Conditions in Oklahoma and parts of Texas are surpassing the historic Dust Bowl catastrophy of the 1930’s. Farmland is blowing away, cattle don’t have enough feed and crops are dying in the ground. This is the worst drought in Oklahoma history.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued an agricultural disaster declaration for 9 counties in Oklahoma last week.
Meanwhile…
15 million people in the Horn of Africa are in peril due, in part, to drought.
Horrific disasters like the ones last month in China and Burma have relief agencies buckling under the pressure of what they feel is going to be a “powerful, and quickly growing ‘tsunami’ in the form of an unprecedented global food crisis.”
The U.N. is figuring nearly 800 million people across the world will be in real danger of starvation.
Even after the waters recede it will be impossible to save potato and other root crops. The Potato crops that can be harvested will be unable to store due to moisture content, even on a short-term basis.
Fruit’s in trouble too. The harvest of apricots, peaches and early apples and pears had to be halted because of flooding.
The death toll has already reached 30. More than 50,000 are preparing for evacuation today as water agencies prepare to release thousands of cubic metres per second water to ease mounting pressure on some dams.
Thousands of children have been evacuated from summer resorts near the Dniester and Prut rivers. The sluices at several hydropower plants are currently operating at 6 and 7 times more than their operating capacity.
In the U.S., New Mexico’s Rio Ruidoso surged from it’s seasonal average of 4 feet to 12 feet on Saturday. The flooding there has destroyed 12 bridges in the area. Though these bridges were on secondary and residential streets the cost to replace them is going to be staggaring. Thanks to hurricane Dolly’s remnants. 400 people were evacuated, and 200 campers were cut off by the floods in nearby forest sites.
12,000 people evacuated from flooding in Romania are beginning to return home today. 1,400 bridges, 2,000 homes and more than 20,000 hectares of farmlands were flooded there.
In July flooding has killed at least 350 people in India and over 50,000 homes have been devastated.
The crop losses are still being calculated in the United States from flooding on the Mississippi river in the past weeks.
Georgia is a dry state. This doesn’t mean they still don’t enjoy their Mint Juleps. Georgia is still running out of water. It’s a good thing only 1 tablespoon of water is called for in the making of what’s known as ‘the world’s most civilized’ drink.
Civility may be called for, sans the bourbon, if the water war between Georgia and Tennessee gets any hotter.
Georgia lawmakers intend to take a legal look at what has been a 190 year-old border dispute with Tennessee. At issue is what Georgia claims is an 1818 survey of the state line which is in error. The 1.1 mile mistake hasn’t been in much dispute over the past couple of hundred years, but what a difference a mile can make when your state is running dry.
Moving the state boundary just over a mile to the north would give the particularly parched state of Georgia a portion of the wet Tennessee River.
The mayor of Chattanooga intends to have a truckload of water delivered to Georgia Lawmakers along with a proclamation setting aside one day as “Give Our Georgia Friends a Drink Day.”
Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth thinks Chattanooga mayor Littlefield’s delivery of water a nice gesture but also described Littlefield’s actions as “posturing”.
Littlefield said Tuesday, “We hope they accept it in the humorous way it is intended.”
Georgia’s Drought is no laughing matter. Just as border disputes between states isn’t funny either. What begins in jest, ends in earnest.
Take a look around this weekly updated drought page to see how ‘in earnest’ Georgia’s border dispute may become.
Alabama Governor Bob Riley has written a 3 page letter to G.W.Bush asking that he deny Georgia’s Governor’s request for presidential emergency actions.
Them’z fightin’ word’z!
Riley paints Perdue as an out and out liar. In his letter to the President he characterizes Perdue’s pleas for Divine presidential intervention as merely being a contest between people versus endangered mussels. Riley says “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Riley paints Perdue as an out and out liar. In his letter to the President he characterizes Perdue’s pleas for Divine presidential intervention as merely being a contest between people versus endangered mussels. Riley says “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
In my book, the thing furthest from the truth would be a lie. A horrible, bald faced lie. And so it begins, as the planet heats up, the turf wars heat up. Yikes!
Suffering a melt down?
Riley is so opposed to Georgia obtaining Federal intervention into it’s drought predicament that he reminds the president such action would not be safe.
If Georgia is allowed to keep it’s water in Lake Lanier there could be a nuclear event. Riley states, “Georgia ignores the fact that the Farley Nuclear Plant sits on the banks of the Chattahoochee River and requires cooling water at the nuclear plant.” Riley goes on, “If Georgia obtained the presidential action it seeks, then there would likely be inadequate cooling water for the nuclear plant.” “That is obviously something that cannot be allowed to happen.”
Never miss the chance to overstate the obvious?
Riley does make it sound as though there isn’t any way to back off or shut down Farley temporarily and that a slow down of industrial activity along the Chattahoochee River would be tantamount to the end of Alabama.
Wouldn’t saving one of America’s major cities trump some temporary economic hardships that would be taken by industry?
The cloud of hurricane Katrina hangs over questions such as those.
Some people did learn from Katrina. Northeast Georgia Medical Center isn’t going to be caught waiting for the federal government to come and save them in a disaster. Kevin Matson, safety and emergency preparedness coordinator at the Center says a contingency plan will be submitted to the Georgia Division of Public Health. Part of the plan would be to bring in tanks of non potable water for toilet flushing.
Hope springs eternal if the faucet doesn’t!
Jackie Joseph, president of the Lake Lanier Association, tosses a brighter spin on the drought, “There are some people who are trying to look at the bright side and say, well, the lake has filled up before, it can do it again.” She goes on, “Our leaders didn’t seem to learn much from the last drought in 1999-2002.”
Yep, yep…Things are different this time though.
Governor Sonny Perdue is declaring North Georgia a disaster area and asking President Bush for federal assistance.
FEMA, Bush, Disaster… not a successful combination.
If Atlanta thinks it holds any more importance to the nation than New Orleans held they may want to reconsider that sentiment.
Where Has All The Water Gone? On A Slow Boat To China?
It may be crazy to think about but consider this for a moment. China now has more than 37,000 peasants working to produce rain. That’s right.
While millions of people are suffering from horrific wide spread drought, China says it has added a staggering 275 Billion..That’s Billion…cubic yards of additional rainfall by using rocket launchers. Rocket launcher are filled with artillery pieces loaded with silver iodide and other chemicals and then blasted into clouds.
China has been testing it’s rainmaking prowess for more than a dozen years now and they think they have a pretty good record. The Gutlan Reservoir in Fujian province is reported to have had a 24% increase since the testing began.
China has the largest rainmaking operation in the world followed by Russia and Israel.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should!
I don’t need to tell any of you again that I’m no rocket scientist but, I’m going to fall down on the side of some of China’s Henan province residents. 2 years ago a 5 city squabble broke out with accusations of ‘cloud theft’ broke out. In my mind it only stands on the side of reason that unnaturally bleeding water from clouds in one part of the world would send empty clouds to another part.
Whether or not my theory is true sending chemicals into the sky with rocket launchers has to be a bad idea on so many levels.
Keep your eye on the prize!
Scientists using satellites analyze cloud content from several major cities. When the time look right they put out the call for any number of the 37,000 weather troops to assemble. Each team can assemble in a matter of minutes and begin firing chemicals into promising clouds in their area.
To the victor go the spoils!
Do we not have enough evidence that everything in this world is tied together in an inextricable knot?
China doesn’t just want to produce more rainfall to fill their newly completed $25 Billion dollar Three Gorges Dam which is the largest to date in the world, they want to also stop the rain from falling.
Don’t rain on my parade!
Zhang Qiang, a ‘weather modifier’ at the Beijing Meteorological Bureau will try to stop the rain from ruining the Olympics. Zhang will try to intercept the rain clouds by calling out his troops to divert them.
Microwaves aren’t just for popping corn.
One way scientists are scheming to stop hurricanes is by dumping black soot on to the top of a hurricane. They are thinking that the dark color will draw the sun’s heat and warm the icy clouds at the top causing it to loose it’s power.
If the soot isn’t black enough how about shredding tires and dropping black them across the top?
Maybe the beaming of microwaves from space to the tops of the hurricanes thereby changing their airflow is a better idea.
I’m in agreement that we have to start finding ways to adapt to our changing environment, but there are light years between the word adapt, and the word control.
Man has apparently learned nothing from his quest to maintain dominance on the planet.
Is this going to be the key that unlocks the trap we have set for ourselves, or will this be just one more nail in the coffin?
City-states and climate change aren’t two terms being used in public but, they most certainly are being used behind closed doors when government and science collide over global warming.
Atlanta, Georgia has found itself on the brink of a disaster. Two days ago the estimated water reserve in Lake Lanier was enough to last only 81 more days.
Given the fact that Atlanta should receive nearly 14 more inches of rain per year than Seattle, Washington a drought in Atlanta seems out of the realm of possibilities, and yet it has happened.
The Army Corps of Engineers is mandated to release millions of gallons of water that flow downstream to Florida and Alabama. In spite of the fact that Atlanta is suffering the largest drought in their history. Much of the water released is part of an attempt to save the endangered Mussel. Freshwater mussels are among the most endangered organisms in North America from Canada all the way down to Florida.
The Governor of Georgia demanded the Corp stop releasing vital water, but the Corps has it’s orders. Florida’s Environmental Chief sent a warning to the Corps staying that reducing the flow of water from Georgia “would severely impact Florida’s natural resources.” Florida has already complained that Georgia is not sending enough water downstream as it is.
You can’t get blood from a turnip!
The Governor of Alabama is crying to the Corps for more water from Georgia. Alabama is also trying to cope with shortages. Georgia’s Governor says he is prepared to file suit to stop the release of his State’s water causing further tensions between the three states.
The National Weather Service expects this coming winter to also be one of the driest on record so it doesn’t look like there will be any relief insight for the near future.
Those of us paying attention to these kinds of things know that situations just like this one are only the tip of the iceberg. The States downstream can cry all they want about the lack of water being sent to them, but if there is no excess water to send what happens?
Last night the state held a public hearing in Rome, Georgia which drew a lively crowd of protesters. The County Commission Chairman was quoted as saying “I’d rather not characterize it as a fight…as competing interests that we need to find some solutions to.”
Bad moon rising!
Officials may, rather these types of issues not be characterized as fights, but what they have on their hands whether they’d rather or not, is a festering boil on the rump of civility.
If the best they can do is ask their constituents to ‘pray for rain’, they have more problems on their hands than they realize. Atlanta’s problem isn’t just affecting other states it’s having an impact on other cities in Georgia. State versus state will seem like a cake walk if neighboring cities start feuding.
If officials are paying attention to the chatter on local Internet forums, and I hope they are, they will see that the locals are quickly becoming restless.
A few quotes from the local forums:
“Couldn’t the Army in Iraq use a few more soldiers? The Corps is Army, ship them off…”
“…Keep our water where it belongs: In Lake Lanier for all the wealthy boaters to enjoy…”
“Before you argue that endangered species stuff, just remember this: the mussels would eat you given the chance.”
“Endangered species…Boo! Species come. Species go. We have the ability to save ourselves over the mussels so we should. If a species is unable to continue existence for whatever reason then that’s the way it is, get over it and move on.”
“Disease, blight, famine, economical devastation and death are what will come with this idiotic attitude…”
Tossing the baby out with the bath water!
Today Georgia Law makers are trying to move legislation in Congress, that will waive the requirements of the “Endangered Species Act,”
As more and more people become pushed by the detrimental affects of Global Warming, environmental issues will be shoved out the window.
The sad thing is; man’s innate desire to survive happens to be predicated on the survival of the environment, it’s not the other way around.
Photo: 11Alive News. Protester wearing mussel shaped hat speaking at last nights meeting in Rome Georgia.
In Tasmania, where only 2.3% of the population of Australia are living, they receive 12% of the national annual rainfall. There are those that think it would make sense to move some of that rainfall to where it is really needed.
On the surface it makes sense to collect the abundant rain water and move it to regions where fresh drinking water is in ever shortening supplies. But, these days every story of quick fixes, work-around, and bright ideas for the future is usually followed by several cautionary tales of how or why these ideas turned out to be bad ideas.
Hopefully this won’t turn out to be the case for Tasmania where by all accounts it looks like they are taking a green proactive approach to global warming and climate change. Tasmania even has a Climate Change Team located in their Strategic Policy Division. Their prediction is that rainfall my likely increase on the western and droughts will continue to worsen on the eastern side.
A large portion of Tasmania’s energy comes from renewable sources, and nearly 40% of Tasmania has been set aside as ‘conservation’ reserves. 90% of their electricity is from hydro-electricity and wind. Tasmania seems to be on the right track, trying to anticipate and lessen the impact of global warming on their region.
There has been a proposal made to use supertankers for water, and ferry the water to the eastern side of the Country. Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland.
The majority of rainfall on the western side of Tasmania runs into swollen rivers and is pushed into the sea essentially wasting the fresh water. Of course we may find out 50 years down the road that all the fresh water that empties into the sea in fact was serving some sort of vital purpose. For now though how this water may be transported is the really interesting thing about this proposal.
A company called Solar Sailor has made one of the proposals the government is considering. Solar Sailor proposes the water be transported using their solar sail and hybrid marine power vessels suited for the task. These vessels have higher fuel savings, unlimited range and can have zero emissions.
Solar Sailor has received a 2007 Laureate Intel Environment Environment Award as part of the Annual Tech Museum Awards, Technology Benefiting Humanity.
Without a crystal ball it is difficult to predict our future as it relates to innovation being good for the environment in the long term. We’ve certainly done a tremendous amount of damage before anyone even started asking, “is this a good move for the future of the planet?” Now that these questions have started to be asked in earnest the answer is the same, at this point it is difficult to predict.
Now to the credit of mankind, we are at least asking.
