Time to Terraform America

It's time to terraform America. It's time to build a canal system to rival the Interstate Highway system. It's time to channel water from the Mississippi into New Mexico and all the states in between. Such canals would prevent future flooding and to insure water supplies for the coming centuries. China and India and are already building canals that are longer than a thousand miles to accomplish such goals.

The grand canals of the United States could divert flood waters from Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans and all the cities along the tributaries of the Mississippi to reservoirs and lakes in the Midwest, Southwest and Southeast. We know these areas will flood and cause billions of dollars in damages, and all that fresh water, an increasingly precious resource, will be lost to the Gulf of Mexico. A canal system could prevent flooding by offering alternative as well as additional drainage to flood prone areas which would have benefited the residents of Iowa and Missouri who are experiencing catastrophic floods this year more than piling sand bags higher and higher.

The additional water would be available to increase the amount of land for agricultural development providing more crops for food and fuel. The world's population will grow from 6.6 billion people to an expected 9 billion by end of the century making it increasingly important to expand agricultural production. The canals would lead to an increased American agricultural exports and lower balance of trade deficits.

The water would also be available to municipal reservoirs giving them a reliable source of water for hundred years. The canals would offer the nation protection against the vagaries of climate change by making it possible to have fresh water wherever it was needed. Although costing billions, the canals would ultimately be paid for by the water users as most systems are paid for at the municipal level.