View of a Hurricane on Earth from Space As men, women, and children, still struggle to get some respite from the hurricane named Helene, we hope and pray that everyone will be doing better before this Thanksgiving Day.
As I wrote after Super Storm Sandy hit, we must have a process to identify the prevailing causes for this much destruction. On the political front, blame is quickly placed on Climate Change and humankind's lack of effort to curtail this phenomena. On the financial front we have humankind's complacent attitude that favors the status quo and increasing profits. Before we can identify proper solutions, data must be collected, evaluated, and realized. We must have a complete picture! Let’s start again with what is given to us and what we take away.
Disrespecting God’s Green Earth:
Our green planet provides us with FREE protection from storms along the coast and rivers. However for some reason, we humans, think we know better. Mother Nature gives us Salt Marshes, a natural Rain Basin (aka: Catch Basin) between Primary and Secondary Sand Dunes along beaches that are held together by vegetation such as: Marram grass, Lichen, or Bayberry. If you never seen this natural protection when visiting a beach, that is because humankind removed them!
We look at a Salt Marsh with money in mind and so we fill in the Salt Marsh to build a football stadium. We drive dune buggies over the vegetation along the beach just for self satisfaction and build where natural sand dunes once existed. We have failed to realize that a Salt Marsh filled with detritus is the “Super Market” for life in the ocean. If we fill in a Salt Marsh where fish lay eggs, then don’t wonder why there are less fish! We are not over-fishing, we are aborting the birth of new fish by removing nature's incubators! To feed ourselves, we should be creating a multitude of new salt marshes, especially to replace the ones we destroyed. Our food chain has already been disastrously affected for centuries, and this is completely our fault. Case, and Point: Remember the TV show Cheers? Well, in Boston the real Cheers Pub is called the Bull Finch Pub, and that building - that whole area - is built on a Land-Fill. A landfill that filled in a Salt Marsh, and that was done in the 1700s!
As I wrote after Super Storm Sandy hit, we must have a process to identify the prevailing causes for this much destruction. On the political front, blame is quickly placed on Climate Change and humankind's lack of effort to curtail this phenomena. On the financial front we have humankind's complacent attitude that favors the status quo and increasing profits. Before we can identify proper solutions, data must be collected, evaluated, and realized. We must have a complete picture! Let’s start again with what is given to us and what we take away.
Disrespecting God’s Green Earth:
Our green planet provides us with FREE protection from storms along the coast and rivers. However for some reason, we humans, think we know better. Mother Nature gives us Salt Marshes, a natural Rain Basin (aka: Catch Basin) between Primary and Secondary Sand Dunes along beaches that are held together by vegetation such as: Marram grass, Lichen, or Bayberry. If you never seen this natural protection when visiting a beach, that is because humankind removed them!
We look at a Salt Marsh with money in mind and so we fill in the Salt Marsh to build a football stadium. We drive dune buggies over the vegetation along the beach just for self satisfaction and build where natural sand dunes once existed. We have failed to realize that a Salt Marsh filled with detritus is the “Super Market” for life in the ocean. If we fill in a Salt Marsh where fish lay eggs, then don’t wonder why there are less fish! We are not over-fishing, we are aborting the birth of new fish by removing nature's incubators! To feed ourselves, we should be creating a multitude of new salt marshes, especially to replace the ones we destroyed. Our food chain has already been disastrously affected for centuries, and this is completely our fault. Case, and Point: Remember the TV show Cheers? Well, in Boston the real Cheers Pub is called the Bull Finch Pub, and that building - that whole area - is built on a Land-Fill. A landfill that filled in a Salt Marsh, and that was done in the 1700s!
If we fill in a Salt Marsh where fish lay eggs, then don’t wonder why there are less fish! We are not over-fishing, we are aborting the birth of new fish by removing nature's incubators!
We build cities up to the edge of river banks, and along ocean beaches. Then we argue over who should pay for the reconstituted beaches that were washed away in a storm, because there was no natural protection for all those private beach houses along the water. Beach houses sometimes owned by people who voted against replacing sand dunes and salt marshes so not to disrupt their view of the water!
We scream the oceans are rising and fail to realize 40% of those areas with higher water levels are sinking because of us and I do not mean with changing climates. The land is sinking because we remove natural protections, we build towering buildings, and cities adding massive weight to the land, and then we pump out of the ground all the clean drinking water, which lowers the underground water tables causing the land to sink.
We "want" a water view by the ocean or river, we do not "need" that view. Our government says, "Yes, yes, go ahead build there, here is your permit." Why? So they can collected more TAXES at a premium because we want that water view. This also applies to those views from mountain slopes in California. The government knows about the high risk for mud slides, but hand out building permits anyway so they can collect premium tax dollars. They know about a river's flood plain, an ocean's destructive power especially when all natural protection has been removed. Yet, they want to collect more premium taxes! Then they acted shocked when property damage is so massive and lives are lost.
Yet, the premium views can still be obtainable while respecting nature and nature's natural protection zones. Just build behind the natural protection and a little higher for the view. Alas, just like there are no protective basement requirements written into the building codes for areas in tornado zones... We allow homes and businesses to be built along river banks and beaches. All these areas by water should be (to name just a few examples) parks, playgrounds, camping sites, ball fields, nature studies, outdoor educational classrooms, picnic grounds, "under the sky" concert areas, fishing locations, schools for lessons to swim / fish / surf / dive, SCUBA diving, vacation houses, community meeting places, trails for bicycles, walking, and hiking. If the land is privately owned, the owners can rent or operate the land for any of the above uses and more. In other words... These areas are for visiting, and should all be deserted in bad weather! Greed must be removed from the equation by both people and government!
To see our video on this topic consider becoming a GoingTrueGreen member with GTG Membership Link at top of page.
Then as a GTG Member you can take the three part video class!
Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!
We scream the oceans are rising and fail to realize 40% of those areas with higher water levels are sinking because of us and I do not mean with changing climates. The land is sinking because we remove natural protections, we build towering buildings, and cities adding massive weight to the land, and then we pump out of the ground all the clean drinking water, which lowers the underground water tables causing the land to sink.
We "want" a water view by the ocean or river, we do not "need" that view. Our government says, "Yes, yes, go ahead build there, here is your permit." Why? So they can collected more TAXES at a premium because we want that water view. This also applies to those views from mountain slopes in California. The government knows about the high risk for mud slides, but hand out building permits anyway so they can collect premium tax dollars. They know about a river's flood plain, an ocean's destructive power especially when all natural protection has been removed. Yet, they want to collect more premium taxes! Then they acted shocked when property damage is so massive and lives are lost.
Yet, the premium views can still be obtainable while respecting nature and nature's natural protection zones. Just build behind the natural protection and a little higher for the view. Alas, just like there are no protective basement requirements written into the building codes for areas in tornado zones... We allow homes and businesses to be built along river banks and beaches. All these areas by water should be (to name just a few examples) parks, playgrounds, camping sites, ball fields, nature studies, outdoor educational classrooms, picnic grounds, "under the sky" concert areas, fishing locations, schools for lessons to swim / fish / surf / dive, SCUBA diving, vacation houses, community meeting places, trails for bicycles, walking, and hiking. If the land is privately owned, the owners can rent or operate the land for any of the above uses and more. In other words... These areas are for visiting, and should all be deserted in bad weather! Greed must be removed from the equation by both people and government!
To see our video on this topic consider becoming a GoingTrueGreen member with GTG Membership Link at top of page.
Then as a GTG Member you can take the three part video class!
Bill Lauto, at GoingTrueGreen.com
Environmental Scientist
International Sustainability and Energy Consultant
Contribute your comments!
