Continental circulatory system


It’s pretty. But you know, we could use this map of the American river basins to figure out where to do a lot of fracking and run oil pipelines to maximize the size of the area we poison in the center of the continent. Somewhere up on top of the large purplish area looks good.

Maybe we could put a big nuclear waste repository in the middle of the orange area, while we’re at it.

I sure hope no evil geniuses get any ideas from this.

Comments

  1. rayceeya says

    “Maybe we could put a big nuclear waste repository in the middle of the orange area”

    Hey that’s across the river from my home town, only when I was there, there was a massive repository of rotting chemical weapons too. They even had old fashioned mustard gas back in those days. Best part, the company that made most of the chemical weapons (Raytheon) got the contract to dispose of those same weapons.

    Ahh halcyon days. Back when I was but a mere greasy teenager. The yearly chemical weapons drills, the almost yearly accidental “chemical agent release accidents”.

    And then there’s all the leftovers in the Hanford nuclear reservation. Slowly leaking in to the Columbia river. It’s ok. The Columbia has lots of water, we can’t poison all of it right?

  2. Menyambal says

    I can see my master’s thesis from here. The point was that in satellite images most rivers in the area show up like that map, because the bottomlands had all been cleared, but the protected park river couldn’t be seen from space.

    My home town is on the ridge in the center of the Ozarks, so I won’t be directly affected by anything dumped in any river. But I do know how vitally important healthy rivers are to us all.

  3. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    All the rivers I have lived by eventually dump into the Great Lakes. The water supply from where I live now comes from Lake Michigan.

  4. chigau (違う) says

    Why do USAians still make maps like that?
    Do they think that rivers recognise political boundaries?

  5. psanity says

    When I saw that map, I was thinking not so much “political boundaries” as “area of responsibility”.

    I could stare and stare at that. You can almost see it flowing, like the wind map.

  6. spamamander, internet amphibian says

    Hey now, I grew up in the Tri-Cities. Both of my parents worked at Hanford. And now I have this healthy glow about me. Positively radiant.

  7. says

    They sure are evil, but the ain´t no geniuses. The problem is not evil geniusing, but simple neglect, ignorance and indifference. An actual evil genius might even do some good at this point in history.

  8. Holms says

    #4
    Why do USAians still make maps like that?
    Do they think that rivers recognise political boundaries?

    Because that’s all they have jurisdiction over.