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Dust Bowl 2012: Crop Disaster, Food Shortages And Weather Extremes
Thursday, August 2, 2012 10:24
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by Monica Davis
American consumers are getting hit hard: food prices are increasing, gasoline prices are increasing, more counties are beiing declared disaster areas due to drought and half the nation's on food stamps. Food, fuel and weather are contributing to a deatly triune of economic disasters whose end is no where in sight.
The nation's farmers and ranchers are in a deadly fight for their survival, as weather related crop losses threaten their survival. As the farmers go, so goes the nation. If farmers and ranchers struggle, food prices soar, putting more stress on the nation's financial survival and setting the natin's economic safety net up for an expensive implosion.
Nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added Wednesday to the U.S. government's list of natural disaster areas as the nation's agriculture chief unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat.The U.S. Department of Agriculture's addition of the 218 counties means that more than half of all U.S. counties – 1,584 in 32 states – have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that's considered the worst in decades. MORE HERE
Once the deserts of the Middle East were verdant pastureland, rich, and productive. Now we know the Sahara area as a veritable wasteland of sand and heat that continues to encroach on soil. Eight thousand years ago, the Sahara was totally different. In response to the above mentioned article on the current US agricultural disaster, a reader wrote,:
Not long ago, in terms of geologic time – a mere 8000 years ago, the Sahara Desert was a vast grassland with spots here and there that were wet enough to support open woodland.Much like the east-central parts of Oklahoma down to the Dallas/Ft.Worth metroplex is today.Winters were generally warmer and summers about the same. Rainfall amounts were in the 12 to 15 inch range annually for the drier parts and as much as 25 inches per year in the wetter areas. It was a much more inviting, productive and human friendly land back then.That all started going away long before the Egyptians started their empire building in the Nile Valley. But even during the First Dynasty conditions were wetter and cooler than today.The change was dramatic and though it didn't occur in an eyeblink, was still rapid and disruptive enough.There's no guarantee we aren't now seeing the begining stages of a similar change in America's Breadbasket.
Nobody wants to face the fact that this planet is an ever changing ecosystem, which has existed for millions of years. We, like other civilizations before us, think that everything will remain the same because that is the way we would like it to be. But geological history says otherwise. The only thing that is constant on this planet is change, and, historically, given the number of empires and civilizations hat have bit the dust, change will roll over us like a slow moving steamroller.
We, like others, are dying the minute we are born and so are our civilizations.
About the author:
Monica Davis is an Indiana-based author/columnist/activist/radio personality with 10 years experience in marketing, advertising, investigation and activism. She is a hard driving activist, author with a passion for justice and a low tolerance of idiocy and is also Farming/Native American/African American editor on Beforeitsnews.com
She specializes in economic, history and public policy issues and has written articles on land loss, bank failure, institutional corruption/document deception, environmental justice and alternative energy. She is the author of six books and is published in Great Britain, Canada, the U.S. and India. Home schoolers in New Zealand have used her articles as teaching tools. Ms. Davis has given presentations on land lynching and the farm catastrophe at churches, museums and universities. She publishes regularly on Opednews,Indybay, Buzzflash,and Sfbayview. Her articles are used as primary research material by researchers and have been read into the Congressional Record in land loss hearings. She has been interviewed by numerous bloggers, radio and television journalists, including: Black Men Screaming TV Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III on XM radio Radio stations in NYC, New Orleans Her articles have been read into the Congressional Record and used as the basis for interviews by other reporters. She is available for speaking engagements. Her books are available on Amazon. Her latest book, published in September is The Forever Dream: Making Social Activism Work Other books include: Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future of Black America
She has ongoing projects in land loss and institutional corruption and may be reached at: davis4000_2000 [at] yahoo.com
http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000
