Wednesday, October 30, 2024

From Mexico to Australia and back again

Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) by Diego Rivera, 1924











Now this is how to build close to water! The Sydney Opera House. This may be entirely fictional, but isn't it neat?


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Asheville Flood 24 photo by Victoria A. Ifatusin


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All my images were available on the internet, except these from my TV.



I'd say some good water management is needed here! Not just the way the engineers built dams and dykes along rivers, but some use of the newer knowledge of how to make communities more healthy for the need for water and incorporate trees and smart use of buildings. My friend Robertson Work has some good ideas. He's worked with many communities all over the world, and is now retired and I met him at Swannanoa Watershed Action Network (SWAN) a couple of years ago. He has wise words in his many publications.

It's time for a new model, as Bucky Fuller would say. Work with the needs of our people, and stay aware and attentive of the needs of nature, to avoid this kind of catastrophe happening in the future. SWAN has a good start in helping groups of people make these decisions, where climate change is included from the start of the process.


My favorite coffee shop hasn't reopened yet. Soon, they say. Probably when potable water is easily available. 



Today's quote:
Walt Whitman said, “The English language is the accretion and growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is both the free and compacted composition of all.” 



14 comments:

  1. ...drinkable running water is so easy to take for granted until you don't have it. Take care and be well.

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    1. It's amazing how we take for granted all the infrastructure of our civilizaton!

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  2. Happy Halloween! It is sad about the damage and no drinkable water, the businesses like the coffee shop will need help. Take care, have a great day!

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    1. Another coffee shop reopened as soon as they had electric...must have bought truckloads of potable water!

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  3. Hopefully, they will renew and rebuild in a better way.

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    1. For some yes, for so many, not likely. The Dripolator will continue much as it has though!

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  4. Horrific photo of the river in flood - it looks as though people could have used those kayaks tied up outside the shop!

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    1. Well, if there had been people around that flooded river thinking of kayaking! Then some house or building might float by. You did catch the irony of the shot!

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  5. The map with the record crest amounts was daunting. You're right about the need for better water management.

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    1. It won't be easy, and should have people wanting to work together (as these victims now are) between various towns and counties. There's no unity involved, (as far as governance) but perhaps just working on avoiding future floods can be incentive enough.

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  6. The flooding is... awful.
    The last pic is funny.
    Believe me, I do know how buildings smell after a flooding, Ingo had that twice - not that dramatic, but eww.

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    1. Here lots of professional cleaners have had good jobs. Tearing out drywall and carpeting, then treating the wood studs (most of our structures are wood frame) with something to kill the mildew. Then lots of fans.

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  7. Maybe water management will have some new ideas to try out. They should have some new people to the board, new people bring new ideas.

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There is today, more than ever, the need for a compassionate regenerative world civilization.