Alkaline water caresses my palette as my eyes devour the photographs in Burtynsky’s Water exhibit.
Pivot Irrigation/Ogallala Aquifer is pictured above. Isn’t it beautiful in its precision?
Last week I learned facts about dams that astonished me. Of course I found them while exploring my new Water App. I’m going to share these facts even though I can’t show you a Burtynsky’s dam photo as evidently I didn’t take one.
Use your imagination – if you live in this area, think of Saylorville Dam on the Des Moines River for your visual (Saylorville Dam is 105 feet high or 32,004 metres).
In our grandparents lifetime, virtually all of the rivers of the world ran free.
In 1900, there was not a single dam in the world higher than fifteen metres (15 metres is 49.2126 feet).
By 1950, there were 5,270 dams higher than 15 metres.
Thirty years later (1980), there were 36,562.
Today there are more than 800,000 dams, 40,000 of which are at least 15 metres in height.
Did your mouth drop open when you read those facts? Mine did. I’ve been thinking of my maternal grandmother who lived for 90 years. A photo of her dropped out of some papers I was looking through and I’ve been trying to decipher her expression.
Do you ever think of your grandparents? Do those statistics surprise you? Be sure and email me or go to blog comment section.
BONUS: Watch the trailer for Watermark – a film by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky – Try this link or go directly to youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPLs_ogF-0 –
Thanks for exploring the mystery – Nicky Mendenhall