January 2, 1900. After thirteen years of planning and construction, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was finally opened. The said canal, which was 45 kilometers long, was built in order to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, as well as to redirect the waste away from Lake Michigan, the city’s source of drinking water. It was great, but something unexpected happened.
… it also connected the Great Lakes and Mississippi River basins, two of the world’s largest — and until then, isolated — freshwater ecosystems, allowing invasive species to pour through the opening and wreak ecological havoc.
The result was the alteration of the hydrology of two-thirds of the United States.
This brings us to think: Should we tinker with nature? Should we continue attempting to control it? These are the questions that Elizabeth Kolbert asks to her readers in her book titled “Under a White Sky.”
We’ve put our minds toward damming or diverting most of the planet’s rivers, replacing vast tracts of natural ecosystems with crops, and burning so much fossil fuel that 1 in 3 molecules of atmospheric carbon dioxide came from human action, she writes. We’ve warmed the atmosphere, raised sea levels, erased countless species and forged an uncertain future for humankind and the planet.
Our collective ingenuity got us into this mess, and Kolbert explores whether that same ingenuity can get us out. This is “a book about people trying to solve problems created by people trying to solve problems,” she writes.
Learn more about Kolbert’s book over at ScienceNews.
What are your thoughts about this one?
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