An Ornery Old Man
American Spectator,
by
Scott McKay
Original Article
Posted By: earlybird,
6/1/2019 4:11:21 PM
For all the time spent and attention monopolized in our national discussion of global warming and climate change, attention which to date has produced practically nothing in terms of concrete and substantial solutions to a demonstrable and present threat, there are two foreseeable, or more to the point practically inevitable, environmental events which directly threaten American life as we know it.
(Snip)
The other threat is far more immediate, and eminently more preventable, and while it doesn’t carry the gravity of a Yellowstone eruption its potential effect on the global economy can’t be understated. Namely, that the Mississippi River,
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Scrubber 6/1/2019 4:36:16 PM (No. 88671)
Oh baloney.
0 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Catherine 6/1/2019 5:12:16 PM (No. 88690)
My grandfather lived by the Mississippi River as a young man. He said he remembered when they had to load the wagon to move to higher ground because the Mississippi was flooding. For the farmers in the area, the flooding river often brought enrichment to the soil. My great-grandfather owned property along the river, also. When the Corp of Engineers built the levee system, they took land from everyone along the river to do so. I don't know if it's still like this but grandpa still owned that land and put cows on it, but the Corp still had dominant rights. Grandpa is long gone, he was born in the late 1800's, but I managed to get a small inheritance when his wife died, she was much younger, so still wonder if maybe I still own a square foot of the levee.
3 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
DVC 6/1/2019 8:35:57 PM (No. 88808)
The Mississippi has been trying to change course to the Atchafalaya River for around 100 years, actually more,
but the log jam used to keep it from going. Now the Old River Control Structure (Complex) is all that keeps the
whole river from going that way, bypassing the New Orleans mouth.
As the levies contain the river, so it cannot spread, it continues to drop sediment in the bottom. This slowly make
the bottom higher, so the river top is forced higher, too, since it cannot spread out - trapped between levies.
As the river goes higher, the levies must be made higher. One day, it will break out and will erode or destroy the
Old River Control Structure, and all of it will flow down the current Atchafalaya River course to the Gulf.
When it does that, it is highly questionable if it can be "put back".
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
earlybird 6/1/2019 10:17:13 PM (No. 88838)
After that blockbuster, informative and well-sourced #1, I was glad to see #3 show up….
4 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 6/1/2019 11:47:59 PM (No. 88873)
Wow! What a great seminal discussion of the Mighty Mississippi, and its legendary place in our history. This should be in a text book somewhere, not that it could be taught in Common Core!
1 person likes this.
Strange that this article never mentions 1993 flooding that was supposed to have destroyed us.
https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/floods/papers/oh_2/great.htm
And yet here we are and most people don't even recall it. I remembered it clearly for some reason, but I am sure most people don't. The dogs bark, the caravan moves on. Life goes on and the next catastrophe is always somehow going to be our last and yet..... it's not.
1 person likes this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 6/2/2019 11:06:54 AM (No. 89105)
#6, the Old River Control Structure was seriously undermined, almost destroyed, in the floods in
sometime around 1976 (from memory here). After that flood was over they filled in the undermining,
repaired and rebuilt it. I first read of this in a book "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee, written
in the late 70s, maybe 80s, IIRC. I strongly recommend the book as a look at giant projects where man is attempting
(and succeeding, to various degrees) to control nature on a grand scale. I read this book in the 80s, IIRC
when it was newly out. I am still amazed at how many are entirely unaware of this, and dismissive of
the concept, without any knowledge base. McPhee's book isn't only about the Achafalaya problem, several
other, entirely unrelated, very interesting problems are covered, too.
The Wikipedia page on this is pretty darned good, if you are interested in learning more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
DVC 6/2/2019 11:20:03 AM (No. 89124)
More on the unintended consequences of trying to clear the logjam on the Red/Achafalaya rivers......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Raft
Only at the bottom is it mentioned how this messed up the Mississippi/Red/Atchafalaya system and
necessitated the building of a man-made replacement for the Great Raft.
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Is this mighty river on its way to redirecting its course? (Has nothing to do with “global warming”….)