Water Water Everywhere #3 - How NOT To Do It

Iowans are dealing with heavy rains and record setting tornado activity this season compared to the drought like conditions of the last couple years.

Funnel cloud over our jobsite about 30min after I left last Tuesday

Northwest Iowa has been hit especially hard with flooding with several counties declared Federal Disaster areas.

Record flooding inundates northwest Iowa, prompts evacuations, isolates one city - NBC News

'The devastation is severe and it's widespread': Gov. Reynolds  - Siouxland Proud News

Read to the end for ways you can help!

Last year headlines were filled with flash flooding and the Atmospheric River over California.

California faces flooding, mudslides as rain storm inundates state – ABC News

In this third installment of the Water Water Everywhere Series, I originally wanted to share some Simple Solutions, but before I do I think it is fitting to contrast it first with What NOT To Do!

Before you continue, you might want to check out the first two articles-

Water Water Everywhere #1 - Runoff & Flooding

Water Water Everywhere #2 - Water Quality & Impact

Over the last couple years, I've tried to bring awareness to the problems of increasing runoff - 

Flooding, Pollution, Desertification and more...  

Today I share the thoughts of a friend of mine, that he shared on social media awhile back during another Natural Disaster.  I forget which one now, likely Hurricane Katrina, but his words stuck with me.  It is scary how it seems we have actually taken steps to make ourselves and communities Less Resilient and More Fragile.

The following is from a post by Ben Falk, a well-known Permaculture Designer and Author.  Ben and I have swapped seeds and plants, and I enjoyed watching his excellent Permaculture Skills DVD course several year ago.

"Design for brittleness rather than resiliency - ahhh "natural" disasters - they always make it so starkly clear. If humanity wants to multiply - rather than reduce - the affects of disasters, we couldn't be doing a better job:

 

Step 1: Concentrate population densities in the lowest-lying coastal areas after draining them of their storm surge-absorbing wetlands and estuaries. Make sure it's also the most active hurricane path on the planet. Bonus points for making sure other ...fast-growing regions have the opposite problem - NO water.

Step 2: Pump as much carbon and other climate destabilizing gasses from the geosphere into the atmosphere as possible.

Step 3: Turn as much permeable, cooling, green landscape into black, impervious pavement and rooftops as possible. Concentrate all stormwater runoff. Bonus points for mixing it with sewage when it rains really hard. Double bonus points for lawn. Triple bonus round for golf courses and shopping malls. Quadruple bonus points for destroying town centers in favor of strip development.

Trash in Yeader Creek (and "yes it looks like this every time it rains")
Photo courtesy of Julie Perreault – Polk Soil & Water Conservation District 

Step 4: Ensure all new development is built with total dependence upon active air conditioning. Bonus points for glass high rises with non operable windows - vertical greenhouses without, you know, the plants. Double bonus points for failing to put passive air cooling in nursing homes, hospitals and emergency shelters.

 

Step 5: Don't harvest or store any drinking water locally. Ensure total dependence on government emergency shipments of tiny bottles of water when none is available. Bonus points for polluting all surface waters so they can't be drank. Double bonus points for contaminating ground water aquifers.

Step 6: Rebuild and do it all over again. Bonus points for getting government grants. Double bonus points for growing the economy to attract more people to "hard hit" regions so that it will be even worse the next time around."

So, how do you think are we doing?

Watch for the next post in the Water Water Everywhere series as we look at real solutions for homeowners, farmers and anyone concerned about clean water.

Water Water Everywhere #4 - Real Solutions

Until then, Ben has a revision of his book The Resilient Farm and Homestead.  You can hear him talk about it on Episode #3427 of the Survival Podcast and order it HERE or at Chelsea Green Publishing.

If you would like to help the people in NW Iowa you can donate and/or volunteer with-

Convoy of Hope  or  8 Days of Hope