![Wetlands](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9MNo3DlOG27Vp4xsKulI12D5tmy14yHE2EZpPuiGgqHfHLMmPWib6Pv1VdY4WWbDLpyq_Q9yOrR_AphUsZsD6wbjaZVwr7QvJ5HQ22J76irgqOAj4cLNBEllU-8VqNBpR6sax/s800/060202_wetlands_1.jpg)
Throughout history, wetlands have been vilified, feared and ostracized as the breeding grounds for malaria, yellow fever, and probably the entire menagerie of Ancient pestilential miasma. Considered useless, a wasteland, an obstacle to a civilization's Manifest Destiny, power, and glory. Cursed by architects, e.g. Vitruvius, and civil engineers for their anti-classical instability and suppleness. Deemed a cesspit. Sulfuric. Methanous. A neverending putrescence that poisons the air of nearby cities. The abode of the Swamp Monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and the boogey-man; the hiding places of escaped murderers and pederasts; the secret rendezvous of satanic occultists; and where incestuous cousins come for their tryst. Dante and Milton have certainly demonized them. The embodiment of sin and impurity. The darkest expression of a corrupted inner self.
The anti-Eden.
That wetlands came under nonstop systematic military-agricultural-industrial eradication programs, that suffocating them out of their own hydrology has been a cause célèbre of empires and nations since time immemorial, should thus come as no surprise.
Because to destroy wetlands is to be civilized.
![Wetlands](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCbeQfBh-az_kku-v73mPM3eLd15-NwdC7lRAaumAJlZvvvqn-3z69mZvkoDy_kFHbxTJEb_IiryPB2WeKnyNQbiqyOUlSkh42pMluH6qsgk7g-tshmU4YHAucSI9VCK5u2st8/s800/060202_wetlands_2.jpg)
Fortunately, we now realize the myriad benefis they offer to society. And there truly are many: a defense against hurricanes, tsunamis, and the less energetic but no less destructive normal ebb and flow of ocean waves; a water purification system, or “the kidneys of the landscape”; a habitat for fish and wildlife, some of which are endangered; a “biological supermarket”; flood storage and mitigation; a key biogeochemical recycling complex; an atmospheric filtration system; an ecological phytoremediating machine; a cheap alternative to municipal waste water treatment. Etc.
Eat your heart out, green roofs!
![Wetlands](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4wMhjHPLvP2u3WCV0bSdetfYsF4ZGc-zsoRguIsYGSyRoa-gvs2PTaIS7r4NHl-reSwPAejtYcJfIJBTUqN8uiHPkdE5y_hfZQnRac-3-am6i8_8K8C9OyfYGcB9bi4T4JCEK/s800/060202_wetlands_3.jpg)
So perhaps today, one should offer lengthy benedictions and some offerings, maybe a lamb or two, in celebration of this joyous occasion. Or even sacrifice a virgin. Wetlands are that deserving.
Happy World Wetlands Day!
World Wetlands Day 2006
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands
Wetlands @ EPA
I hope not very much of you gets converted into parking lots around St. Louis, incase we ever have another Great Flood of '93 on the Mississippi.
I may curse you when I spend humid summers here completely covered in mosquito bites, but trust me, I don't mean it!
And claire, if only everyday was Wetlands Day.
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