{"id":7303,"date":"2019-06-08T10:15:03","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T15:15:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=7303"},"modified":"2019-11-29T19:38:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T01:38:55","slug":"detention-we-hardly-knew-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=7303","title":{"rendered":"Detention We Hardly Knew You!"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Essay on Nature, Raindrops, and Stormwater<\/h3>\n

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By Brandt Mannchen of the Houston Sierra Club<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

April 16, 2019<\/p>\n

Now, particularly in these days after Hurricane Harvey, we hear the word \u201cdetention,\u201d almost like a chant or mantra.\u00a0 Flood control experts, agencies, public officials, developers, and many citizens talk about \u201cdetention\u201d like it is the solution to our flood problems.\u00a0 They usually only envision two types of \u201cdetention.\u201d\u00a0 These two types of \u201cdetention\u201d are digging deep holes in the ground (called basins, reservoirs, or ponds) and digging deeper and wider channels to create \u201cin-line detention.\u201d<\/p>\n

….<\/p>\n

The reason for our failure to use natural \u201cdetention\u201d effectively is our lack of respect for Nature and our place in it.\u00a0 This reflects our failure to work with and not against Nature.\u00a0 John Muir revealed our connection to Nature when he said, \u201cWhen we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aldo Leopold, the great \u201cland ethic\u201d thinker suggested that \u201cTo keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering\u201d and that \u201cA thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, the stability, and beauty of the biotic community.\u00a0 It is wrong when it tends otherwise\u201d.\u00a0 These concerns about our lack of vision and our head-long pursuit of development caused John Muir to rage, \u201cNot blind opposition to progress, but opposition to blind progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

These quotes reveal that if we are going to survive and coexist with Nature in the Houston Area, we must stop our war against Nature.\u00a0 Leopold saw this battle as deeply rooted in our existing Society, \u201cWe abuse land because we see it as a commodity belonging to us.\u00a0 When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is my belief that unless we acknowledge our pointless, harmful, and self-defeating struggle against Nature and change how we approach flood control and development we are doomed to fail.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to leave our children with this negative legacy.\u00a0 I now understand what Leopold meant when he said, \u201cOne of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.\u201d\u00a0 No mas!<\/p>\n

Read the entire essay on the Houston Sierra Club website<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An Essay on Nature, Raindrops, and Stormwater   By Brandt Mannchen of the Houston Sierra Club April 16, 2019 Now, particularly in these days after Hurricane Harvey, we hear the word \u201cdetention,\u201d almost like a chant or mantra.\u00a0 Flood control experts, agencies, public officials, developers, and many citizens talk about…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7303"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7886,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7303\/revisions\/7886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}