Posted on 11/23/2007 2:34:18 PM PST by blam
Eden restored
An ambitious plan for the restoration of wetlands in Iraq will combine the ancient way of life of the returning Marsh Arab people with pioneering green technology. Stuart Coles reports
Guardian Unlimited
Friday November 23 2007
The marshlands restoration project covers an area of some 40,000 square miles. Photograph: Jonathan Tait-Harris
Saddam Hussein had scant regard for the largest wetlands in the Middle East, which teem with unique wildlife like the smooth-coated otter, Mesopotamian deer and Basra reed warbler. He saw them merely as a haven for hiding rebels and deserters from the Iran-Iraq War, and in the early 1990s, he ordered them to be drained.
By 2003, more than 90% of the Mesopotamian wetlands, dubbed the Garden of Eden, had been lost, and reduced to barren salt pans. Experts feared that the region, home to an ancient people considered the heirs of the Babylonians and Sumerians, would vanish by 2008.
Now, with a huge multibillion dollar restoration underway, funded by the US, Canadian and Italian governments and the United Nations environment programme (UNEP) many Ma'dan (Marsh Arabs) are returning to a life that has changed little in 5,000 years.
But, after years of urban exile, they are now accustomed to modern life's comforts, such as electricity, television, air-conditioning and wireless internet.
To meet old and these newly acquired needs, a two-and-a half-year feasibility study has produced a vision for "New Eden" a bold masterplan which aims for an "intersection between green technologies and traditional environmental knowledge."
Iraq architects and designers have drawn up villages of mudhif traditional reed houses, but which now have partitioned rooms, kitchens and bathrooms and use sewage collection systems instead of dumping waste.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
No, you gonna tell it?
It need to be funny...there's no joy in Baton Rouge tonight.
In advance I apologize for this...
One cajun is working on his boat. Two other cajuns came up and said, “Beadreaux! We got some good news an’ some bad news fo’ you.”
Beadreaux said, “Oh! Giv me dat bad news foist.”
“We just come down from da bayou. Yo wife she floatin’ face down in it — she dead!”
Beadreaux said, “No! No! Oh man... dat terribile news. Wat da good news?”
“She had over two dozen blue crabs on her! We gonna run her again in the mornin’!”
You done save don’ know how many coonass lives wid dat! Day been jumpin’ off dere roof and drownin’ from sorrow after dem hogs done wid them.
Just doin my job.
Oh, for the record, I’m a USF Bulls fan. I feel your pain!
Restoring the Everglades
On July 1, 1999, Congress was presented with an ambitious $7.8 billion plan to restore the Everglades of southern Floridahome to 1,500 varieties of plants and wildlife, at least 68 of which are threatened or endangered species. The fragile ecosystem of the Everglades was disrupted 50 years ago when a series of canals and levies artificially channeled water away from the system and diverted for agricultural and municipal use. The 20-year restoration plan is aimed at restoring the natural flow of water to the Everglades and then collecting the water that now rushes into the ocean, which benefits nobody.
Everyone agrees with the importance of the project, which Gore calls “the most critical step yet to restore the Everglades, one of America’s true natural treasures.” The tough part will be for Congress to find the necessary funding. According to the current plan, half will be paid by the state of Florida, while the other half will be paid by the federal government.
In this lesson you will take a journey to Everglades National Park. You may or may not agree on need for federal involvement in the restoration project (the debate is far from over), but you can see for yourself what makes the Everglades such a unique and exciting place.
http://www.learnersonline.com/weekly/archive99/week26/index.htm
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That joke was reprehensible. Send more.
;’D
Frankly, I was expecting something like “I left my harp in Sam Clam’s disco.”
We should be cauterizing them from the face of the Earth with flame throwers and nuclear weapons until they stand down.
It's been done before.
The staying power of the Ma'adan may have come from a social structure built around absolute bonds of obligation to family and tribe. A harmoniously intertwined relationship with the wetland environment also made each tribe self-sufficient -- and capable of withstanding the outside world's intrusions and deprivations. "They led hard lives, but admirable lives," said Ochsenschlager, an emeritus professor in the anthropology department of Brooklyn College in New York. The village Ochsenschlager and colleagues first encountered in 1968 lay sheltered within a broad, shallow marsh with a deep canal closing the circle. To reach the closest outpost of the outside world required a 2 1/2-hour ride by motorized boat followed by a 15-mile walk or car ride. Villagers made the trip only when necessary to sell livestock, hand-woven carpets and reed mats, and to buy certain necessities from outside, including spices, aluminum cookware and guns. Almost everything else, the marshes produced. Sturdy reeds reaching 20 feet became raw material for homes, baskets and boats, while tender reed shoots provided plentiful forage for water buffalo. Muddy streambeds yielded clay for sun-dried bricks. Bitumen, a tarry material from shallow oil deposits, served as a waterproofing agent for rafts...
Thanks. You always find the best pictures.
. . .... you SURE 'bout dat?!?
BTW, I'm bettin the dark strip in the second image is a "blank scan" . .... . it doesn't represent anything. .. .- what?
In Any Event, those are neat images.
The Mudhif (left) is a traditional Marsh Arab guest house made entirely of reeds. At right, Dr. Gene Stakhiv, the Corps' senior advisor to the Iraqi Minstry of Water Resources, meets with tribal leaders to discuss restoration of the marshes and their way of life.
Ping.
this is the correct one. the small black area was how little sodamn had drained the marsh to, worst intentional man made disaster in history tot hat point.
the second image is after we started refiling the marsh after the war. the long lines are canals.
but ya never hear a peep outa the treehuggers about that!!!
You’d think Gore would at least give it an ‘honorable mention’ or something. Bush did restore thousands of acres of wetlands.
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