Oh, sorry, you said droughts
But seriously, wouldn't having less people help solve the problem? (I don't mean euthanasia, just border and immigration law enforcement)
Posted on 03/21/2013 2:44:12 PM PDT by EBH
The United States is in the midst of one of the biggest droughts in recent memory. At last count, over half of the lower 48 states had abnormally dry conditions and are suffering from at least moderate drought....
...U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist and Drought Monitor team member, Brad Rippey, explained that when the drought began in 2012, the worst of the conditions were much farther east, in states like Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan — the corn belt states. Based on pre-drought estimates, corn used for grain lost slightly more than a quarter of its potential. By the Summer of 2012, 59% of U.S. rangeland and pastureland was rated by the USDA as being in poor or very poor condition. The growing drought decimated national hay production, causing feed shortages, which in turn drove up prices in livestock.
By the fall of 2012, drought conditions continued to expand westward to its current epicenter — states like Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Oklahoma. Rippey explained that most worrying is the drought’s effects on the winter wheat crop, which is one of the biggest crops grown in the U.S., and which is grown almost entirely in the states in severe drought. While the region has had some precipitation recently, “winter wheat crop will need ideal conditions heading through the next few weeks just to break even. Rippey said....
In addition to severe drought conditions, relatively large areas in the worst-off states are in “exceptional” drought, which the USDA identifies as “exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses, shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies.” More than 70% of Nebraska is currently classified as being in a state of “exceptional drought,” which includes Exceptional and widespread crop/pasture losses; shortages of water in reservoirs, streams, and wells creating water emergencies....
(Excerpt) Read more at rr.com ...
There certainly are a lot more, like the soccer moms crusading against nuclear power plants, saying they did not want “radioactive” electricity in their houses...........
Oh, sorry, you said droughts
But seriously, wouldn't having less people help solve the problem? (I don't mean euthanasia, just border and immigration law enforcement)
Looks like we’d better start storing up pallets full of dehydrated water.
I’m also surprised Texas isn’t listed. Everytime in the past that drought caused a massive sell off of livestock caused a decrease in the price at the grocery store but not this time. It was obvious the grocery price was manipulated. The increase in prices should have come after when the ranchers were trying to restock their herds.
I’m also surprised Texas isn’t listed. Someone mentioned the Llano River wasn’t completely dry but it almost was. The town of Llano, as well as several others around the state, were out of drinking water and were considering hauling it in by rail. Most cities around the state had outside watering bans with fines up to $1000 and more. Llano lucked out because the city council went out on a limb and hired a water witcher who found a water supply literally at the last minute. The Llano River is part of chain of lakes called the Highland Lakes which furnishes water and power for Central Texas. They were so low that there were only two boat ramps that were open by the end of that summer. Businesses that rely on the rivers have had year after year of dry river beds that they called it quits and closed. The hills are covered with dead trees and are still fire hazards. There’s barely a day that goes by that we’re not in a fire watch. Just a couple weeks ago, the river authority cut off water to the south Texas rice growers because there is no water to spare. It’s already reached 90 degrees so we’re expecting another long HOT dry summer.
This is total BS.
The worst droughts in Michigan — based on what actually happened to the living plants — happened in the late 1980s and in the 1930s. Period. In the late 80s (probably 1987, although it may have been 1988) it was sufficiently dry in Grand Rapids that street-lining trees died of “thirst” and had to be removed. Lake Michigan got low enough that I could walk out to the sandbar in Grand Haven, and it was maybe waist deep out there. The Lake water temp was at or over 80 degrees for weeks.
In the 1930s, all the grass went dormant or died, per my late father; he stated numerous times that everything green was just about gone, and what is now the front lawn here was hard, dry, cracked ground, cracks so large he could put in his whole hand.
The key to whether a drought is bad or worse is, not about the rain being much less often, but *when* it falls — at least from the standpoint of farmers, which is where this article (op-ed) seems to be coming from.
Heh, yeah, that was a howler, wasn’t it. I think the writer was trying to say, of the seven states, these three are part of the corn belt. I expect to see even more corn planted around here this year, because the lower yield means more acreage has to be in cultivation; the corn rotation here (probably elsewhere) is with soybean, usually a year on - year off. It’s unusual to see any other grains because feed cattle mostly ceased to exist here, and dairy cattle is quite a specialty, no small-scale dairy farmers any longer.
Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio??? They’re on some of the largest fresh water lakes on the planet!!!
Heh, yeah, and we’d have plenty of electricity if we’d shut off some of them thar computers.
/bingo
Also Ohio’s Borders to the South and most of the East is the Ohio River and of course most of the North Border is Lake Erie.
We weren’t around in the 30s but we’ve seen pictures it is a little better looking than then but not much.
There are no real gains from growing corn for fuel. There is, however, a large cost of water consumed. Whether the land were simply to lie fallow, without irrigation, or whether less water-thirsty crops were grown (corn ethanol requires over 1,500 gallons of water, for every gallon of ethanol produced), there would be still be plenty of crops for food. There are plenty of alternative fuels — natural gas from fracking being the most obvious.
My MIL has a ranch and it is a good thing she doesn’t have to make a living off of it and is fast going in the hole. Between the costs of the ranch and her assisted living she could run out of money in a few years. I don’t think there is a market for dried out ranches either.
My grandparents were farmers/ranchers in central Texas in the 1920s and 30s. They lost most of what they had in the drought in the early 30s. They lost everything else in the flood in the mid 30s.
Central Texas weather has always been best described as a series of droughts separated by floods.
The wife and I have driven through that part of Wyoming five times in the last ten years. One time we were with her sister and bro-in-law in a fully loaded minivan. The crosswind on I-25 was so strong I could barely keep the van on the road. We stopped at a tourist info station in a small town, and I remarked on the strength of the wind to a friendly guy behind the info counter. He told me the wind usually blows stronger than that.
FYI. Carlsbad turned the first shovel on their desal plant.
That’s huge.
Its been over 15 years since they started planning for the desal plant.
More BS from the gov. The drought has been ongoing for at least 10 years...
12 years of hearings and court
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