Your friend, the hurricane

So we are taught that hurricanes and tropical storms are bad, and more of them is worse. With that, I give you Atlanta.

For more than five months, the lake that provides drinking water to almost five million people here has been draining away in a withering drought. Sandy beaches have expanded into flats of orange mud. Tree stumps not seen in half a century have resurfaced. Scientists have warned of impending disaster.

And life has, for the most part, gone on just as before.

Everything has its place in nature. Hurricanes in particular send us into hysterics but they are incredible, if inefficient, contributors to the aquifers they cross.

I am at times amused by our current opinions of conservation. On the one hand, we are hell bent on freezing our ever changing nature as it was at a time in the past we deem as 'perfect'. On the other hand, we view some parts of nature as menaces, but even menaces like hurricanes can be beneficial to us. I'm sure that parts of the east coast would trade a good tropical storm right now for the water conservation they've been forced into by drought. I'm also sure that if we could find a way to eliminate or re-direct those storms, we'd do it.