Books that changed the way I see the world, part 3: The Control of Nature

Four months after it was hit, New Orleans is still cleaning up from Hurricane Katrina.  The population of the city is down and city officials are lobbying the federal government for funds to build new and improved levees, reconstruct housing, and trying to encourage former residents to return. 

Okay, I must admit that I probably didn't change many of my preconceptions about the world from reading The Control of Nature, but I still found it fascinating.  John McPhee is one of those writers who can make any topic interesting, and in this book he provides three stories of man versus nature that seems particularly apropos in the aftermath of Katrina.  For instance, did you know that the Mississippi River has been trying to change course into the Red River and the Atchafalaya swamps for most of the last century.  It has been stopped by an ongoing dam project at Old River driven by the desire for New Orleans to continue to be a port.  While the Mississippi gets increasingly shallower and more likely to flood as it fills with silt, the amount of water flowing from the Mississippi river to the Red river has been frozen to the proportions from the 1950s at great expense because of economic interests!

This book is interesting for several reasons.  First, it illustrates how dependent our homes and property interests are to current geographical conditions.  Second, it demonstrates the exhaustive amount of energy people will use to protect their homes and their property interests from changes in those conditions.

Currently the population of New Orleans is less than one fourth the population prior to Katrina.  Some of these undoubtedly haven't returned because they do not have a place to return to.  Perhaps some of these people have decided that it's easier just to stay where they are now.  Some may have decided that New Orleans is too prone to flooding (if it weren't for all the levees the place would always be under water).  But then there are others who are trying very hard to make New Orleans livable and encourage people to return.

Do we insist on living in places that require continual control of nature because we are too stubborn (or lazy) to move or is it because we are running out of more suitable places?  Are the projects described in this book over the top or are they just extreme examples of the control we exert over nature everyday to make our existence comfortable?  The book answers neither of these questions, but it got me asking them.

Your thoughts?