We can't thrive on flat land

A call to unflatten the world before we succumb to the dust

No one set out to create the Dust Bowl.

Americans ventured west to make a life for themselves and their families. An abundance of rain provided a good life, which inspired an unrestrained pursuit of growth that could not continue indefinitely.

When the rain stopped, we crashed onto hard, flat land — a land whose soil turned to dust and suffocated the very life it used to give.

The Dust Bowl remains one of the worst man-made ecological disasters in American history. Our choices created the conditions that threatened to render the Great Plains uninhabitable.

In much the same way, our choices have created an economy unfit for people. We must now recenter it or risk our own destruction.

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How did we create the Dust Bowl?

We often call the Great Plains the breadbasket of the nation because it produces a bountiful wheat harvest. In the 1920s, many years passed with ample rain and golden wheat, creating the illusion that nothing could go wrong.

Then, land development companies used the concept “rain…