Not a happy, pie in the sky blog today, folks. This country (and world) is in serious trouble and it is happening faster than you think. The picture on the left is from a county in Illinois where over 90% of the counties in that state have been declared disaster areas due to the lack of rain. Scientists estimate that this is the worse drought America has seen in over 50 years. The impact will be immediate and long term. Food, fuel, other products will increase in cost and hit hardest those who are already having a tough time in this economy. The following link will provide you with more in-depth information: http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/drought_gov/202;jsessionid=BA87957AC16C0FD3EF6969EA78C944EC
It is time to stop the senseless argument whether this is due to scientifically proved man-made climate change ot “just a cycle” that we’ll get through it. No we won’t. Demand that your local, state and federal government, and businesses and institutions stand-up and face the fact we all must work together to make it together. Now more than ever we need people to get very, very, serious about this and not chuckle when there is a snowstorm about “where’s the global warning now, ha ha”.
Get mad, get active, demand accountability from those who say they are leaders. There are related articles below that you’ll find helpful.
Related articles
Jude, Thanks for keeping it green. I saw this report on nightline. Very disterbing. happy Birthday and congrats on the smoking thing.
Drought disaster is so much going on in various countries, such as in our country whenever the dry season, drought causes congestion people life and peasant economy
Our institution (ACT Indonesia) make efforts with the water supply wells or bore water but still not able to meet the needs during drought
“We won’t get through this?”
“Get mad” ???
First of all, if this kind of a drought happened 50 years ago many thousands of people would have starved. Today we find ourselves complaining that food prices rise. Why? After the worst drought in 50 years we expect food prices to rise something on the order of FIVE percent. The drought is expected to cost us something on the order of $12 billion. Nothing to sneeze at, but a drop in the bucket compared to some other things we waste our money on. And the 1988 drought cost $78 billion and the 1980 drought cost $56 billion.
It looks like crop yields will fall (on dry non-irrigated land) by 10% to 26% http://cropwatch.unl.edu/web/cropwatch/archive?articleID=4938371 how does this compare to the past? Well it looks like yields fell by almost 75% during the Dust Bowl. Why are yields so much better today? In part due to “inorganic” farming practices and GM modification of crops. So I am getting mad right now that we are not seeing more effort into drought resistant crops. Does this kind of “mad” count? Corn yields in Nebraska (see linked research) are still expected to be 20 to 40 times larger than they were in the 1930s.
Second, please provide the information about how serious the drought has been for crop prices as compared to how much damage has been done by diverting 50% of the corn crop to ethanol – a “green” technology that we should “get mad at our leaders” to promote more of?
Third, some of us indeed are getting mad. When we see regional droughts that makes it imperative for our politicians to eliminate subsidies to water and energy of all kinds and to dramatically reduce the barriers to trade of food (and therefore water) across the entire globe. Imagine the starvation of people in Illinois or Alabama if they adhered to a “buy local” only strategy and a drought like this hit?
Fourth, I don’t see any of the links above discussing the science of droughts and how they are getting worse or signs of man made global warming. They of course seem to be, but this I found from the EPA: http://www.epa.gov/climate/climatechange/pdfs/print_heat-waves.pdf
What does it mean exactly that this is the worst drought in 50 years? It seems to mean that the droughts in the 50s were WORSE … and for those keeping score at home, the 1950s droughts were worse than the 1930s droughts, why did the dustbowl not happen in the 50s? And a little more research would illustrate that while this drought surely is causing suffering, it is not among any notable droughts over the long time period that we study climate. It would be instructive for readers to be able to see how serious the droughts were over the Paleo-Climate record that is used to illustrate that global warming is man-made, after all that is the necessary scale to illustrate the point from the post.
Finally, in the IPCC models, an increase in global mean temperatures does not imply that all areas of the globe will suffer from drought conditions. Many areas will see improvements in growing conditions including longer growing seasons and the increased CO2 at levels way beyond what we could add to the atmosphere will actually encourage plant growth (and research has shown that cultivated crop growth improves more than weed growth would) … this buttresses the idea that more trade in foodstuffs is a serious and low-cost approach to “getting mad” at the planet warming.
What does “get mad” mean?
Jude, Thanks for keeping it green. I saw this report on nightline. Very disterbing. happy Birthday and congrats on the smoking thing. Fondly, Beth
Judy, I found your site by way of comment over at Charlie’s place. Yes, we all need to get on the horn and start demanding this issue be addressed by our fearless leaders. (Boris Badenov) I don’t do the FB thing, but, I love the way you kids write over there. Your BFF Barry F., Pat H., and yourself and others do an excellent job. Keep up the good work.