[geeks] Mr Bill?

[wa2egp at att.net]

> We have the same issue in Tidewater.
> 
> The greed factor is high along with stupidity, so they keep getting  
> rid of those "nasty swamps" and replacing them with multiple smaller  
> "managed wetlands".
> 
> The old swamps used to absorb a lot of heavy wind and water.
> 
> A guy at NASA made a simulation years ago about the effect of swamps  
> as storm barriers, and it really does help, a lot.  I was surprised  
> how effective it was at reducing wind speed, slowing or halting storm  
> surge, absorbing heavy rain, etc.
> 
> The concrete and refuse barriers they build are nowhere near as good.
> 
> A lot of our local swamps have been replaced with "managed wetlands",  
> and they made most of them inland, frequently isolated from coastal  
> water or streams.
> 
> Not only does it make them less habitable by wildlife, it pretty much  
> eliminates any benefit as a barrier since they are no longer along the  
> coast.
> 
> Unfortunately the environmental law is very cleverly written so that  
> only the total acreage of swamp is accounted for.
> 
> In other words, they can legally replace 1000 acres of swamp with 1000  
> 1 acre managed wetlands which are basically just mosquito breeding  
> grounds.
> 
> They even count he "bowls" formed by interstate highway cloverleaf  
> structures as wetland  acreage now.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Shannon Hendrix
> shannon at widomaker.com

I teach Environmnetal Science and from all I've read it appears that 99% of the time when humans "improve" on nature, they usually just f__k it up.

Bob