have “observed along the way”, to use a phrase my cousin Roy Vogt used to call his regular column in the Mennonite Mirror about 50 years ago. I loved that column; I loved that title.

 

I will comment on many things from many places depending on where my meanderings lead me.

I am calling this the “grand finale” tour. By that I don’t mean that this will be our last trip.  I sure hope it won’t be our last trip. Such words are too ominous. Yet, in many ways I feel that the world, along with me is at a sharp precipice. Some pundits have even spoken about being at the edge of the apocalypse. Is that possible?

Often the world seems under assault.  I have often called this the Age of Anger. Or the Age of Resentment. Both of those emotions seem to fill the air.  Who is assaulting this world? Not foreign invaders. At least not in Canada or the US, the two countries most relevant to this journey.  In Ukraine we know that this year Putin led a Russian invasion of that much smaller country. They certainly felt the sting of assault.

But we in North America don’t have reasonable fears of invasion.  Interplanetary invaders also don’t seem nearby.  So who should we fear? As cartoon character Pogo said, “I have seen the enemy and he is us!” That is indeed the preeminent attacker we must most fear. We are the enemy.

 I remember the first time I tried to watch YouTube a few years ago. I wondered what or who I should try to watch. For some entirely inexplicable reason I picked on Professor John Moriarty who taught English literature in 1967 at the University of Manitoba during  my first year of university. He was not even one of my professors. A friend of mine was his student. I was taught by another fine professor, namely, Professor Jack Woodbury. Both Professors were brilliant and we were impressionable.

I believe John Moriarty was a first year professor who quickly gained a substantial following of young students, particularly young women. He was a campus star, but as I recall, he only stayed 1 year or so at the University of Manitoba and left to go back to Europe. What a pity.

About 50 years later I decided to search for his name on the YouTube platform and was stunned to find an old lecture of his someone had been recorded and placed on the Internet. It was an astonishing find.  By then he had gone back to the United Kingdom and was teaching in either Ireland or England. I was not sure which country. There he was in front of me, through the magic of modern technology, and  bringing me back to the days of my youth.  They were grand times challenged by grand ideas. Those were the ideas of the 60s that will forever be with those of us who lived through those times. Many of those ideas had to be modified and rejected, but an important element has stuck with us. Thank goodness for that.

And there he was with the same long hair that was an essential part of the costume for us sixties radicals. And what was Professor Moriarty talking about? He was talking about us. Us the enemy. Just like Pogo! He called humans “a virus on the earth” like the aids virus.  Moriarty was speaking before Covid 19 or he might have likened us to that virus. Instead he likened our species to the Aids virus that attacked the world’s immune system. He said we humans are like a toxin on the earth. We are ravishing it.  And once again, I found it difficult to disagree with the Professor. We, led by a vicious cartel of capitalists, are relentlessly attacking nature.

There is a second and closely related theme I want to explore in a meandering fashion of course, on this Grand Finale Tour. That is the apparent serious decline of western civilization evidence for which seems ubiquitous.

By now we know clearly and irrevocably, that civilization requires a reasonably stable environment. And we don’t have that anymore. If nature as we know is destroyed, we could create a new civilization, but it would take millennia. These two ideas are therefore inextricably entwined.

To avoid civilizational collapse, we desperately need a new attitude to nature. We need to turn away from our destructive ways. We must cease to be the toxins of the earth, the careless predators of the earth, we must become the champions of a new way to work with nature, rather than against it.

At the same time, we must turn away from the current path on which our civilization seems to be on an inexorable decline. Those two paths are closely intertwined. By destroying nature we are destroying ourselves. Together, these two trends are leading us to our doom.  On this trip (and beyond) I want to explore those two important themes. I have always thought an important part of travel is to learn new things. We travel to learn and become different people. Not completely different, but significantly different. That is what knowledge does. It changes us.

By the expression ” the Grand Finale Tour” I don’t mean mean that in the sense of it being the end of life or nature or civilization. But I must admit such thoughts have entered my mind. Particularly of late.

I hope we have many more trips to come. But it is the finale of my legal career. I gave notice to the law firm SNJ where I worked for nearly 50 years that I would retire and withdraw from the practice of law on December 31, 2022. I did that  and now I can no longer practice law. Since then I am no longer a lawyer. I have simply devoted enough time to that career. It is time to move on.

Christiane and I have noticed that we are not getting better and stronger each year. Funny how that happens. Each year seem to be a bit of a step back. We are no longer the healthy vigorous people we once were and will never be again. That is life (and death). We must face that. We hope to have many adventures before we pack up our tents for good and hope to enjoy the journey until then, but the future is of course uncertain. We want to make the best of it. This journey is the start of that finale. But as I do that, I also want to take a hard look at this world in which we find ourselves. Can it be on the edge of doom? Why? What can we do about it? Where do we stand?

I have chosen the sunset as the symbol of the trip. I am in my sunset years. Yet there is some light left. It may be fading, but it is not gone. Not yet.

 

 

We arm the Reasonable

2022 Inferior Trip to Superior, Affinity, Indigenous People After Contact, New Attitude to Nature

 

in the documentary film Spirt to Soar, Tanya Talaga’s mother asked her to stop at a place where she had lived. It was devastating to see the clear cut there. The loss of forest was visceral.

Jody Porter spent a lot of time in Thunder Bay. She knew it intimately. She knew its secrets. Even the dirty ones.  She described it there as follows:

 

“We don’t know how to put into context what we are doing here. And again if you want to talk about how Thunder Bay is unique it’s because we are at the raw edge of that existential angst of what it is to be a Canadian. When your presence is deadly to the people whose land you live on.”

 Tanya Talaga drove by the same place I drove by on my home from Thunder Bay, namely, the place where the watersheds split. Some water flows north from their to the Arctic ocean. Other waterways flow south to the Great Lakes from where it flows to the cities of North  America and ultimately to the Atlantic ocean. Talaga said, “the water makes a choice.”

Talaga went on a trip into the forest organized by the elders. The purpose was to take the youth on a hunting trip. And to learn about the land. Talaga said, “I didn’t realize why I was going back to the land. that took me a long time and all the pieces of my life came into focus…I began to understand my deep feelings of dispossession, of the pain of separation from the land, and what it means to reclaim and what it means to belong.”  Non-indigenous people often do not understand the deep attachment indigenous people feel to the land and how it pains them to see it desecrated.

 

Jody Porter said this:

“We need to sit with who we are and what we’ve done here. And in that space there could be room to flip that narrative. To hear stories and to tell stories that belong here. And are from people who belong here. And tell us a story of what’s possible. The kinds of relationships that would make us all healthy.”

 

Senator Murray Sinclair said this,

“My success would be on whether I can be the best human I can be based on my teachings. That’s my success and that will be our successes as well, because if we try to create structures today that are simply copies of what Canada’s governing structures are, then we will fail.”

 

Talaga also said the 7 fallen feathers–the 7 indigenous youth who lost their lives:

 “they are now part of us. They are part of the land. And the water. And our existence. They are part of creation. We need to listen to the voices of our ancestors to tell us which way to turn, which way to flow with river. By telling our stories, the stories of who we are, how we live and how we die, we arm the reasonable. Once our voices are heard, once our truths are spoken, Canada you can’t say you didn’t know. You can no longer look away.  You see all my relations. We have fought to overcome the realities of our past and now we must turn to the possibilities of our future. We were always here. We are not going anywhere. This is where we belong.”

 

That is what it means to live on Turtle Island–together. Where we are one.

Ecological Integrity: Rainbow Falls

2022 Inferior Trip to Superior, Nature, New Attitude to Nature

 

 

I admit it: I am a sucker for a water falls. I really can’t drive by without taking a closer look and taking a photo. Sometimes even many photos. I amounts to a compulsion. Today was no exception. On the advice of the park ranger/interpreter I stopped at Rainbow Falls and was not disappointed.

 

Rainbow Falls Park prides itself on honouring the ecological integrity of the area. What does that mean? This is how they advertised it:

“What is Ecological Integrity? Close your eyes and imagine an old growth forest. See the trees, adorned in lichens and mosses, their branches swaying high above you. Hear the gentle bubble of water as it emerges from a hidden spring, the vibrant chorus of birds as they flit through the forest canopy above you, the soft padding of wolves’ feet along a well-used route. Smell the richness of the soils, where earth and water and plants come together in a combination that is unmistakably rejuvenating and full of life. Imagine this beautiful space, unmarred by traffic and pollution. This is an ecosystem with integrity. This is what we strive to protect and restore in Ontario’s provincial parks.”

 

That sounded pretty good to me.  That was what my jaunt was all about. The park also provided a more technical definition of ecological integrity:

“The guiding legislation for Ontario Parks, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act (2006) defines ecological integrity as

 

“a condition in which biotic and abiotic components of ecosystems and the composition and abundance of native species and biological communities are characteristic of their natural regions and rates of change and ecosystem processes are unimpeded. 2006, c. 12, s. 5 (2).”

The heart of ecological integrity is the ‘naturalness’ of an area.

Ecosystems have integrity when they have their mixture of living and non-living parts and the interactions between these parts are not disturbed (by human activity).”

 

 

When ecological integrity is compromised, as it is in most places in southern Canada, the biodiversity of life becomes vulnerable, and the ecosystems are damaged. The area I walked through today was fantastic. I was a bit disappointed at the absence of red maples with their red leaves and sugar maples with their orange leaves, but I was content. After all, the waterfalls were terrific.

 

On the way back, I realized I had missed what the  interpretative guide signs referred to as a panorama view. Darn. I contemplated going back, but the trail was treacherous, I was weary, and it really was time to head back to Thunder Bay. I hate driving at night in unfamiliar territory. Maybe that comes with old age. Or perhaps wisdom?  So I missed that. You can’t see it all. So be it. Next time, it will be a must see. But I must admit that omission has been bugging me. What did I miss?

Pays Plat 51 Reserve: Where the water is shallow

2022 Inferior Trip to Superior, Colonialism, Exploitation, Indigenous People After Contact, Indigenous Treaties, New Attitude to Nature

Pays Plat River Northwest Ontario

There are an amazing number of First Nations in this region of Northwest Ontario through which I traveled. One I had never heard of before was the Pays Plat First Nation. It is a small first nation near Rossport, my final destination on this trip. According to the First Nation’s website, The Pays Plat 51 reserve is in the boundary of the territory described in Robinson Superior Treaty of 1850. The community is now found alongside the Trans-Canada highway.  I stopped because it had a lovely little river with a church beside it. How could I resist photographing it?

The ancestors of the current first nation survived by hunting, fishing, and trapping. It was deeply involved in the fur trade. The name “Pays Plat”  comes from the French and means flat land. It is between 2 mountains. Modest sized mountains of course, as befits Ontario.

In the Anishinaabemowin language, the community is known as Baagwaashiing which means “Where the water is shallow.” To me the little village was a delight.

The Robinson Treaties, of 1850 also known as the Robinson-Huron and Robinson-Superior Treaties saw Canada secure almost all of northwest Ontario for settlement and resource development. New in these agreements were provisions made for reserves based on sites chosen by Indigenous leaders. These Robinson Treaties  are credited with laying the foundation for what later became known as Western Canada’s Numbered Treaties. Treaty making during this period was not just confined to the eastern and central areas of what would become Canada.

 

 

A treaty is a legally binding agreement outlining the rights and duties of its signatories and is protected by international law. Negotiated and agreed to by two or more sovereign nations, treaties are formal agreements used to reinforce and protect relations between those parties.

In North America, Indigenous societies and colonial powers often held divergent traditions and understandings on the composition and structure of these agreements. These understandings were informed by their own social, political and economic norms. Far from homogenous, pre-colonial laws, customs, and practices informed Indigenous treaty agreements, like that in Gusweñta. Many of these principles were shared among Indigenous nations, ensuring that all parties upheld their obligations. Many Indigenous nations recognize this treaty legacy and continue to advocate that the original intent of these agreements with the Crown, and then Canada, be honoured.

 

Conflict between competing empires often made its way to North America, and almost always involved Indigenous peoples. The French and British each had their supporting allies among the indigenous people. The Great Peace of Montreal serves as but one example of an agreement that brought to a close prolonged periods of conflict. Signed in 1701 between New France and forty (40) Indigenous groups of Central and Eastern North America. This treaty ushered in several years of peace. Treaties such as this lay the groundwork for peace and cooperation between colonial powers and the areas Indigenous populations, and were tested and fractured time and again when European rivals clashed overseas and brought their conflict to the Americas.

Key differences in treaty making during each of these phases is a direct result of the economic, political, and social dynamics that emerged as colonial and later state powers competed for control of the continent. As trade relations, wartime diplomacy, increasing land settlement pressures, and resource development increased, so too did the need for officials to deal with the question of Indigenous land title. As Leanne Betasamosake Simpson said, treaties were always about land.

 

And what struck me most on this jaunt through God’s country was that the land was beautiful. Unbelievably beautiful. Worth cherishing. I am not always sure that Canada appreciated how the land should be cherished. Canadians by and large wanted to exploit the land, not cherish it. I am not sure that was always the right approach. Often I think we need a new attitude to nature. I have blogged about that. I want to blog a lot more about that. I think it is a crucial concept.

 

Nature always bats last

Climate change, Environmental Apocalypse, New Attitude to Nature

 

 

It first dawned on me that climate change was here and now when I read an article bby Oliver MIlman  in the Guardian Weekly this summer about the Hoover Dam. I had visited the dam a couple of years ago when Chris and I drove to Las Vegas to pick up her sister who had flown in from Winnipeg. The dam was an awesome sight. But like many others I was struck by the white “bathtub ring” of the reservoir that showed graphically how the level in the reservoir had been dropping for decades.

 

The article in the Guardian had a very similar photo of the reservoir but the water level had dropped even more. That was hard to believe. It was also hard to swallow.  After living there for 3 months each year for about half a dozen years I have fallen in love with the American southwest. It is a place of awesome beauty and fascination. I consider it my second home.

 

The Guardian described the situation at Lake Mead this way: “The situation here is emblematic of a planet slowly, inexorably overheating. And the catastrophic consequences of the extreme weather this brings.”  The reservoir created by the dam is the largest reservoir in North America. It is an amazing sight. Yet the level of water in the reservoir has plummeted to historic lows. This could cause many places in the southwest including my beloved Arizona to face some steep cuts in their water supplies and they don’t have a lot of alternative sources of water. They have already used a lot of ingenuity to get at water and the supply is limited. Someone once said the wars of the 21st century will be founded on water issues like the wars of the 20th century had their basis in oil.

 

First, we must all admit that it really does not make sense that the American southwest being as dry as it, is home to such huge cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. That was only possible because of the huge efforts made by Americans to tame the desert.  They wanted to control nature. Matin Heidegger, by way of Friedrich Nietzsche referred to this idea as the will to power, and there are few better examples of it than this region. Those imbued with will-to-power in this sense want to tame nature. As Oliver Milman said,

“Had the formidable white arc of the Hoover dam never held back the Colorado River, the US west would probably have no Los Angeles or Las Vegas as we know them today. No sprawling food bowl of wheat, alfalfa and corn. No dreams of relocating to live in a tamed desert. The river, and dam, made the west; now the climate crisis threatens to break it.”

 

The dam is a demonstration of engineering at its finest (or if you like its most brutal). As Milman said, “The engineering might of Hoover dam undoubtably reshaped America’s story, harnessing a raucous river to help carve huge cities and vast fields of crops into unforgiving terrain.”

 The Hoover dam is huge (though much smaller than the 3 Gorges Dam we saw in China). It is as high as a 60-story building and is 45ft thick at the top and 660ft at the bottom. It was built during the extremes of the Great Depression and was a source of national pride when it was done. It was an engineering marvel.

 But that was then; this is now. Now nature seems to be fighting back. And like they say, “Nature always bats last.”  Thanks in part to climate change, also man made, the region is in the midst of a historic drought. As a result, the dam may no longer make sense, even though it is so badly needed. As Milman said, “We bent nature to suit our own needs,” said Brad Udall, a climate and water expert at Colorado State University. “And now nature is going to bend us.”

We must learn to stop fighting nature and instead learn to work with nature. Climate change is proving that we need a new attitude to nature. And we need it quickly.