Dead
Crops, Extreme Drought And Endless Wildfires Are Now The New Normal In America
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
http://albertpeia.com/deadcropsdroughtwildfiresnewusnormal.htm
‘
‘As you read this, the
United States is experiencing the worst drought it has seen since the Dust
Bowl days of the 1930s. As you read this, nearly half of all corn
crops in the
According
to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of July 31st close to
two-thirds of the continental
Keep
in mind that brown is "severe drought", red is "extreme
drought" and dark brown in "exceptional drought".
This
is truly a historic drought. We have
never seen anything like this in modern times in the
The
week before, this is how the
"Over
90 percent of the topsoil was short or very short of moisture in Oklahoma,
Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, with virtually
all (99 percent) short or very short in Missouri and Illinois"
There
had been some hope that rain would bring relief to farmers in the central part
of the country, but instead things just keep getting worse and worse.
At
this point, close to half of all corn being grown
in the
For
ranchers, the outlook is even more dismal. The following is from a recent
CNN article....
Nearly
three-quarters of the nation's cattle acreage is now inside a drought-stricken
area, as is about two-thirds of the country's hay acreage, the agency reported.
What
that means is that a lot of animals are being slaughtered now and the price of
meat is going to be moving substantially higher later in the year.
The
following is what the CEO of
Beef
is simply going to be too expensive to eat. Pork is not going to be too far
behind. Chicken is catching up fast. Are we really going to take protein away
from Americans?
He
also told the Financial Times that he expects meat
prices to rise by "significant double digits".
Those
are very frightening statements.
The
CEO of a major food company says that beef is going to "be too expensive
to eat"?
That
doesn't sound good at all.
Meanwhile,
this drought is absolutely devastating farmers and ranchers all over the United States....
"When
I was a kid in the '50s ... it got real dry, but nothing like this," said
Marvin Helms, a 70-year-old farmer and rancher in central
His
thousand acres of farmland near Arkadelphia include corn and soybeans, which
Helms says is normally sufficient to sustain his family and provide for his
cattle.
"We've
got some insurance on the crops, but it's not enough," he said. "It
will help, but it won't pay the bills."
Of
course the federal government is going to step in and try to help these farmers
and ranchers, but the truth is that the federal government is already drowning in debt. Any additional help will
have to be done with more borrowed money.
It is
hard to describe how oppressive the heat and the drought have been in the
middle part of the nation this year. We have seen some unprecedented
things happen.
For
example, it got so hot in
Of
course the main problem in
Wildfires
burned out of control on Friday in
Emergency
officials counted 11 different wildfires around the state, with at least 65
homes destroyed in parched areas north and south of
Oklahoma joins several states that have been plagued
by wildfires this summer, including Colorado,
But
these fires in
Another
major change that we have seen is that massive dust storms called "haboobs" are becoming much more frequent in the
southwest part of the country.
Just the other day, a dust storm that was
approximately 2,000 feet high and nearly 100
kilometers wide ripped through the city of
Such
events were once very rare in
But not anymore.
Meanwhile,
much of the central and western
And I
am not just talking about surface water.
A lot
of the key aquifers that have allowed us to build cities and irrigate crops in
the western half of the
Few
places in Southern California is that more evident than the desert sands of
Borrego Springs, where residents, farmers and golf course operators are sucking
about four times as much water from the ground each year as nature replaces.
They’ve
been pumping so hard for so long that the community’s main aquifer could
essentially run dry after a few more decades. That’s a dire possibility: A
recent study showed it would be prohibitively expensive to build a pipeline to
an outside source.
Did
you catch that last part?
The
truth is that someday entire cities may have to be abandoned because it will be
"prohibitively expensive" to build water pipelines stretching
hundreds of miles to bring them water.
Sadly,
this is not just happening in
Similar
concerns are bubbling up along San Diego County’s backcountry and across the
nation — particularly in places such as the Central Valley and the Great
Plains, where residents have dug deep to withstand a drought that has squeezed
the nation’s midsection dry.
“It
took Mother Nature in some cases thousands of years to accumulate the water in
the aquifers, but we are pumping it out in mere decades,” said Robert Glennon, a law professor and water expert at the University
of Arizona. “It’s a huge national and international problem. … It is utterly
unsustainable and scary.”
I
have previously written about how the largest underground water source in the
So
even when this summer ends our problems will be far, far from over.
But
right now the most immediate concern is the condition of our corn and our
soybeans.
Corn
is found in about 74 percent of the products
we buy in the supermarket, and it is used to feed livestock all over the
country.
In
addition, the
So if
our crops fail that is a very big deal.
Right
now, it is being reported that this drought
"will likely cost the
Considering
the fact that the "employment rate" in the United States is lower than it was during the last recession and that
the U.S. economy is in the midst of a horrible long-term economic decline, this is the
last thing that we need.
And
what happens to all of the countries that are depending on us for food?
A
recent Wired article had this startling headline....
"U.S. Drought
Could Cause Global Unrest"
When
people cannot feed their families, they tend to lose it.
Unfortunately,
this year might just be the beginning.
According
to a recent article in the Guardian, some scientists
say that the drought has been so bad this year that it is going to take a
"freak event" to avoid catastrophic damage to next year's corn
crops....
What
matters now is whether there will be enough rain to get next year's crops off
to a good start.
"This
drought isn't going anywhere," he said. "The damage is already done.
What you are looking for is enough moisture to avert a second year of
drought," he said.
However,
Svoboda conceded that might require a freak event, especially in the mid-west
which has already passed its rain season. "In the entire corn belt, from
"As
far as widespread general relief for the whole region it would take a really
freakish dramatic change to make that happen. That doesn't appear to be in the
cards, given the time of year we are in."
The
skies are dry and our fields are scorched.
Our
crops our failing and millions of acres are burning.
Our
groundwater supplies are being rapidly depleted and giant dust storms are
sweeping across some of our major cities.
Welcome
to the new normal.
It
isn't going to be pleasant.
