[ScubieNuc]

While overall I agree with your assessment, I will add my own personal experience. I live near La Crosse Wisconsin and I have seen that the barge trains are smaller. Last weekend I went canoing on a river that feeds into the Mississippi, and it was the lowest I have ever seen it. In fact it was so low, that I had to walk the canoe about half of the trip due to low water/sand bars.

Is it the end of the world? I don't know, but I know that many people now days have taken for granted the blessing God has given America and what God gives, God can also take away.

[dr_lew]

Here's the River gauge at Memphis. It is low, and so far has matched the sixth lowest on record:

(6) -8.00 ft on 11/16/1993

With a slight reprieve predicted, let's hope it doesn't match the record:

(1) -10.70 ft on 07/10/1988

I remember that year very well, just from local conditions here in Chitown. The grass was silver in June, and the golf course that summer was like hard clay. This was before global warming, I guess, because nobody mentioned it.

[DoughtyOne]

Here’s where I’m coming from. If you’ll listen to the reports of drought, you’ll note that they generally say, this is the driest it’s been in fifty years, or something like that.

Okay, that means that fifty years ago, it was worse than it is now.

I know what is happening now is hard on people who live in the region. I’m not trying to say it isn’t. It’s just that I don’t think it’s wise to attribute this to some global meltdown.