AMERICA'S BIG MISTAKE: Watershed Democracy REJECTED!

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison explains how the USA missed the opportunity in 1878 to create political boundaries based on watershed boundaries, and discusses the multi-faceted implications of that super big mistake.
My drawing of the US map was copied from the United Watershed States of America map:
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[@finnagin]

As someone who works in the environmental field in the midwest, so many problems we face daily are because watersheds are split up between rural municipalities that can't agree on anything. It's such a divisive system. Yet as soon as they can agree to work together, there's so much change and hope for the future.

[@UsenameTakenWasTaken]

Nothing gets my rural folks together like the threat of feds... existing... Meanwhile, they've forgotten where the term redneck actually comes from and lick their bosses' boots clean every day. Pro tip, I can be armed, yet don't need to fear the feds because I'm not openly advocating for domestic terrorism against my political opponents. Wish my neighbors would take the hint...

[@billbradleymusic]

LoL yeah bureaucracy at it's finest! Everyone gets a say!

[@billbradleymusic]

@@UsenameTakenWasTaken fucking s right

[@LeCharles07]

China and India are having a disagreement over water and it could potentially cause a war. There's a lot of logic in this.

[@Dustin-mi2fi]

My idea is to use prison labor for agroforestry and recycling and when people are free give them a 3person canoe house that is combined w modern tech and recycling centers. And also give them 3 of the chinampas or 15 of the newly created chinampa farms. Money for paying for health treatments and making sure people recycle and care for the land

[@brokenvessel4171]

In the late 80's, I was an appliance salsman. Asked the front load washer machine rep why we could not sell their washers compared to top load? His responce rocked my world and affected me forever. He said, " Energy is to cheap here". "In Europe they have their front loaders down to a teaspoon of detergent, 2/3rds less water, no transmission, reversing electric motor, etc. Built to use the least amount of energy because energy is expensive there".

[@dungeonmaster6292]

Expensive

[@chickenfishhybrid44]

The same front load tech you're saying was in Europe has long been available in the US too.. many people just can't afford them or don't want to pay the extra money.

[@TyrianHaze]

@@chickenfishhybrid44 Yes, but it stands to reason that people are more willing to spend money on more expensive technology if it means they will be saving money in the long run when they have to pay more for energy and resources. Just as people probably don't care about their home being oriented to take advantage of the sun's position until they start seeing the 700 dollar a month electric bills to keep their home cool during summer.

[@chickenfishhybrid44]

@@TyrianHaze yeah... my point is the washers with that tech are available in the US and some people do buy them. I have a Bosch front load thats something like 15 years old, I actually am looking to replace it soon. It's been a pretty good washer once they replaced the first one after about a year that was essentially a lemon with lots of issues. I've also had to replace the drain pump multiple times and as usual parts for Euro products are spendy. Some people don't have the extra money up front to buy the more advanced and efficient washer and some people just don't care or don't really think about it even if they could afford it. The amount of saving on energy will take a long time to recoup i would think. Even in places like Europe where it's more expensive.

[@alejohernandez75]

So your saying that it would be better that energy was expensive in the US because it would force Americans to buy more expensive energy efficient machines. You sound like a Democrat.

[@petrapewpew]

God damn it, I argued about the house orientation issue in an architecture class once and was scoffed at for suggesting we could do urban planning better just by designing for solar optimization. Nice to see it explained here.

[@amillison]

Yeah, it's a real head knocker how architects do not integrate passive solar design into everything they do!

[@itzrazer9386]

@@amillison I for sure will!

[@haydenmaines5905]

@@amillison That's so weird! I first learnt about passive solar design FROM an architecture KZbin channel (30x40, I believe is the channel name)

[@LeCharles07]

Modern architects kind of suck at their job. They use materials that look good but have no function. Modern apartment blocks get cold af at night because they have no ability to retain heat from the sun. Add to that the general disregard shown to the natural surroundings and it makes sense that our grid is so inefficient.

[@marthamryglod291]

Samsies

[@RA-rf4nz]

Perhaps it would have passed the US Senate if he had simply called it "Watershed Republic"?

[@lukesutton4135]

People would still call it a "democracy" and not a federal watershed republic.

[@UsenameTakenWasTaken]

Kind of amazed at people trying to use America being a republic and not a true democracy as a gotcha against non-republicans. They fear the tyranny of the majority so much that they're totally ready to head full throttle deeper into a tyrannical minority rule.

[@RA-rf4nz]

@@lukesutton4135 So be it. However, my point is that the 1880 US Senate had a Republican majority with animosity towards Democratic party still fresh from the US Civil War. Who cares what term was used afterwards. Having taken formal university courses in geomorphology, J.W. Powell was indeed ahead of his time in understanding the natural resources of the USA. United Watersheds of America would work well for me too.

[@amillison]

It was lobbying by the railroads that "derailed" the initiative (pun intended :-). They wanted the land commoditized into squares for their purposes.

[@adamgower2182]

@@amillison this is important info, why are things how they are, is it intentional or ignorance,

[@miguel5785]

Abundant cheap energy is what allowed us to build such inefficient societies. If as some say the age of abundance is coming to an end, these teachings are essential. Thanks for sharing!

[@himanshusingh5214]

We still have a lot of unused solar energy. And with a lot of energy, anything can be done, including filling desert with lakes and mining iron out of average soil.

[@YouGuessIGuess]

It's interesting to imagine a United States in which large quantities of coal and oil were never found. The Gulf Coast would be much healthier, for one thing.

[@WanderTheNomad]

If only we could be as efficent as possible while also having abundant cheap resources. Too bad our psychology prevents this from happening.

[@M33f3r]

@@WanderTheNomad well if we got rid of the few who parasitically keep the rest of us divided for their own benefit we would have a world of abundance and nature

[@dustinabc]

Society is very efficient. It's governments that are inefficient, and then they impose their rules on society. You'll notice that the governments that restrict the freedom of the people most are the ones that do the most environmental destruction.

[@carlotta4th]

As someone who lives in high desert I definitely experienced this firsthand. I had one house E/W facing--never again. You'd BURN trying to enter the door in the summer, and we might as well not have had windows because they always had to have thick shades blocking the sun. Next time I moved I refused to consider anything but N/S facing. The light is gentler, and the temperature is eons better.

[@EricEllingwood]

Have you ever heard of earthships they actually have a greenhouse in the front which buffers the summer sunlight while allowing the winter sun to travel deep into the residence

[@waylonk2453]

Dang, the idea of Watershed Democracy seems really compelling to me! It seems to have lots of run-on effects. I suppose that the basic principle is working with mother nature rather than against her.

[@WanderTheNomad]

Working with mother nature is essentially working with what *IS.* When we reject that, we are basically rejecting reality and substituting our own, usually to our detriment.

[@billbradleymusic]

I'd suppose such a genius to know proper grammar.

[@billbradleymusic]

It's too bad that people without forethought are to be treated as equal. If you get flooded you move. If you don't get rain you move. There's no such thing as equity and equality is of the fittest. Get sum!

[@TAP7a]

@@billbradleymusic small minded attitude right there

[@barrettozier5564]

@@billbradleymusic ya seriously dude. Did you even watch this video or did you just come on here to give an ignorant remark. Nobody likes someone who’s just there to be a problem or point out problems without genuinely wanting to engage the issue to ultimately solve it.

[@mars54mars54]

Such an excellent video. Crime of intentional blindness these days... so much is now known, yet not a single thing about planning and construction has changed.

[@billbradleymusic]

You sound as if you're in the trades.

[@pitchblacknext]

The USA simultaneously has access to all the resources and information we could ever want. We KNOW the best way to do things yet simultaneously decide to not do it and not use the knowledge and resources and continue to do shit the same as its always been done. For no other reasons than its cheaper, easier, and doing things different would upset the rich minority who unfortunately buy the influence of people who are in positions to change things before the majority can even have a seat at the table.

[@banksarenotyourfriends]

8:30 This is the same reason why many Middle Eastern buildings have domes - half of the dome is always in the shade, so there's a hot side and a cold side, which creates air currents within the building that average out the temperature in each room. Pitched roofs are such a bad design for so many warmer climates.

[@mishkahappy3839]

Monolithic dome homes!

[@nuckels188]

@@mishkahappy3839 i want to see the dome of the rock in a cookie cutter development in florida

[@MarkusAldawn]

Can a cone work like a dome for this purpose?

[@sadrien]

@@MarkusAldawn less of a cone would be shaded, so probably not.

[@longiusaescius2537]

Interesting

[@russelllukenbill]

"But my railroads!" Cries in Robber Barron.

[@malirabbit6228]

By golly wow, dude! I’ve never heard of anything so innovative , logically and making so much sense! I’m subscribing and sending this video to others! Where were you in 1878 ! ! !

[@amillison]

I'll have to consult a psychic on that one. My best guess is that I was at the eclipse: coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-eclipse-1878😂.

[@hadenpone7936]

J. W. Powell is the the author of the book titled “The Exploration of the Colorado River and it’s Canyons” published in 1961 too. It’s an unabridged and unaltered republication of the work first published by Flood and Vincent in 1895 under the title of “Canyons of the Colorado”. Also it’s Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-2228

[@romanstefaniv8535]

Wow! You voiced my thoughts! I have been thinking about all this ideas for long time. Good job pal!

[@quantumfzx]

The way you illustrate your point in the video is really amazing. Good job. Love all of your work.

[@amillison]

Thank you so much, I appreciate that. :)

[@BlakeWoodruff]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has thought of this as a solution to water-scarcity and gerrymandering.

[@lorddane4147]

I mean gerrymandering can be fixed in a variety of ways. But this could fix it as long as electoral district are removed or aren't drawn by politician and those in power and instead drawn by an independent group.

[@mateocaballo]

gerrymandering is good for business 🤪

[@yosconisi]

Definitely one of the best KZbin Channels I've found recently; so interesting!

[@michaelm8265]

The title might be click-baity, but the ideas and science behind this are very very sound. Your points are so valuable and there is so much more to say about this from an economics perspective (you touched upon internalizing costs, for example). Hopefully videos like these will help people get informed and organized, and holding their community leaders and higher ups accountable for reform, for which there is a dire, dire need. Thanks!

[@ashfaqahmed267]

Lesson I've gained is that living in harmony with the nature is the key to our survival

[@utilitymaxxing]

sobbing ur so right. ur sooooooooo right I think abt this all the time it makes me sososo sad. I'm gonna go cry again.

[@bobnewkirk7003]

I don't know if its been mentioned elsewhere, but a big undersold point of this argument is that humans tend to settle along waterways, so current states with a huge populations would naturally be divided up, as each watershed would take with it its portion of the population. As a quick example California has been in talks about dividing the state, and a quick look at google maps indicates that LA, SFC/Sac, and North Cali would all make for pretty compelling divisions.

[@Jesiahjesiah]

This is the video I've been looking for! Here in the NW, some of us speak of the Bioregion of Cascadia - the watershed and connected bioregion that arguably begins at the source tributaries of the Columbia River, through western BC, and down along western Washington, Oregon, and possibly northern colonial California. It's about prioritizing the ecosystem of the land and it's Indigenous population. One great example of how this might work is the active effort to return the salmon spawn in the Columbia back to where it was only 100 years, before dams - as far as Alberta. Doing so would be good for the river, and allow the tribes to live sustainably as their grandparents did before them. Of course, every other day someone thinks it's about secession for the sake of political upheaval (usually a "Western Idaho" type) and completely misses the point of using multi-lateral governance as a tool for sustainability and justice. This video will hopefully be a good primer for some of those folks.

[@willbass2869]

"colonial California"? ....oh brother, you're THAT guy, aren't you

[@theeggandi6391]

When I visited New Mexico I saw a number of old Spanish land grant properties. Each one has access to the local drainage, so they are long narrow strips of land from the top of the hill to the bottom.

[@dianalesueur2297]

I lived in Valencia County 30 years a 1/2 mile from Rio Grande River and worked at the Courthouse. There are irrigation ditches everywhere along the entire Rio Grande River for farm and ranch usage. They have to pay for the water and it is all controlled with small gates by the Water Conservancy Dept. It is an efficient system that was set up by early Spanish settlers. But with ongoing years of SW drought the Rio Grande is seriously suffering. The water is rationed very carefully and the problems are serious.

[@LendingwithAdam]

I live in Douglas County Oregon and if you look on the Map you can see the county lines perfectly correspond with the Umpqua Watershed. Be curious to know if any other counties have draw lines like these in America (hope we're not the only ones). Big thanks to the settlers who proactively drew up these lines with that intention. But then again plenty of gridded properties throughout the county.

[@kurtklingbeil6900]

In mountainous terrain, watersheds dictate and enforce the organizational structures. It's just too hard and expensive to defy them . On the flat lands the colonialist mentality reigns supreme! Simplistic reductionist - straight lines and little squares - based on the model of drunken aristocratic @$$holes drawing lines on maps of Afrika and violently imposing those arbitrary divisions Even within the grid system, the land developers and municipal planners had the latitude to incorporate intelligent design into subdivision design, into house orientation, into passive house building codes etc They negligently defied all of that - with rare exceptions - and did stuff the shitty, autocratic, indifferent, cheap way to benefit the developers

[@FiL.]

The official postal abbreviation for Louisiana is LA not LS… interesting map thanks for making it. Great video, keep up the good work.

[@amillison]

Oh man! I knew I'd mess at least one of those up! Sorry LA

[@davidjames4915]

Arguably the mistake has its origins even earlier with the Treaty of 1818 that set the boundary between the US and what became Canada along the 49th parallel rather than along the Mississippi/Hudson Bay continental divide as it had nominally been before then. With an international border along a drainage divide, it would have strengthened the case for internal boundaries along watersheds. But with that nice straight northern border along a line of latitude, it becomes a lot easier for the straight line map drawers to continue doing so for state boundaries.

[@StarlightReboot]

Wow - this is an alternate time line I wanna be in. Imagine America designed with this level of connection to nature. Your Amazing Andrew! 🌟

[@pongop]

Me too. Have you read Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach?

[@hashkeeper]

i love this channel SO MUCH WTF 1:16 look at that beautiful map wow, ive never seen it drawn that way 4:33 oddly enough i'm also seeing conceptual overlaps with the channel not just bikes, where the content creator discusses how we buy smaller plots of land that form communities, destroying community say in its development. worth checking out the channel to see what i mean

[@karllivesonearth]

Wow. I would love to participate in creating that world. Thank you for your inspiration and wonderful speaking!

[@douglasfalde8109]

Thanks!

[@amillison]

Thanks for your support!

[@asktheanimals]

This is fascinating! Thanks! I never knew that history of Powell. I grew up in a passive solar house in one of the rectangle states, CO. I always felt the home designs in this state were ridiculous for not incorporating the abundant sun we have here.

[@nomaderic]

Colorado sun is something serious. I'm from south texas and live in Colorado now. It always blows my mind that it can be in the 30s and that bright sun will have you hot and in a t-shirt lol

[@phill2065]

I definitely learnt something new today, thank you for this!

[@MrsRoper2015]

I had no idea they even considered that. Thanks for the history lesson! If only suburbs that are evolving used the sun orientation the the planning phase....

[@weenisw]

The suburbs are the most inefficient layout for living and so they waste tons of energy and resources. Sun orientation is trivial compared to the pile of huge problems: car dependency, everything built far apart, stores illegal in neighborhoods so they are too far away, multiunit dwellings literally illegal to build most places (single family ONLY zoning), 10x longer runs of every utility, oversized dwellings w huge heat/cool loads, monoculture lawns laden with pesticides for no food yield, mowers are unnecessary fossil burning and their emissions are under regulated so they emit worse than cars, so many more roads and other required infrastructure is needed that it had to be subsidized to first build and the taxes don’t cover the maintenance and future replacement effectively creating a ponzi scheme.

[@Virusskeptic-d3z]

Someone mentioned "earthships".

[@MegaSnail1]

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing this prospective. I contend that if we could go back to that original plan it would not only make our communities more sustainable it would disrupt the political tribalism that is being cultivated by corporate interests. Again thank you!

[@prolarka]

These concepts were known in the Medieval times too. Kingdoms were established around watersheds. Those that were not, had an agenda to conquer the whole watershed. Mountains, seas, wide rivers were used as borders and were fortified.

[@isaias-b]

Great stuff 🤯 it is cool and sad at the same time to see that there were visionary people in the past but who's ideas never came to fruiton.

[@gardenshine.]

Fascinating stuff! Watershed state boundaries seems really cool, wish we had more of this foresight. I do however think you're discounting that there's a lot of value to grids in providing simplified clear boundaries, especially for a time before 1900. Part of the reason the Midwest was developed so much quicker than southern states is that the square platting made property claims much easier to establish (its part of why Abraham Lincoln's family moved from Kentucky to Illinois). Additionally in an urban context where land is scarce, grids are absolutely essential because of how well they can fit more buildings in the same space and facilitate transportation.

[@雷-t3j]

Yeah. Grids are great in heaps of contexts, especially on the small scale in cities, where it's just more efficient. Watershed Democracy would be great for the Western states, but the combination of high rainfall/great lakes/ocean makes it irrelevant to the East

[@john3_14-17]

Grids are just a shape just like circles are. It all comes down to context. Same thing with watershed states. For example, the Susquehanna state (labeled PA on this map) doesn’t make sense as an entity due to the fact that the Susquehanna is non-navigable. You can’t send a barge down it, the river is too shallow and rocky. So any trade destined for the sea here will flow into Philly and Baltimore - large ports on navigable waterways. In this way, the Susquehanna is a divider - those east of it ship to Philly, those west of it to Baltimore (or other places like Pittsburgh and the New York system). Since trade is essential for civilization, one can argue for an entirely different geopolitical configuration. You can do the same with fossil fuel deposits, classically arable land, etc. And of course there are human factors as well, identity, sentiment, culture, political ideas, etc. Since our civilization is dependent on a variety of factors, not merely clean water, we should use our entire context to form political arrangements, not merely one factor. For this reason the best way to encourage good water usage is to change the culture rather than the governance. The governance arises from the culture, and the culture from the religion.

[@joyona7430]

Thank you for your work on our behalf. I am promoting this wisdom to anyone who gives me an opportunity to share. I have been watching your channels since the first day I found it on you tube. Permaculture changes everything for the benefit of all. "Dominion over the land etc. does not mean exploitation it means working "with" the land, water, vegetation and animals for the benefit all all. This is the next step in the evolution of our human family and all life on earth. I love your work and delight to promote it to anyone with ears to hear an eyes to see.

[@cva987]

Facinating! Thank you for posting!

[@jenniferspring8741]

Really awesome information to share, and as usual a cool presentation. Thanks again Andrew! All of us viewers will be figuring out how to right this wrong. Education first!

[@DLKUNATHIII]

Thank you for the bit on passive solar, as an architecture student, this was one of the most basic principles, design to the environment, not around it

[@mattholsen7060]

in 1885 there was a rebellion by the Metis, in Saskatchewan, against the Canadian Government. The first act in that rebellion was years earlier, when Metis chased off some surveyors who were implementing a grid. The Metis registered only ownership of riverfront, and that ownership included water rights. No one bothered to assert ownership of the land far from the river. The Metis weren't sure what the surveyors were up to, but it seemed likely they were planning to establish a new system of land ownership, the better to take the Metis' land.

[@bencihasky5709]

Another unfortunate truth of the past 150ish years. So many opportunities to set things up correctly and warnings of what would happen if not. Yet it continues to happen. It’s hard to learn these truths growing up as a 17 year old and knowing something needs to change but not having the power to do so.

[@jayski9410]

It's interesting that even when you draw the watershed states, California and Texas are still pretty recognizable. And I agree that solar orientation should be key in architectural design. I live in Los Angeles and have no air conditioning (and no need for it) while I have friends that spend $800 a month to run their air conditioning during the summer.

[@freealter]

I’ve been thinking about this idea for so long I’m just glad I’m not the only one

[@futurecaredesign]

"If you've ever wondered what evil is? It is stupidity on a large scale." -Bill Mollison, 1983

[@buildingbrenham]

I'm not sure if I wanted to see this or not. Great info, love your videos, but dang, what a huge missed opportunity. I'm so disappointed we screwed this up from the start. Even worse, all builder/developers know about E/W orientation, but they're still building massive residential developments with only 50% of the houses on the E/W axis. It's no longer a crime of ignorance; it's shamefully negligent.

[@one_field]

Seconding this. Most of these videos leave me with a sense of excitement and optimism for how we're learning to fix and improve everything. This one, instead, generated frustration and disappointment that we're stuck in a system that was knowingly mismanaged. It's easier to forgive people of the past when we can pretend they didn't know of better alternatives. Here's a case where they looked at the better option and decided, "nope." & we have no way to fix this one; everything's too thoroughly entrenched now...

[@amillison]

@@one_field I know, I usually leave it on a positive message. But just look at all my videos as a single body of work, and this is just the bad news that had to be explained in order to understand the basis of the problem so we know where we're starting from with the solutions.

[@one_field]

@@amillison Your videos are fantastic, and I'm not really criticizing this one :-) It's an important point of history that we've never been taught, and you did a great job explaining it. I do love how most of your message is so positive and inspiring, though; so many channels discussing sustainability, ecosystems, and water cycles are just awash in doom and gloom. Yours stands out by being so upbeat that I can share it with people who usually refuse to listen to such topics. You've helped convince them that it's worth changing how they manage their land (here in central Virginia), so that has real impact. Thank you for that!

[@chiefmonrovia6691]

What a lovely an unique video style. Amazing drawings, a really clever use of visuals, it reminds me of how weathermen do their green screen work, except having the drawings directly in front of you allow a greater interaction that doesn't feel phony.

[@amillison]

Thank you so much 😀

[@hhwippedcream]

Awesome material! Thank you so much for sharing!

[@kentuckygreg4725]

I especially liked your passive house orientation presentation. My house faces ssw and in the winter on a sunny day I get as much heat from the sun as I can. It's crazy that builders don't go more for passive features in a house, it's free. Nobody really talks about this, just energy consumption.

[@foxprojects247]

Your videos, in content and quality, never cease to impress me!

[@amillison]

Happy to hear that! Thanks for watching! :)

[@thejasvim4402]

Thanks for simple narrative, a good argument that shud be applicable worldwide

[@atomicsmith]

I had no idea this has ever been proposed! Thanks for another great video.

[@Lloh_Rnd]

Amazing work Andrew, thank you for everything 🙏

[@AskTorin]

Thank you so much for your hard work helping people learn to live again. It must be hard for you to go through life knowing how many of you and your loved ones hardships come from and how people keep sustaining them. Keep up the hard work. And thanks from me and my ancestry.

[@francesfellows7717]

Andy, do you know if there is any movement/ network/ political party trying to revive watershed democracy? It would help out in the geremandering and constant redistricting that hold some states in gridlock.

[@amillison]

Hi Francis Fellows! I don't know of a particular party trying to do that. Hope you are well ❤️‍🩹

[@Chris-io2cs]

Unfortunetely I don't see the country that can't commit to the metric system agreeing to a mass change in 150+ year old borders and the corresponding shift in resource allocation any time soon. And I sort of don't blame them. It's called a mistake for a reason. Not matter how cool it'd be it's a bit too late to go back now unless on a really small scale for certain placed.

[@1Lightdancer]

Brilliant, as usual - thank you Andy!

[@twigandroot]

I love how you ended this! great comic relief

[@Thoughmuchistaken]

lol ".....BUT SHIT MAN" Amen. And today in Ontario we opened up protected agricultural/undeveloped land to be turned into housing. I'm sure that since we've chosen to build homes on this formerly protected land in the greenbelt, the homes will be built to passive standards while using lessons like those in this video...

[@Muljinn]

And I’ve got some ocean front property in Saskatchewan to sell you…

[@oxelaroost]

WOW... just completely stumbled upon your channel.. this is the 1st video.. before i've even seen any other yet.. i'm subscribed and hit the bell.. Guess what i'm going to binge watch this coming weekend. .. . Thank you for an awesome video.. P.S. i'm sharing it with friends and family too..

[@amillison]

Welcome aboard! Thanks for subscribing, there's much more content on the way!

[@noelbecker7002]

This makes so much sense! This idea is even more important now than it was when suggested. Wouldn't it be something great if we could recognize this in the present, and make the changes in political boundaries and accompanying governments? Although it certainly seems impossible in the current political environment, there are relatively recent examples even if not exactly the same. For example the UK rearranged its counties and burroughs to better accommodate current realities. This would be a worthwhile project related to our response to climate change.

[@Maria-ok7oe]

i grew up in a well designed house. We had windows to the north, east and south and the roof was so low, that in the winter the sun would shine inside throughout the whole day in winter, but only in early morning in summer. Every side of the house had a door which could be opened when it was too hot and it would create an aircurrent through the house. the building material was wood, so it insulated very easily, but could cool down fast as well and the roof had such an angle, that we could place solar panels on it, which helped with energy. For very cold winters, we also had a wood stove which we could also use to kook on if we wanted to. With all this, we almost didn't use any energy at all, making it possible to save up the money and use it for other things.

[@Sheashay101]

Mistake, or intentional money grab?

[@taitano12]

Yes.

[@scottyp1303]

As silent Cal said THE BUSINESS OF AMERICA IS BUSINESS.

[@alejohernandez75]

Water is cheap.

[@scottyp1303]

@@alejohernandez75 unless you don't have any.

[@dbix11]

Mistake

[@davidbryden7904]

America's big mistake?! Singular?! Give US(A) a little more credit than that! We been f#$%in' things up for a long time now, partner!!! 🤷‍♂️ 😜I'm really enjoying your work! 🙏✌️💚🌲🌏☮️

[@Job.Well.Done_01]

I love you for making this ! Shoutout to all of the geography and U.S. history fam out there!

[@ryanfitzalan8634]

Love the vids, keep this content coming we need it to better prepare for the future.

[@EVtripper]

This is one of the most revolutionary videos of all time! Bravo Andrew!

[@ranewanders8147]

As a traveler for over 3 years, can confirm nearly all cities look the exact same It's kind of lame how every new city I enter it already looks familiar, especially when they've been monopolized of local businesses

[@bravejango12]

I like that you have the State of Jefferson.

[@aitor9185]

Awesome vid! In the Basque country traditional houses and farms were always built facing south/south-east on sunny locations where possible (it's hilly here) and against the prevailing northwestern wind and rain coming from the ocean. The houses normally have no windows facing north or just a tiny one. People have known about passive houses for ages, especially when it could save you lots of effort (less wood chopping back then). They are very nice and look awesome :)

[@phoenixjim0527]

Powell is absolutely right. I had thought of the same idea due to intrastate disputes around shared waterways.

[@charliespeegleokliving8595]

Thanks, I had never heard the of concept before your video. Watershed Democracy is also a way of reducing political differences within a community. When multiple communities own the same watershed, competing for the resource is usually tense. When one community is responsible for the watershed, less people are involved. In Oklahoma, getting Counties to agree to share and fund Emergency Medical Services in rural areas has been an ongoing issue. In some cases, it is because of sports rivalry between High School teams.

[@SmartMass]

Are there examples of a geomorphological city? I would be curious to visit one to see the potential benefits.

[@t0manderson571]

Old world European cities.

[@TheEmbrio]

Quebec, canada. O some degree, since The French land division there was thin strips perpendicular to. Rivers

[@amillison]

Village Homes in Davis California is on flat ground, but shows how a contemporary development can be placed on a passive solar grid with water harvesting integrated throughout.

[@wktorzjawinski2052]

Dear @@amillison , forwarded from ⬜🔍 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_States_Got_Their_Shapes ¶

[@Jesus-qv5sw]

Maybe Tenochtitlan

[@quinn3334]

great video as always

[@jizhimushui]

"Crime of ignorance", well put.

[@designosis]

Great video! You could expand even more on how indigenous territories were/are shaped along fluid geomorphic ecological boundaries like this for millennia before these ecologically illiterate patterns of development were imposed upon the land and the peoples through settler colonial violence. The peoples here before conquest were the visionaries. Powell’s observations of their watershed cultural organization certainly informed his proposal. If we return to some form of bioregional governance we should center indigenous knowledge in our path to remembering our way forward out of the mess that’s been created over the last 500 years😊

[@amillison]

Definitely! Stay tuned for our next upcoming video where we visit an indigenous Hawaiian community who are restoring their traditional watershed sysytem.

[@seanthedevlin]

Sh*t man! Outstanding video! Thanks so much, Andrew. 🙏

[@absolutelynoone5776]

You are right we must come together and restore the water table across the world and hydrate Gia

[@scottmonfort]

Recently, I've been thinking that a shed roof facing south for the sun for solar power would be better than windows. This would flip the thinking 180 degrees. We had a cabin that faced south ... it was so hot during the summer, we rarely used the front deck ... would have been nicer to have a back deck away from the sun. So you have to consider the use of the house when considering the orientation.

[@jmac217x]

Almost all of the issues with my county's river happen upstream and out-of-county. No way to achieve anything when the dam is 5 counties away.

[@le-m0nke]

Your s-bomb at the end caught me off guard xD

[@jamesgardner6499]

Wow, my house is on a E-W orientation. The front is north but most of the windows face south. I hadn’t realized that would be more efficient. It’s a good thing too, my house is on the bigger side.

[@gtmunch]

I appreciate how you snuck Jefferson on the map “JF”.

[@amillison]

I copied that map from the link in the description and they had the unlabelled territory there. Being from Oregon I knew exactly what letters needed to go there :-0

[@Bobrogers99]

We persist in trying to grow our crops in areas with insufficient rainfall, so water has to be transported hundreds of miles (losing much in evaporation and leakage) to the farms where it's needed. The country does have millions of acres of good farmland, but what do we do with it? We build houses on it. Developers love level land near rivers, and their houses are rarely oriented or designed for energy efficiency. Just because you can afford to waste money on energy - or water - doesn't mean that you should be allowed to do it.

[@bluesage1528]

Love your videos! Thank you so very much That is the way how they must think in a parlament. 🙏

[@nil981]

As someone who works in professional land surveying this system of land management and political organizing makes the most amount of sense.

[@iamsoymilk1280]

I love you, Andrew!!! This video is brilliant and speaks volumes to Indigenous rejection of gas pipelines throughout the US. Cause and effect.

[@willbass2869]

The Indians are just mad that they don't get jobs building or maintaining pipelines due to low/no skills traced back to chronic alcoholism and res life. That's why they complain and call to shut down pipelines......it's called ENVY. You see the same in inner city ghetto schools strangling academic awards and the merit system. As a "whole", they aren't environmentally responsible. You ever been on a res? Pretty much open air junk and dump piles. Overgrazed land and unregulated land usage. They talk a good game to starry eyed "greenies" but most are some of the worst abusers of the land. Stop putting them on pedestals. They don't deserve it. They aren't paragons of demonstrated virtue or deed.

[@danielb3573]

2:28 the dot here made me think my sceen had a pixel die

[@johnkossen4821]

This is fascinating.

[@chiefmonrovia6691]

I just noticed you included the state of Jefferson too, that's a lovely little detail

[@Zeyev]

Great discussion. I went to high school in the sole part of the contiguous States that is north of the Laurentian Divide so we were well aware of watershed issues. But we did not belong to Manitoba or Saskatchewan even though we were all drained by the Mighty Assiniboine and the Mighty Red. Pity that.

[@stephanygates6491]

Why do our leaders always disregard brilliance like that of J W Powell? Watershed Democracy would have created unbreakable states. The most essential public service is water safety, delivery and treatment. Thank you for bringing this story to light.

[@cjthebeesknees]

Profit, consolidation for a few influential entities, privatization. All the cynical reasons is the reasons why.

[@lizstokes9091]

Well said!!

[@nataliekazful]

The irony is that when they decided to impose the grid like system they probably thought it was efficient 😅

[@ioannisalexiou7227]

It is very efficient for wealth extraction, not for conservation or wealth generation

[@ebenchristensen]

our home was built in 1874 in Wisconsin and follows the E/W axis over its 90ft length (its a big house). Almost all of our windows are southern, and it's amazing when the sun is out, even in Feb.

[@iivin4233]

I've heard other geography youtubers propose a similar structure. I didn't know this was a concept back in the 1870s or one that could have been written into law. I support it.

[@chrishoo2]

Thanks for a great documentary!❤

[@amillison]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ARsuffix]

Wow. Yes! I wholeheartedly agree! For a loooong time I've been puzzled and annoyed at how arbitrarily houses and buildings are laied out in developments. So often I see them built irrespective (or ignorant) of the natural path of the sun or the natural topicrafical layout of the land. For example: Why are so many houses built with their AC unit (which need to dissipate HEAT for effective thermal exchange for cooling) on the South or West sides (the HOTTEST sides of the day/afternoon?! Of course, power companies don't mind when they profit on such inefficiency. But this is such a simple architectural/planning problem to avoid! Even as a kid, I understood how dumb this is and scowled at how we build cities. THANK YOU for these well-illustrates videos shedding light on these (surprisingly ignored) common-sense land management strategies!

[@willbass2869]

Placement of A/C compressor units makes very little difference. Putting it in full sun matters nada.

[@Nphen]

House orientation matters *so much* in terms of comfort, both for heating and lighting. I lived in 2 homes on a N/S road, with the longer axis of the homes facing south. Sunlight came in gently and temps were moderate. Now I live in a home on an E/W road, with the long axis of the home facing west. Sunlight is always coming in at angles that are painfully blinding. We have to crank up the A/C in summer and the house is cold in the winter even with a lot of new triple pane windows. Wrong home orientation should be against building codes!

[@stevensiferd7104]

I noticed you included the State of Jefferson (JF) in your map. Your outline isn't quite as big as the people in that area would prefer, but it's an interesting detail.

[@amillison]

The map I copied had that area designated but without a label. But I knew what letters needed to go in there :-)

[@yourgardendoc]

"But, sh---- man.. that was a huuuuge mistake." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🌱