IN PRAISE OF FLOODS

A primer on the benefits of flooding and the enduring costs of domesticated rivers.

In this posthumously published book, Scott urges his readers “to recognize the animated liveliness of the river and its tributaries“ as he “give[s] voice to all the flora and fauna whose lifeworld centers” on a river’s watershed. His focus is the flood pulse that occurs every year as water from seasonal rains, snow, and glacial melts surges into river basins. The overflow provides nutrients for soils, trees, plants, fish, and mollusks. It supports insect, bird, and animal life that then attracts animals, birds, and fish higher on the food chain, creating a diverse ecosystem. Scott, who founded the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale, pays particular attention to the role of rivers in the evolution of human settlements, from hunter-gatherers to the present. Lurking in the historical shadows are industrialization and nation-states with the capacity to build massive dams, irrigation channels, and levees and engage in flood-control measures indifferent to the ecological and cultural consequences. This argument draws on Scott’s Against the Grain (2017) and Seeing Like a State (1998). To illustrate, he turns to Burma (his preferred name), and the Ayeyarwady (often spelled Irrawaddy) River, which runs nearly the length of the country. He tells of the river’s many meanderings, its long history, its place in the seasonal lives of fishermen and farmers, and the river spirits that are part of people’s daily lives. But Scott seems unsure of the book’s central focus. His three major concerns—the basic knowledge of watershed dynamics, the history of human engagement with rivers, and the Ayeyarwady River—form a somewhat disjointed narrative. Regardless, he has written an informative introduction to the inarguable coalescence of rivers, weather patterns, soils, and the humans and nonhuman creatures in their midst.

Debunks the perception that rivers exist solely to provide humans with water, power, and transportation.