Watch Charlie Gibson on ABC World News Tonight, Channel 7 Detroit, July 29, 09, at 6:30pm. He will be reporting on the recent record droughts and how they affect us all.
Archive for the ‘Drought’ Category
Watch ABC World News Tonight; How Drought Affects All of Us
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009Global Warming and Worldwide Recession; The Dustbowl and the Great Depression
Friday, April 24th, 2009I caught a 2-hour special on the History Channel titled, “Black Blizzard.” Everyone should try to catch this as it relates to man and climate. The next airing will be this Sunday, April 26th, at 10:00 am. After seeing this I have to ask: Is history repeating itself in a bigger venue because there are a lot of similarities between the Great Depression and the Dustbowl drought with today’s global warming trend and worldwide recession? Let’s look:
1920’s-30’s U.S. Agricultural Economy
- Industrial Revolution is moving ahead yet agriculture still big part of economy.
- During Hoover’s presidency the Farm Board is created.
- Farm Board decides to boost income of U.S. farmers by withholding grains from world market to drive up prices and for federal banks to make liberal loans to farmers to sustain them while holding back their yields from the market.
- The Farm Board establishes the Grain Stabilization Corp. that begins buying up wheat, which boosts prices above world prices for a short time.
- Wheat farmers prosper causing a huge flow of people West to farm in areas known to suffer regular drought patterns.
- The plan backfires when other countries begin supplying wheat to the world markets and the U.S. wheat farmer loses out.
- The massive back load of U.S. wheat inventory further depresses market prices.
- The same happens to the U.S. cotton industry.
- Herbert Hoover refuses to intervene for the farmer and states the market will correct itself.
- Meanwhile, U.S. foreign trade decreases drastically and what should be a recession turns into a depression. The U.S. quits buying foreign and so the foreign powers default on their debts to the U.S.
- Everyone ignores the environmental impacts of over-farming the land and the dustbowl begins.
1920’s-30’s Climate
- Normal drought patterns in the central plains didn’t produce huge dust storms prior to the big wheat rush because much of the unfarmed areas are covered with desert grasses adapted over time to withstand drought and winds. These grasses keep soil from eroding.
- With the wheat rush farmers uproot most of these grasses. When wheat cannot endure normal patterns of drought no vegetation is left to stop the wind from blowing the dirt away.
- The most fertile layer of soil blows away. Dust storms are thousands of feet into the air and carry some 50 million tons of earth at a time not unlike volcanic ash rising like clouds across miles of terrain.
- The normal arrival of a jet stream from the New Zealand/ Australia area offering rain is diverted due to the massive dust clouds.Â
- The dust storms increase in duration and strength perpetuating the drought.
The Great Dustbowl sets a precedent that man did and therefore can affect our climate. Much of what happened during the Dustbowl sounds familiar like forcing false markets, a greedy rush for a piece of the pie, destroying land/nature for wealth, a horrible economic crash, and subsequent devastation to ourselves and the earth.
Over farming aggravated the normal climate processes throughout the central states during the 30’s to the point it helped to sustain a prolonged and increasingly volatile weather pattern beyond the normal period of drought that had serious impacts for thousands of people especially their health. We still do not fully understand the extent to which all our ecosystems are intrinsically related. As was evidenced by the Great Dustbowl, setting one out of balance for even a brief period of time can cause increased and devastating climate patterns far past the norm.
Watch a video of the extraordinary dustbowl storms of the 30’s:
History Channel – The Black Blizzard: http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=366826
This website has many good reference sources: http://science.howstuffworks.com/dust-bowl-cause2.htm
This article relates man’s effects on the dustbowl although it leaves out the History Channel study about diverting the jet stream that would have brought drought relief: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080430152030.htm
If you can find a copy of The Surplus Farmer by Bernhard Ostrolenk published in 1932 about what was happening in the agricultural industry at the time, it should be a pretty good read. Ostrolenk stated: “The Farm Board had advised the farmer to gamble with his crop instead of urging him to market it, and these repeated statements of the Board had led farmers to believe that by withholding their wheat and cotton they could get higher prices. During 1930 it was the known surplus of agricultural commodities in the U.S. which forced farmers to face the most drastic price cuts in a decade.”
This gov’t. website correlates with Ostrolenk’s observations about holding back trade and the ensuing surplus: http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib3/eib3.html
Article about the forced market back then: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,846807-2,00.html
China’s Rush to Save the Yangtze as Water Supply Dwindles
Friday, January 16th, 2009Â
China may be running out of water. No surprise there. I think it was two years ago that I watched an hour-long presentation by Chinese environmentalists that showed the situation in China’s waterways. Bad stuff, all polluted. I read an article from Asia Times that’s from 2003 about the way the Chinese have devastated their country and explained the history of China’s terrain.
Â
At one time China was much warmer and wetter. Animals that we normally associate with Africa existed there. But their growing population repeatedly cut down forests, and drained marshy areas to expand. Now China is rapidly headed toward a desert like existence. I reported quite some time ago that the Gobe desert is currently only 100 miles outside of Beijing.
Â
China has already invested billions of dollars to redirect a river in the south toward Beijing even though that river is polluted. This plan uproots 400,000 people also. The recent movement to improve China’s water supply is massive. I suspect this might be why China has been helping Africans—a lot. China says it’s sincere. I think the Chinese are scoping out a place to go. China’s historical climate and terrain was like Africa’s. But we never hear much about China in Africa and probably won’t, until they are there. If they weren’t communist it wouldn’t be too bad but…
Â
China is an example to the world on how not to treat the environment, over lumber, over build, over populate, and pollute. It can leave a population high and dry down the road, or should I say river. Â Â
Â
Read more about China’s efforts a little too late: http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2009/2009-01-15-01.asp
Â
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EH26Ad01.html
Â
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/16/content_873767.htm
Â
Â
The Wildfires in California
Monday, November 17th, 2008
There are still arguments whether or not global warming has contributed to the onslaught of wildfires in California that certainly appear to be getting worse. As a matter of fact, I read an article that suggested it is because of invading populations of people moving into fire prone areas, and/or forest management practices instead. But a scientific paper published a year ago stated “that the changing climate was a greater influence on wildfire activity and intensity than forest management.” http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/Global-Warming-California-Wildfire-47102305.
As for people moving into fire prone areas, sure there would be more likelihood of fires, and more property damage, but Mother Nature is seriously contributing to the wildfire fiasco with a record drought, temperatures in the 80’s-90’s instead of the 70’s for this time of year, and winds that are clocking at 60 and 70 mph, with gusts up to 85! Besides authorities declared that the wildfires in California this past July set a record. There were over 1781 fires burning at once, but luckily most were in sparsely populated areas. So much for the “people-cause-the-fires” theory. http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/california-wildfires-set-a-record/.
What I find odd is that the same people that deny the fire activity in California is due in part to global warming but instead caused by people, simultaneously deny that people cause global warming. Is this not selective reasoning? Certainly the smoke from these fires contributes heavily to air pollution.
Even an article in Business Week suggested that if we don’t do something soon about global warming the costs of the bad weather produced by it could be devastating for California. It stated that there could be “as much as $3.9 billion in annual damages caused by wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme weather events.” I say ditto for many other parts of the country. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D94EAOUO1.htm.
California isn’t the only area of concern. Hurricane ravaged Galveston, Texas did not get enough press during the presidential campaign. There are still what can be termed “Katrina victims.” I’ve noticed a pronounced change in path and verocity of tropical storms up the east coast of America. We do not want to see anything that resembles a hurricane hit NYC. This past spring our midwest was hit with horrible floods. Tornadoes in the South in November are becoming common. And let’s get real here. Five states in the SW have experienced huge growth, even though 4 of those states collectively rely on one and the same Colorado River for all of their water needs. Add the mentality that wants to maintain a steady growth in population in America, and we have to ask, “Just where is everyone supposed to live that won’t pose some sort of weather and/or uninhabitable terrain problem in the U.S.?” Can’t run, can hide from Mother Nature.
Cash Corn Crops Go the Way of Floods in the Midwest
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
For those of us in Michigan or anywhere else that think global warming or any of the climate events happening elsewhere won’t/don’t affect us guess again. Just like yesterday’s blog about Dead Zones that affects our penchant for shrimp, crab, and select fish like grouper, the California fires are in wine country. So that perfect glass of wine to accompany that already vulnerable seafood dinner may not materialize at all.
Floods in the Midwest have caused a huge loss in corn crops also. So much for ethanol as an alternative. The loss of corn is going to cause an even greater problem with food shortages worldwide, which really can’t take another hit. As a result we’ll soon see food prices climb even higher here.
It simply amazes me that we’re experiencing such drastic degrees of bad weather at the same time. Look at the flood risk this year: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/oh/hic/nho/. Hundreds of people have lost homes and irreplaceable keepsakes due to flood damage.
Does anyone remember some of the prophecies about the future from the likes of Nostradamus, Cayce, and Dixon? One of the prophecies was that the U.S. would be divided by water eventually. The water rose through the middle of the country separating the east from the west. This doesn’t bode well considering the middle of our country is flooding.
As for fires, it looks like a fifth of California is burning: http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/cafw/. Eighty homes and other structures have been destroyed by fires, while more homes are still threatened. If fires sweep through wine country there will be zilch for the year 2008.
And for those of us that have always grown things we know weather problems affect our little gardens, fruit trees, and whatever we grow just like the big guys. The wind that ripped the shingles off my house on Monday would have caused a big loss in my vegetable garden had it been later in the season when the plants were bigger. I’m saying this because I see many more gardens planted this year than ever before, and I just wonder if the novices realize that the survival technique of growing our own food can backfire on us easily if Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate. The idea of living like our forefathers or Grizzly Adams if we have to won’t cut it without the support of a decent environment, so relying on ourselves for survival may not be viable if the weather continues to be extreme. Like the old commercial for butter used to say: “It’s not nice [or wise] to fool with Mother Nature.”
Wicked Weather Last Night
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008
So Monroe, MI, how about that weather last night? Monroe doesn’t usually get anything that bad, especially my area near Lake Erie. Usually the lake just sucks out the storm, but last night blew the shingles off my roof. And they were only 2 years old! Straight-line winds just dropped in out of nowhere. I actually went to sit in the bathroom with my bird and one cat that doesn’t like storms. I wasn’t thinking tornado, but I was thinking scary thoughts. My only clue that it wasn’t going to be too bad is that there were birds, and mallard ducks eating under my bird feeder up until the moment that wind hit.
It could have been worse. Bloomfield Hills and counties North of us really got walloped with trees landing on houses and no power since Friday for some.
It’s no wonder weather events are extreme. Our country is experiencing some pretty diverse climate conditions all at once. Washington state was in the 30’s and expecting snow today. Places like Racine, WI got flash floods. Racine is bewildered because that NEVER happened before. And parts of Arkansas and N. Carolina are drought stricken. Mix snow, floods, heat, and droughts together and it’s little wonder we have climate explosions where bad weather just drops in like the 117 mph winds that ran through the Columbus, OH area last night.
We’re already greeted with a pretty wicked windy season and it’s only June 10th. I’ve lost some shingles. I just hope I can hang onto my new awning until windy season is over, and I hope no one suffered anything worse.
Climate Change Affecting U.S. Terrain
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
I ran across an interesting article on Environmental News Service about our changing forests and desert areas. One of my first blogs was about the influx of people to the Southwest where four states depend entirely on the Colorado River, which is supplied with water in the summer months from glacier melt. But the glaciers are slowly disappearing.
The article says that the changes will continue. In that case there will be a big exodus from those states in the future back to places like Michigan. We must keep our Great Lakes clean. Some day those lakes may mean survival for many.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2008/2008-05-28-091.asp
NASA Channel/Website Uncovers the Geek in Me
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008I just came to the realization this morning that I’m a geek. I doubt anyone but those extremely close to me would ever consider me a geek, because I didn’t. But I’m writing a fiction book that deals with space and as part of the research; I clicked on the NASA channel this morning. Oh, I’ve visited this channel before but it never occurred to me how long I linger there. I actually sit mesmerized by this world of space, science, and math that face it; most of our population knows absolutely nothing about and could care less.
My interest in the NASA channel isn’t the only thing however that qualifies me as a geek. Lately, I’ve become more and more interested in alternative sources of energy, particularly the many experiments with hydrogen. And I actually liked advanced math in college. Huge algebra problems were like puzzles to be worked, and I fanatically worked them. I even took an electricity class at Community College for the fun of it. Now something is clearly wrong here when only five people signed up for the class and after the instructor outlined what everyone would be doing, including algebra, the final class tally turned out to be me and another guy who had to take it. I’m a geek aren’t I?
That’s probably why I was anxious to read the pdf files of the latest findings that were reported from NASA today via telecon by a panel of experts ranging from terrestrial ecology to atmospheric and oceanic sciences relative to:
Changes to Earth’s ecosystems [that] are evident in recent research that employs NASA remote-sensing data. Panelists [discussed] several topics, including the impact of shrinking Arctic sea ice on marine ecosystems, how invasive species alter the biochemistry of local ecosystems, the role of climate change on the length of growing seasons and ecosystems, and seasonal changes in phytoplankton and the consequences on marine ecosystems.
It’s amazing what is seen from satellite devices, and how these global views allow scientists to analyze a situation. As these views are recorded over time changes become evident. Linking all the info from different components of the global warming equation like Arctic ice melt, rainforest changes, results of deforestation and fires, and marine biology is what has been necessary since the whole global warming theory began. Gathering data like that from all types of sources, and then combining it in a productive way to see how one system affects another over the globe is a daunting task, but satellite technology looks to tackle all of that in the future.
Check out the sight and the pdf files of different topics discussed.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ecosystem_research_briefs.html.
Click on News and Features on that page also to get the latest from NASA about polar bears and loss of habitat:
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/polar_bears.html
Great Lakes Compact To Be Finalized
Friday, April 11th, 2008Good news and just in time I think. The Great Lakes Compact looks to be signed off by the last, (Wisconsin), of 8 states that are involved in the agreement to keep Great Lakes water from being diverted elsewhere. The deadline for Wisconsin coming on board is April 17th. Wisconsin was holding out for changes to the compact that many claim would unravel the whole thing. So either Wisconsin conceded or something changed.
I say this happened just in time because the March 31st issue of Time magazine featured an article on Lake Mead drying up. It looked like the photographs of Lake Chad in Niger Africa that I blogged about in 2006. Lake Chad was once 10,000 sq mi but is now a mere 500 sq mi., probably less now in 2008. Lake Chad is comparable to some of our Great Lakes. It’s drying up, as is Lake Mead. The Time article said the marks on the surrounding rock show past water levels of Lake Mead that were100 ft. higher.
After that article, I picked up my latest Reader’s Digest May 2008 issue and the special report was titled as a question: “Are we running out of water?” That article highlighted Atlanta’s latest drought, as well as Lake Mead. The whole time I’m thinking about Wisconsin holding out on signing the compact because they are worried about communities outside of the basin getting water from the Great Lakes. The wells that one of the communities used to rely on are full of radium, so they need lake water more than ever.
But without the compact and as the law reads now for this Wisconsin out-of-basin community, the governors of the Great Lakes basin states can say no to a diversion from the Great Lakes for no reason at all. At least the new rules in the compact set up standards a community must meet to get the water, and as long as the treated wastewater is returned, that community wouldn’t be denied access. Did Wisconsin ever stop to think that they shouldn’t tick off the other governors by holding up this valuable compact, that those governors could veto the water to this out-of-basin community in the future? It’s doubtful that would happen, considering the moral and ethical implications, but Geez.
I think that we’re all a little spoiled. That Wisconsin community was used to just getting the water without a big hassle before. All they have to do is comply with standards outlined by the new compact, which they probably have been doing all along. So do the paperwork involved for the compliance and get your water already!
And the rest of us in the Great Lakes area are spoiled as well. I live right on the water. It is higher this year than all but one of the past 20 years I’ve lived here. Yet I read about fellow Americans suffering drought and fires elsewhere in the country. The dumb thing is that if climate gets so bad that drought forces millions of Americans out of their homes and migrating back toward the Great Lakes basin to settle, we will be using the water up anyway now won’t we? Instead of pumping it to them, they come here for it. What’s the difference? We’re simply delaying the process with this compact because if the scenario for water scarcity gets worse, we’ll be packed in like sardines around here, and just counting the days to our demise anyway.
We shouldn’t be fooling around about conservation in this country any longer. We’re seeing some pretty drastic changes in a very short period of time, a lot shorter than ”oh we-don’t-have-to-worry about global warming for ten years!” Right.
Read about the Great Lakes Compact: http://www.glc.org/about/glbc.html
About finalizing the compact: http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/page/community/post/coryliebmann/C27D
About the holdup in Wisconsin: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=718988