Right Now

AQUIFERS ABOVE GROUND Of Rain and the Rivers

t was a dark and stormy night. Rain fell steadily on rooftops, down ™ gutters, along streets and sidewalks. Wealth that Endures. It poured into drains, where it joined For more than 70 years, clients have trusted our skill the current already rushing through to navigate any kind of market. Our professionals are Ithe pipes beneath the streets. Invisibly, committed to protecting our clients’ wealth and building the rain water became a nasty cocktail of it for future generations. We have the experience and toxins as it flowed along. perspective needed to secure your financial future. The combination of rain and pave- ment—by themselves ubiquitous and Investment management, trust and estate and custody seemingly harmless—has replaced ille- services for accounts of $2 million or more. Please call gally dumped chemicals as the pollutant Thomas Loizeaux or George J. Mullen, Jr. at (877) 384-1111. du jour for the nation’s rivers. Rainwater www.ftci.com carries motor oil, brake-lining residue, dog feces, and other noxious substances NEW YORK • LOS ANGELES • MIAMI • SAN MATEO • WASHINGTON, D.C. • WILMINGTON that collect on pavement down into LONDON • GENEVA • HONG KONG • MELBOURNE • TOKYO • ZURICH • GRAND CAYMAN drains that empty directly into rivers. IVY11/02 Rivers also su≠er from pavement’s impen- etrable seal over the soil. If rain can’t soak in, the level of subterranean ground water (which gradually replenishes rivers and streams) decreases and the likelihood of flooding during storms increases. But pavement is here to stay. The solu-

Asphalt doesn’t absorb: A Michigan subur- banite clears a storm drain to admit runoff.

Photograph by Hollenbeck/ Harvard Magazine 19 95-5746. Associated Press print information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-4 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and re Right Now

says France. He de- rain’s aesthetic and sensory qualities. In- cries the prevailing stead of treating storm water as an an- “pipe-to-pond noyance to be removed swiftly and mentality” that soundlessly, Anderson and Newman cel- views “storm ebrated rain’s soothing patter and ap- water as a nui- pealing shine on stones and plants. They sance” and hinders designed a “rain chain” pergola: a series engineers from of connected copper funnels that hang considering more from gutters and over paths to direct environmentally runo≠ from the roof into gardens. As rain sound alternatives. falls, it tinkles pleasantly against the A year ago, how- funnels. “The rain chains drape on either ever, two of side of the walkway, enhancing the sight France’s students and sound of cascading water on rainy won a national days,” Anderson and Newman wrote in competition aimed their proposal. The stone streambeds at changing this gleam during storms, but otherwise re- paradigm. Spon- main dry, “drawing attention to the sored by the Envi- ephemeral nature of rain.” ronmental Protec- The design’s other features—such as tion Agency and barrels to collect rain to water the gar-

MATT GENTRY/ASSOCIATED PRESS MIT, the competi- den—are popular among environmentally tion is to catch rainwater before it reaches tion challenged landscape architects and savvy homeowners, but professionals the streets and storm drains. “Today’s engineers to design creative, replicable, typically neglect them. “Sustainability is mantra is ‘Start at the source,’” says asso- and a≠ordable ($10,000 or less) methods generally not in the land- ciate professor of landscape ecology of managing storm water at a Cambridge scape architect’s toolkit,” Robert France, who teaches a workshop residence located near the Charles River. says Anderson. “It’s not in urban storm-water management at the The winning proposal will serve as a taught.” But both students Graduate School of Design. France en- model that local residents can replicate. envision the completed courages individuals, businesses, city gov- Third-year landscape-architecture project (construction ernments, and even universities to collect students Katherine Alberg Anderson should finish by spring) as storm water early—before it’s tainted by and Gweneth Newman used gardens and an educational tool. Be- pavement’s poisons—and reuse it for irri- rain barrels to keep storm water on the cause homeowners can gation, decorative fountains, or so-called property and designed gutters and stone replicate each feature sep- “green roofs” (extensive—and not neces- streambeds to direct runo≠ to plantings arately and cheaply, they sarily accessible—rooftop gardens with and gardens. But their proposal’s most can easily customize the su∞cient soil and plantings to absorb striking feature—specifically praised by design for their own yards. rain). “We need dispersed micromanage- one judge—was its unusual embrace of “The designs are very ment [of storm water], starting with A pipe (above) carries runoff and pollutants into the Rivanna River lawns, driveways, rooftops, and build- in Virginia. The winning stormwater design’s “rain chain” of linked copper ings,” he says. funnels (right) drips into a buried rock filter at its base. Below, a pergola Landscape engineers, who usually focus has roof beams of PVC pipes, linked into a network of rain channels on watersheds outside residential sites, draining into several rain chains. such as suburban industrial parks, customarily design de- tention ponds (which collect rain from sewer pipes and gradually release it into rivers) or infiltration systems (which hold water and allow it to ab- sorb into the soil). These methods, although widespread and e≠ective, are costly and re- quire plenty of space. “They’re

hard to do in urban settings,” KATHERINE ALBERG ANDERSON AND GWENETH NEWMAN

20 January - February 2003 95-5746. print information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-4 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and re Right Now

durable, very do-it-yourself,” Anderson to embrace storm-water management Charles—“is a poor environmental citi- explains. “We may even get the neighbors strategies even as individuals readily zen.” catherine dupree to help with the installation.” complain about flooding. “Walk around. Although pleased with the competi- How many people are using rain bar- e-mail addresses: tion’s objectives—and his students’ de- rels?” he asks. “Even Harvard”—with its [email protected] sign—France remains discouraged by many flat roofs and sloped lawns with [email protected] the community’s general unwillingness drains emptying directly into the [email protected]

SIMIAN STATUS and the Law

t’s still legal to buy our closest “This is all stuff we’ve known for 35 living relatives as pets,” declared years,” said , professor of , the renowned prima- psychology at Central Washington tologist. “You can buy them on the University and author of Next of Kin, a Internet.” She spoke at a symposium book about his experiences while Ion “The Evolving Legal Status of Chim- teaching to a panzees” cosponsored by Harvard Law named . “Chimps School’s Student Animal Legal Defense talk,” he said. “Big deal. This is what Fund and the nonprofit Chimpanzee Col- they do.” talk, too; in the laboratory; the September conference ex- 1970s, a Stanford graduate student, plored legal protections (and lack of Penny Patterson, taught sign language same) for the great apes, a subcategory of to a named . (For Goodall, that includes chimpanzees, the divide between humans and other , gorillas, —and, ac- primates is slight; at one point she re- cording to some proponents, humans. ferred to “Washoe and Koko and peo- In fact, human and chimpanzee DNA ple like that.”) Fouts accused the emi- are 98.7 percent identical, a biological fact nent MIT linguist , a that has supported the use of these pri- vocal critic of the notion that chim- mates in laboratory research. Goodall, panzees possess verbal communica- however, claimed that such studies have tion faculties, of “pandering to human not produced major scientific advances. “I arrogance in order to sell books.” want a new mindset,” she said. “We need Several speakers, including Der- to recognize that animal medical research showitz and Goodall, compared the chim- Politically, the great apes are making hasn’t helped that much.” (For a broad panzees’ situation with that of slaves in some gains. The Uniform Trust Act of discussion of this issue, see “Animal Re- nineteenth-century America. Going even 2000 allows designation of an animal as search,” January-February 1999, page 48.) further, Fouts drew an analogy to Nazi the beneficiary of a trust. About 25 U.S. Goodall’s landmark study of chim- Germany: “We abuse animals to make universities now offer classes in animal- panzees in helped redefine the ourselves feel better, and we justify it,” he rights law and Oxford University Press boundaries between animals and humans, said—just as Nazis justified their attacks will publish an animal-rights-law anthol- the very boundaries that were the sympo- on Jews and the mentally retarded. ogy, edited by Cass Sunstein ’75, J.D. ’78, sium’s focal point. The event attracted pri- Dershowitz argued that animals do not and Martha Nussbaum, Ph.D. ’75, this matologists like Richard Wrangham, have inherent rights, but rather rights vis- coming fall. Not only do federal regula- Moore professor of biological anthropol- à-vis people. In other words, because tions issued by the Department of Agri- ogy, who directs the Kibale Chimpanzee great apes can show that they suffer, and culture prohibit keeping chimpanzees in Project in Uganda, as well as legal figures because people can see that they suffer, it psychologically harmful environments, such as Stephen Wise, who taught the first would be humane to make laws to pre- but the National Institutes of Health animal-rights law class at Harvard, in 2000, vent that suffering. “You can’t really make has announced a $24-million, 10-year and Frankfurter professor of law Alan Der- the argument that animals have the right grant to fund the country’s first convales- showitz. Most speakers took as given that to live,” he said. “If we did, humans would cent home for chimpanzees: Chimp chimpanzees can communicate and emote, have to protect the smaller animals in the Haven, a 200-acre site in the Louisiana and that their rights should be expanded. jungle from the larger animals.” rainforest, will shelter 800 chimpanzees

Photograph ©Renee Lynn/Corbis Harvard Magazine 21 95-5746. print information, contact Harvard Magazine, Inc. at 617-4 Reprinted from Harvard Magazine. For copyright and re