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> most of the country is desert Well, in the manner of speaking only. Back in the day, the "country" was where people had settlements, and that was the delta a
by Koshkin 4y ago
> most of the country is desert
Well, in the manner of speaking only. Back in the day, the "country" was where people had settlements, and that was the delta and the banks of the Nile...
- somat 4y agoyes, however, having a river does not make the area something other than a desert.
- agumonkey 4y agoThere's a video about Florida in the early days of USA and it was mostly a swamp. The last century made it into a state per se but it's really recent.
- justinator 4y agoDeswampifying Florida is one of the greatest environmental tragedies ever committed. Up there with the building of the Glen Canyon and Hoover Dam. Shortly below is attempting to control the Mississippi River Delta.
- debacle 4y agoThe problem is the land owners who didn't see it as a tragedy are still the ones pulling the strings. Florida is on borrowed time.
- justinator 4y agoYou're right, but it's a losing battle.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoAll the hundreds of dams out west built to irrigate high and cold interior deserts really. Each individually unjustifiable environmental destruction, all together a catastrophe. They'll outlast everything else we build and probably even the memory of the name of this country itself.
- justinator 4y agoI have to agree with your sentiment.
- paganel 4y agoThe Soviets thinking about reversing the flow direction of some big Siberian rivers (from South to North into North to South) might have topped them all, if the project had actually been executed. [1] Of course, the same Soviets copied the American capitalists's hydro policy, starting with Stalin and continuing with Khrushchev, with the same negative environmental effects. The Volga Hydroelectric Station project [2] was used as an accusation against Khrushchev by some and said accusation was used for its dismissal, supposedly for the project's negative effects, mainly the huge swathes of very productive agricultural lands which got submerged. Modern-day Egypt has done the same thing with the Aswan Dam. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_river_reversal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_river_reversal [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Hydroelectric_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_Hydroelectric_Station
- matkoniecz 4y ago> Hoover Dam What is wrong with it? It definitely caused damage, but also partially displaced more polluting energy sources, partially increased available energy. Are you sure that overall balance is so dismal?
- justinator 4y agoCurrently Lake Mead is at record lows, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lake-mead-water-level-historic-low-drought-heres-what-that-means/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lake-mead-water-level-historic-... https://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp https://mead.uslakes.info/level.asp The Hoover Dam is at half production, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/us/hoover-dam-hydropower-drought-climate/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/16/us/hoover-dam-hydropower-drou... The system is failing.
- masklinn 4y agoAnd destroyed the Colorado river delta as a living ecosystem.
- hammock 4y agoWhat's the relevance of your comment to its parent?
- agumonkey 4y agoHow we perceive space today is not how it was long ago.
- hammock 4y agoAre you suggesting the desert part of today’s Egypt wasn’t a desert during the Roman Empire?
- agumonkey 4y agoNo, that nation/boundaries may not be what they used to be.
- hammock 4y agoAre you suggesting then that Florida’s boundaries were materially different in the early days of the USA than they are now? Aside from losing part of the panhandle, I don’t believe they have changed much since 1776 or that draining the swamps had anything to do with Florida’s borders
- agumonkey 4y agono, just that people didn't consider florida as a state beside palm beach, and now every inch of the land has been made worthy
- hammock 4y agoPalm Beach was not founded until 1909, and Florida has some of the oldest cities in America, including “the oldest,” so I’m very curious to understand where your head is at on this one
- hammock 4y agoThanks for this necessary context. Roman Egypt did not share the same borders of what we think of as modern Egypt as today. AD 125: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Roman_Empire_-_Aegyptus_%28125_AD%29.svg/440px-Roman_Empire_-_Aegyptus_%28125_AD%29.svg.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Ro...
- mkehrt 4y agoIf you read the rest of the paragraph, you'll see that he's talking about aridness being important for preserving papyri.
- imbnwa 4y agoPeople really underestimate what it takes to preserve writing
- thaumasiotes 4y ago> Well, in the manner of speaking only. Back in the day, the "country" was where people had settlements, and that was the delta and the banks of the Nile... Absolutely untrue. The country was the territory held by the king. Most of the people were in the agricultural area, yes, but the Egyptian king also operated a lot of mines and quarries. Those were in the desert.
- prox 4y agoI think you are right. They also had various outposts, and in various timeframes they were a local superpower. In terms of what Egyptians themselves thought was Egypt, that might be clued in by the name! The name was “Kemet” , aka “Black land” , referring to the embankment of black fertile land.