Most of the time--especially in our part of the world--we're grateful for rain. Unless it just keeps on coming, soaking the ground and making rivers rise. Which happens more and more as Earth's climate changes. So plenty of people are questioning the wisdom of consistently rebuilding communities ravaged by flood, without moving away from the source of the water.

Tim Palmer, an outdoor writer living in Port Orford, is one of them. He looks back at the American approach to "taming" mighty rivers and other bodies of water, and sees where we might do things differently. Palmer's latest book is Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis. We get into the details in the author's visit to the JX.