As flooding continues in mainaland Europe I continue to be amused by the “authorities responses”:
“We should accept that we humans should be humble, that even in the 21st century we don’t completely control nature – that is one lesson from this situation.”
Nature is not for us to control … and it seems that “we humans” are still in dire need of more lessons to make that perfectly clear to us. No fortifications (built at the expense of nature) can hold back nature. We are welcome to live with nature, we will not be allowed to subjugate it. We still have quite a learning curve ahead of us when it comes to humility.
The lowest places belong to water. Houses and roads should be built in higher places. While it may have been sensible for civilization to develop alongside water-ways it is just as sensible to realize that we need to improve on that historical pattern of evolution.
I was just thinking yesterday about gravity. Gravity is a force of nature that we cannot deny – we learn to live with it, we have to … and ultimately it works for us in many ways .. in fact so much so that we take it for granted. Other forces of nature are not quite as demanding of us … they are more inviting. It is up to us to either accept their invitations or resist them … and to live with the consequences of our choices.
I realize that the idea of relocating cities may sound crazy but history has shown that it is possible. We were able to rebuild cities that were practically destroyed during wars. It is possible, just hard for us to accept. If more people migrate from cities to rural living then future cities may also be smaller … and since villages are smaller – they may be easier to redesign/relocate.
Or we can leave things as they are, continue to press nature to support our way of life. To then get struck by nature as it tries to assimilate our demands of it. And then feed on the drama of the consequences of our choices … and look for ways to further alienate ourselves from nature (by placing even more stress on it) … until we lose the battle … because nature isn’t going anywhere anytime soon … we may be: