Analysis Of John Mcphee's The Control Of Nature

The Earth and its natural processes are initiated and maintained by energy from the Sun and from inside the Earth itself. Over time, these systems move Earthly matter around in small and large scales in a cyclical manner. As inhabitants of the planet, humans attempt to use engineering to alter these natural occurrences in order to reduce damage to our own creations. John McPhee’s The Control of Nature captures these principles and the relationship between the Earth and humans in three case studies involving the Atchafalaya River in Mississippi, the Eldfell volcano in Iceland, and the debris flows of the San Gabriel Mountains. These real-life scenarios are ideal examples of how the Earth’s own tectonic plates and interior energy wreck havoc

Although the intention of humans is simply to preserve their own structures, the battle is usually difficult, expensive, and generally ineffective in its effort to control nature in the long term. McPhee writes that we, humans “are fighting Mother Nature ... It’s a battle we have to fight day by day, year by year; the health of our economy depends on victory” (7). Most of the solutions in the novel result in extreme unintended consequences that will display even worse outcomes in the future rather than immediate bad outcomes. For example, when dealing with the Atchafalaya, humans used restraints such as levees, control stations, dams, stone dikes, and spillways. Although these structures do manage to contain the flooding most of the time, they also eliminate the natural sediment from spreading over the land. Southern Louisiana rests on a continental shelf where loose sediments naturally compact, condense and sink. The various constructions simply leads this sediment all the way down to the coast and has allowed the entire deltaic plain to subside. This causes humans to have to constantly upgrade the confinement structures, making them higher and higher with each passing year. The vicious cycle will surely prove to be expensive and not worth the effort. In addition, the halt in the land-building process allows erosion to eat up parts of the Louisiana coastline. This alarmingly quick decrease in coastal land is allowing coastal storms to tear up even larger pieces of land and move even closer to major cities such as New Orleans. As a result of human actions, the cities are more endangered than ever before. A similar situation is present in “ Los Angeles Against the Mountains”. Debris basins are the primary defense against destruction by the flows of rock. Although the debris basins are generally effective, they have to be emptied and