Prabhupada, London, November 25, 1973: Vavarsa means showering, showering. And parjanyah means rain. Parjanyah, rain. So our all needs are showered from up. Therefore we pray. Eko yo bahunam vidadhati kaman. God. Rain is not under you control. Rain, it comes from sky, through the clouds. It is not under you control. When there is scarcity of rain, it is not your so-called science can produce rain. No. That is not possible. Drought. Drought, so many places, last two-three years. So kaman, our necessities of life, from material point of view, it is fulfilled by rainfall from the sky. If there is no rainfall, you cannot produce anything. Kamam vavarsa. This is the description during the reign of Maharaja Yudhisthira. Maharaja Yudhisthira was the king of this earth, and he was so pious that on account of his piety, Krsna supplied everything sumptuously, sumptuously.
John Bohannon, Science.com, 19 March 2010: As Egypt celebrates the 50th anniversary of the start of the construction of the Aswan High Dam, some scientists say that this wonder of engineering is contributing to an environmental catastrophe that could force millions of its citizens to abandon the lush, fertile delta.
The worst of these is coastal erosion and subsidence, the compacting of the delta soil. For millennia, the untamed Nile compensated for these natural processes by delivering fresh sediments along with its fresh water.
The dam, however, now blocks the sediments far upstream of Cairo. As a result, the delta is sinking. At the same time, the Mediterranean Sea is expected to rise as a result of global warming. Deciding on a course of action is easier said than done, however, because the rates at which the sea is rising and the delta is sinking are subjects of fierce debate.
As a first, cautious step, Egypt and the United Nations are this year launching a 5-year study of the options for protecting the delta from the encroaching sea. But as Egyptian scientists rush to provide those data, the government is steaming ahead with a series of “megaprojects” to boost the country’s habitable area. In the most ambitious of these, the largest pump in the world is diverting 10% of the Nile into an uninhabited region of the desert to create a new delta.
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