Nice essay. I took a boat from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh years ago and traveled through Tonle Sap, and seeing humans living amid the flux of that lake was incredible. Asia has a lot of that still going on, but the urge to control and gain efficiency is driving them away from living amid the flux. There are tradeoffs between control and change, but I like to think that flux is a solution to many problems, since excesses in one area fixes deficits in others. I often think about this in Texas, because of our twin maladies of floods and droughts, killing and destroying livelihoods. And yet rather simple earthworks can ameliorate both problems. But they do not go well with our style of development.
Yeah, Texas is interesting because the correct way to manage both floods and droughts is not with massive water works. Being in Arizona, I've dug deep into dryland water harvesting because all the water we do get just sheet floods off. It's taken a bit but I now hold back about a million gallons a year on my property and have plans to retain more. It's all in the simple earthworks you mentioned.
Awesome job! And what's really impressive is the way the stored water compounds over time. I once installed two dozen small check dams made of rice bags filled with sand in a heavily eroded hillside stream gully. A year later...little changed. Even three years later, it was marginal. Ten years later the place was a lush with trees and vegetation and the stream had gone from seasonal to year round.
Yes, it does take years to properly change. I wish more people would take the opportunity to do what you did. The more you can slow the flow upstream, the less major issues you have downstream (almost like another metaphor for life isn't it?)
Tonle Sap is incredible, the economy arisen from tragedies epitomizes the culture there, From Laos to Cambodia side... Just spectacular feat of nature...
I know this isn't really the main focus here, but you're definitely approaching the idea that we're a part of nature, not really separate from it. When we think about equilibrium, we're thinking about being outside of the system, but no matter what we do, we are contributing to said system (reflexivity or whatever you want to call it).
I'm always thinking about that idea, how art can actually create the medium and vice versa if you let them. I'm talking about artists who use the canvas as part of the art, not just the other way around - they see something that is universally true about reality, but which most folks miss entirely.
This only makes me more excited to finally start digging into your first book which I opened yesterday. Beautiful parallel to our inner rivers and how we manage them.
This is so fascinating. I've done that flight many times and never really thought about it and I had no idea about the Tonle Sap! What an interesting thing to think about.
I learned about the Tonlé Sap while I was vacationing in Cambodia. I’ve found it facinating since then. And normally, when I’m flying to the east coast, that neck of the woods is covered in clouds!
Nice essay. I took a boat from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh years ago and traveled through Tonle Sap, and seeing humans living amid the flux of that lake was incredible. Asia has a lot of that still going on, but the urge to control and gain efficiency is driving them away from living amid the flux. There are tradeoffs between control and change, but I like to think that flux is a solution to many problems, since excesses in one area fixes deficits in others. I often think about this in Texas, because of our twin maladies of floods and droughts, killing and destroying livelihoods. And yet rather simple earthworks can ameliorate both problems. But they do not go well with our style of development.
Yeah, Texas is interesting because the correct way to manage both floods and droughts is not with massive water works. Being in Arizona, I've dug deep into dryland water harvesting because all the water we do get just sheet floods off. It's taken a bit but I now hold back about a million gallons a year on my property and have plans to retain more. It's all in the simple earthworks you mentioned.
Awesome job! And what's really impressive is the way the stored water compounds over time. I once installed two dozen small check dams made of rice bags filled with sand in a heavily eroded hillside stream gully. A year later...little changed. Even three years later, it was marginal. Ten years later the place was a lush with trees and vegetation and the stream had gone from seasonal to year round.
Yes, it does take years to properly change. I wish more people would take the opportunity to do what you did. The more you can slow the flow upstream, the less major issues you have downstream (almost like another metaphor for life isn't it?)
Tonle Sap is incredible, the economy arisen from tragedies epitomizes the culture there, From Laos to Cambodia side... Just spectacular feat of nature...
It was fantastic being there.
I know this isn't really the main focus here, but you're definitely approaching the idea that we're a part of nature, not really separate from it. When we think about equilibrium, we're thinking about being outside of the system, but no matter what we do, we are contributing to said system (reflexivity or whatever you want to call it).
I'm always thinking about that idea, how art can actually create the medium and vice versa if you let them. I'm talking about artists who use the canvas as part of the art, not just the other way around - they see something that is universally true about reality, but which most folks miss entirely.
This only makes me more excited to finally start digging into your first book which I opened yesterday. Beautiful parallel to our inner rivers and how we manage them.
Fantastic. Keep me in the loop.
This is so fascinating. I've done that flight many times and never really thought about it and I had no idea about the Tonle Sap! What an interesting thing to think about.
I learned about the Tonlé Sap while I was vacationing in Cambodia. I’ve found it facinating since then. And normally, when I’m flying to the east coast, that neck of the woods is covered in clouds!
I love the pivot you did at the end to wrap it back to our thinking. It's a great metaphore.
Thanks!