(This story, "As Thailand Floods Spread, Experts Blame Officials, Not Rains", originally appeared in The New York Times.)
On the other side of the world, yet it sounds so familiar...
As some of Thailand’s worst flooding in half a century bears down on Bangkok — submerging cities, industrial parks and ancient temples as it comes — experts in water management are blaming human activity for turning an unusually heavy monsoon season into a disaster.
The main factors, they say, are deforestation, overbuilding in catchment areas, the damming and diversion of natural waterways, urban sprawl, and the filling-in of canals, combined with bad planning. Warnings to the authorities, they say, have been in vain.
Those who tried to warn them have been called crazy.
Ain't so crazy now, is it?
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