Hurricane Ian, Butterflies and The Matrix

Dedicated to my friends in FL, NV and AZ

With special music by Lizzy Rain!

After the interruption for that very important post about the end of the golf season I can get back to my more normal kvetching about something. 

There is nothing new about us humans building in weird or obviously inhospitable places - some might even include MN in that category - because it has been a human habit throughout our fairly brief stint on this planet. It is also not news that we have a heck on impact on the environment wherever we go.  A couple letters to the editor back in October got me thinking about this. (You've probably noted that I get a lot of ideas from fellow gadflies who write letters or opinions to the newspaper.)

The letters on 10/15 were regarding the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and 10/16 on a sad story relating to the disappearing butterflies.  Respectively, they made arguments pro and con about rebuilding in a hurricane zone and about human encroachment on habitat for fellow creatures. These were thought provoking and related, but as usual, in a different way for me. To me they seem tied together by a movie from several years ago. 

Let me try to explain my thinking here.

First let's consider Ft Meyers (and Florida in general.) 

Ft Myers/Lee County circa 1956 - a total population of around 54,000.

For all intents and purposes, the Ft Meyers area is a swamp that backs up to the Gulf of Mexico, yet people (relatively few) have lived here for thousands of years. It may be a swamp but it’s also a paradise, especially for a bunch of pale skinned northerners who will do anything to avoid freezing their butts off in our vicious winters - including building in a swamp.

Ft Myers/Lee County 2020, 756,000

    

In fact, most of FL south of Tampa is a swamp. That hasn’t stopped people from jamming themselves in there though. 20 million people and growing - about 900 people per DAY are moving to the Sunshine State, a state that is 2/3 the size of Minnesota. And much of it a swamp. A state that endures more hurricanes than any other with Texas a distant second. (Also, not surprisingly, the most expensive homeowners’ insurance in the US by a loooonnnnng way - and about to get worse.*)

 Ft Meyers Sept 28 2022

So why do we humans keep building in a place that is obviously not logical? Because we want to and we can. What the heck, why not, when somebody else will help pay for rebuilding!

* As if to emphasize a point, Hurricane Nicole hit FL east coast on 11/10, second one this year and only the third one in November since they started keeping score 170 years ago.

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Here’s a completely different example of our “positive thinking” about where to live.

VIVA Las Vegas!

Again, people (relatively few) have lived here for thousands of years and the good news is that like FL, Las Vegas has great weather – with the bonus that it isn’t a huge swamp and doesn't have hurricanes (but does have gambling, great golf courses and, uh, other interesting things) so people have swarmed here too.

The population of Las Vegas in 1950 was about 26,000.

Today? It’s 2,839,000

It is, however, in the middle of a desert. A desert, by definition, is dry. It is very dry. Unless, that is, you can siphon off enough water from a big river to support millions of people – in the middle of the desert. Of course, there are millions of other sun worshipers (and bless their hearts, golfers) who want to live in the desert too: Phoenix 4,652,000, Tucson 1,043,400. Oh heck, let's throw in LA, pop.12,488,000 and it's in a desert too and drawing on the Colorado River as well.  

Colorado River/Hoover Dam/Lake Mead 1950’s

Plum Full

Lake Mead Today

      

 1/4 Full

There are millions more in the SW who have stuck a straw in the river for their share as well. What will happen? Well, apparently the fertilizer is about to hit the ventilator. Sadly, Lake Mead is only a quarter full so everyone’s share is going to be getting smaller. NV, AZ and CA are “supposed” to each reduce water from the river by 25% next year. Yikes! (Of course, I'll believe it when I see it.) Anyway, this is only the beginning of reductions so as they say, somethings gotta give. Today? Tomorrow? Probably not but it is inevitable.

One more example.

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. . . And it ain't just sunshine that draws us humans.

Fairbanks AK Today

 

Fairbanks population: 1960 - 1453    2022 - 32,702

Finally, people (a few hardy people) have also lived here for thousands of years. It's a beautiful place (for about 12 hours in July.) They don’t have hurricanes and they have plenty of water (although a lot of it in frozen form) with lots of forests. Which is good. Average temperatures range from 0°F to -30°F from November to March and 40°F to 60°F in “summer.” Heating with fuel oil can cost up to $700/mo so burning wood is kinda necessary - even if environmentally crappy. Everything else is about 30% more expensive here too. Worst of all, it's a loooonngg way to a good golf course.

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Okay, these are just a few examples and all in the US. Think of all the other places - really dumb places - in the world where humans decided to plop down and stay. 

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Now, about our friends the disappearing butterflies.

Poweshiek Skipperling Butterfly

The Poweshiek is apparently on its last legs as a species. Species disappearing is nothing new on earth - except since we humans arrived we seem to be helping a lot of them along on their journey to extinction. Just a few of the many, think Dodo bird, California Grizzly and Syrian Wild Ass (I just wanted to say ass.) I also just read Alaskan crabs and Northern shrimp are damn near gone thanks to us.

Hey, cool, got room for a butterfly?

How come? Well, it's not where we live so much as how we live that's the problem. Apparently, a lot of other creatures are not as crazy about nice lawns, asphalt, cars, airplanes, concrete, guns and our voracious appetites as we are. Oh well, it's a bummer but in every war there's casualties. (Which is okay as long as it's not us.)

So this is where the movie “The Matrix” enters in and I think it ties all this together nicely.

There is a scene where the AI life form called Agent Smith is interrogating the human, Morpheus. It may have been a dumb movie but this stuck with me:

Agent Smith: “Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the . . . environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.”

Agent Smith

Morpheus

Ouch, that's a pretty dark view and we may not like it but it has the ring of some truth.

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Dear Leader is nothing if not a realist. We all have to live somewhere and since we are such clever, hairless apes, we will keep on living where we want anyway so it's hard to get too excited. 

(Besides, you don't get to the top of the food chain by being a nice guy.) 

There's a famous saying about Americans and crisis management which is, we are world renowned experts at it . . . but's mostly because we cause a lot of them and/or don't do anything until we are in one. So, we won't change - until we run out of cheap water, cheap energy and cheap food and/or get tired of being flooded or droughted (is that a word?) out every few years - and the government can't or won't bail us out anymore.

So imagine in 10 or 20 years when people start figuring this out and begin moving to - or back to - places that are more hospitable (assuming they can find one.) And I don’t just mean from FL, AZ, NV or AK. There will be people, millions of people, moving from rising oceans and growing deserts all over the world. Talk about an immigration – or migration - problem! (On a positive note, maybe we'll find out how the Neanderthals felt when us Homo Sapiens moved to town.) 

Ah, if we could just ask the butterflies (or the Syrian Wild Ass.)

Minnesota motto in year 2100:

 

Land of 10,000 Lakes and 10 Million People

Epilogue: Admission

Dear Leader is nothing if not honest (or some might say a hypocrite.) He and Mrs Dear Leader will continue to bail out of the artic north and head south to the desert - strictly for health purposes, of course - for as long we can travel or until they run out of water, whichever comes first. 

It is good to be at the top of the food chain.

Last Waltz for Earth Lizzy Rain (Follow links)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Next up: Solstice Story and S'Mores