In nature's fury there are lessons for our technological age

National Post, 14 September 2017

We have domesticated so much of nature that we think something has gone horribly wrong when natural forces cannot be tamed

A week of hurricane coverage demonstrated how we think about massive storms in a technological age and media culture.

We have domesticated so much of nature that we think something has gone horribly wrong when natural forces cannot be tamed. Irrigation permits us to grow food where it does not rain. Advanced construction allows us to build cities at the water’s edge. We divert rivers and create lakes. We drain the swamps and cool the air and build the seawall, and all of sudden Florida has 20 million residents. We are so accustomed to moving the earth that we are surprised when it moves us.

The last few generations of humans thus live a radically different relationship with nature than all generations in centuries before. That nature visits devastation upon us is now an exception, not the norm, a reversal of what use to be, well, the norm.

Newman House ManagerSeptember 14, 2017National Post, Culture, United States