John Mcphee in his work attempts to analyze some natural phenomena. He also attempts to investigate how human beings try to cope with adverse impacts brought about by these natural phenomena events. In Atchafalaya, he talks about the various ways which people used to stop Mississippi River from changing its course. One way in which human beings did to control the river was to erect controls in the river by building concrete armor. Mississippi River is the mightiest river in the world and longest of all rivers on earth. The river has been shifting its course after a torrential downpour. The river overflows have affected the people living close to the river banks. People have been forced to occasionally vacate their homes to seek refuge elsewhere whenever the river breaks its banks (Smith, 2003). The destructive nature of river Mississippi has triggered people to try to contain it within its river valley and direct it into the Atchafalaya Basin.
John Mcphee notes that the river water currents are strong enough to excavate the ground beneath it by one or two feet. ‘More than two million cubic feet of water had gone by this place in every second’ (Mcphee, 2011). This implies that the strength of River Mississippi was beyond any human control. It was wise for those affected by the river to look for alternative solutions. According to Mcphee (2012), the cost, effectiveness, and sustainability of constructing lock systems to contain the river are not the most appropriate step to take. Mississippi force is beyond human control. The strength of nature is higher than human power. Even if human made constructions or machines control the river, they will grow old and weak while the river naturally gets stronger and breaks all barriers.
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People have made all efforts to contain Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers to avoid the possible calamities when the rivers overflow. Unfortunately, the natural strength of the rivers cannot be controlled for eternity. Efforts are being made to control the rivers but a time will come when the force of nature will build up stronger than before and ravage all that stands in its path. Human beings are too weak to control the force of nature for eternity (McPhee, 2011).
Cooling the Lava
The eruption started from nowhere. Earthquakes never alerted the people of Heimay Island. Seismologists had no signal at all of the looming danger or the occurrence of the eruption. On 23rd January 1973, the country woke up to the surprise of a volcanic eruption. The eruption was violent sending molten lava all over the surrounding. The island inhabitants were evacuated immediately to the mainland. The community was amazed when the volcano started pushing its lava towards the harbor. The harbor was the economic core of the islands' fishing community. By the third day, twenty-three houses had been covered by the volcanic lava.
Thorbjorn came up with a simple idea of cooling the lava to prevent it from covering the harbor. The Heimay people took pipes and started spraying the lava with sea water. They believed that they could build the destroyed houses later, but the harbor destruction would have resulted in economic crises and affect their survival completely. The lava was about two thousand degrees hot. When the lava met with seawater, it transformed from molten lava to solid lava wall, and a lot of steam was produced. The tremendous efforts of the people saved the harbor and at the same time improved it. The steam from the cooling lava was used to make a heating system. One of the Iceland scientists said that “If we hadn’t done something, I very much doubt that we would be here now’ (McPhee, 2012 p.178). Thorbjorn's simple idea helped to save the harbor. Although there were other successive eruptions from the main event, the danger which the initial lava could have caused to the port was mitigated using the simple idea. The idea was derived from the manner in which Thorbjorn had wittiness an earlier eruption being cooled by sea waters and formed a lava wall. According to Mcphee nature had its way of working its problems out. The reason is that the sea had earlier on cooled scorching lava.
Los Angeles against the Mountains
In Los Angeles, there were orange grooves in-between the mountain front and the Metropolis. Debris used to naturally flow from the mountains and cover the orange grooves forcing the farmers to plant other orange trees on top of the debris. Debris is a combination of water, soil and solid materials larger than the size of sand grains. Other cases of boulders clumped together flow downhill causing destruction. After the World War II, the orange trees were replaced with houses. Debris flow could bury people alive in some extreme cases. Destruction of property is rampant. People could step aside for the debris to flow and save their lives. Escaping using automobiles was another risk. Anything could happen. For instance, in one January morning, Norman Reid parked his car in the street and from behind his vehicle was caught by large debris. Most people on the mountain slopes build deflective walls to prevent the debris from burying them alive or destroying their property. Unfortunately, some vast boulders could ruin some of the walls and cause property destruction or even loss of lives (McPhee, 2012).
Human beings can do all they can to contain or control nature. In the short run, it may work. The problem is that in the long run nature overpowers the energy of man and then it takes its course destroying all that stands in its way. Human beings are weak to stop or prevent nature from taking its cause. Nature control for eternity is not only difficult but also very impossible. Human beings should take alternative measures of survival and existence and allow nature to take its course undisturbed.
References
McPhee, J. (2011). The control of nature. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
McPhee, J. A. (2012). The control of nature: Los Angeles against the mountains. New Yorker Magazine, Incorporated.
Smith, K. (2003). Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster . Routledge.
