By SJ Otto
I consider myself an environmentalist.
I consider nature to be important. I’m not against people making a living, a
home or other necessities. But we have to share this earth with other species
of animals and plants. People like to change nature to suit their needs. But by
suiting our needs, what about the natural theme of things? We damn streams and
we expect that to work just fine. We get hydro electric dams to provide us with
electricity. We have flood control. We have lakes that provide us with
recreation. But we alter nature and take away the processes that nature relies
on. Over the years there have been consequences to such dams. Just recently we
have had the failure of two man made dams in Michigan
“Around 10,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes in
central Michigan
The Edenville and Sanford dams collapsed Tuesday night,
threatening to drench the town of Midland, Michigan under nine feet of
water, Reuters reported.
The flooding comes as Michigan U.S.
"It's hard to believe that we're in the middle of a 100-year crisis, a global pandemic, and we're also dealing with a flooding event that looks to be the worst in 500 years," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, as the New York Times reported.”
What people need to realize is that
this has happened before. According to Wikipedia:
“The Teton Dam was an earthen dam on
the Teton River in Idaho,
United States
The collapse of the dam resulted in the deaths of 11 people[4] and 13,000 cattle. The dam cost about
$100 million to build and the federal government paid over $300 million in
claims related to its failure. Total damage estimates have ranged up to $2
billion.[5] The dam has not been rebuilt.”
At the time, I made the case that humans had ignored nature to
produce something they thought would contribute to the economy. It contributed
to death and destruction. I remember as a young teenager watching it on TV and
seeing pictures in Time Magazine. I saw those
According to Wikipedia people felt they needed the dam for a number of reasons.
At the time, as an environmentalist, I felt that people were being greedy in
their use of natural resources. Today, I believe I was right. This was a case
of greedy people getting what they deserved.
The planned dam iwas to be an earthen structure 310
feet (94 m) high and 0.6 miles (1.0 km) long and create a reservoir 17
miles (27 km) in length. The impounded water would be used to
generate hydroelectric power.
An environmental impact statement was
issued for the dam in 1971, but it did not raise the possibility of a collapse.[3] Lack of funding and of
site prep work and questions surrounding the required environmental impact
statement stalled the project. Barely 14 pages long, the statement quickly drew
the ire of opponents of the project.[6]
When this dam went, I remember
seeing pictures of the bulldozers trying in vain to plug up the leaks in this
dam. Again in Wikipedia:
“Crews with bulldozers were
sent to plug the leak, but were unsuccessful. Local media appeared
at the site and at 11:15 officials told the county sheriff's office to evacuate
downstream residents. Work crews were forced to flee on foot as the widening
gap, now larger than a swimming pool, swallowed their equipment. The operators
of two bulldozers caught in the eroding embankment were pulled to safety with
ropes.”
The dam swallowed up these tractors
and it is if nature was getting revenge for the obnoxious arrogance that humans
show when they are trying to control nature. We live in a world where people do
what brings them comfort and nature be damned. But in the case of these dams, I
saw little people trying in vain to control the uncontrollable. I hate to see
people lose their homes and/or lives. But there are consequences to trying to
control nature. And I delight in seeing nature win at times.
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