Drought

Texas: The Worst Drought In Two Generations Is Choking Water Supply, Which Is Why Residents Now Turn Against Fracking

by

– Texan drought sets residents against fracking – video (Guardian, Aug 11, 2013):

In Mertzon and Barnhart in western Texas, the worst drought in two generations is choking the water supply. Water shortages are raising tensions between locals and the fracking industry. Drilling for shale gas uses up to 8m gallons of water each time a well is fracked. Suzanne Goldenberg reports




More info on fracking:

– ‘The Real Threat: Acid Jobs’

– Fracking Our Food Supply – Livestock Falling Ill In Fracking Regions

– Fracking The Great Lakes

– Fracking Chemical Cocktail Interview – ‘Fracktastic’ Radionuclides And Total Destruction Coming Your Way (Video)

– David Letterman On Fracking: ‘We’re Screwed’ (Video)

– Human-Made Earthquakes Reported In Central U.S (Reuters)

– US Government Confirms Link Between Earthquakes And Fracking

– European Gas Giant Backs French Fear Of Fracking

– Texas Forces Firms To Open Up On ‘Fracking’

– Fracking Hell: Toxic And Radioactive Waste – The Untold Story

– The Oil and Gas Industry’s 800-Pound Gorilla: RADIATION!

– ‘Fracking’ Result (= Contamination) For UK Shale Gas Will Be Kept Secret Until 2015

– US: Natural Gas Wells’ Contaminated Water Hits Rivers

– GASLAND Trailer 2010 (Documentary)

The Colorado River, The High Plains Aquifer And The Entire Western Half Of The U.S. Are Rapidly Drying Up

by

– The Colorado River, The High Plains Aquifer And The Entire Western Half Of The U.S. Are Rapidly Drying Up (Economic Collapse, May 23, 2013):

What is life going to look like as our precious water resources become increasingly strained and the western half of the United States becomes bone dry?  Scientists tell us that the 20th century was the wettest century in the western half of the country in 1000 years, and now things appear to be reverting to their normal historical patterns.  But we have built teeming cities in the desert such as Phoenix and Las Vegas that support millions of people.  Cities all over the Southwest continue to grow even as the Colorado River, Lake Mead and the High Plains Aquifer system run dry.  So what are we going to do when there isn’t enough water to irrigate our crops or run through our water systems?  Already we are seeing some ominous signs that Dust Bowl conditions are starting to return to the region.  In the past couple of years we have seen giant dust storms known as “haboobs” roll through Phoenix, and 6 of the 10 worst years for wildfires ever recorded in the United States have all come since the year 2000.  In fact, according to the Los Angeles Times, “the average number of fires larger than 1,000 acres in a year has nearly quadrupled in Arizona and Idaho and has doubled in every other Western state” since the 1970s.  But scientists are warning that they expect the western United States to become much drier than it is now.  What will the western half of the country look like once that happens?

A recent National Geographic article contained the following chilling statement…

Read moreThe Colorado River, The High Plains Aquifer And The Entire Western Half Of The U.S. Are Rapidly Drying Up

US: The Current Drought Is A Bad One, And It’s Not Going Away

by


A farmer holds a fistful of arid topsoil in Logan, Kansas.

– The current drought is a bad one, and it’s not going away (Rolling Stone, Jan 17, 2013):

Droughts, it could be argued, are the opposite of news. By definition, they represent the absence of something (namely, adequate rain) happening. And they only occur when that something has already been not-happening for a very long time. As a result, droughts tend not to make the front page. When they do – as happened last summer, when headlines trumpeted the worst U.S. drought conditions in 50 years – the public gets concerned. But soon enough, droughts begin to feel like business as usual again, invisible in their very ubiquity.

It’s time to start paying attention.

Why?

Read moreUS: The Current Drought Is A Bad One, And It’s Not Going Away

Mississippi River Nears Historic Lows, Shipping At Risk

by

– Mississippi River nears historic lows, shipping at risk (Reuters, Jan 2, 2013):

The drought-drained Mississippi River will rise slightly later this week between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois, but later continue its decline toward historic lows, according to a National Weather Service forecast.Low water, due to the worst U.S. drought since 1956, has already impeded the flow of billions of dollars worth of grain, coal, fertilizer and other commodities between the central United States and shipping terminals at the Gulf of Mexico.

A further drop in river levels could halt commercial shipping traffic entirely by this weekend, the American Waterways Operators and the Waterways Council Inc said in a statement on Wednesday.

Read moreMississippi River Nears Historic Lows, Shipping At Risk

US: Horses Starving To Death Because Of Sky-High Hay Prices

by

– Some Horses Starving As Hay Prices Continue To Rise (CBS, Nov 12, 2012):

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) – Horses that have nearly starved to death has become a problem, and experts say it will only get worse as the cold days of winter move in.

Many horse owners say they just can’t afford to feed the animals because of sky-high hay prices, which are elevated due to the drought in Colorado and across the nation.

Drought conditions this year range from dry to exceptional for nearly every state west of the Missisippi River. That means less hay has been grown and prices are at three times the normal level.

Read moreUS: Horses Starving To Death Because Of Sky-High Hay Prices

Global Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years

by

Flashback:

– USDA: No strategic grain reserves … they sold them!

– Global Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years (The Truth, Oct 16, 2012):

For six of the last eleven years the world has consumed more food than it has produced.  This year, drought in the United States and elsewhere has put even more pressure on global food supplies than usual.  As a result, global food reserves have reached their lowest level in almost 40 years.  Experts are warning that if next summer is similar to this summer that it could be enough to trigger a major global food crisis.  At this point, the world is literally living from one year to the next.  There is simply not much of a buffer left.  In the western world, the first place where we are going to notice the impact of this crisis is in the price of food.  It is being projected that overall food prices will rise between 5 and 20 percent by the end of this year.  It is becoming increasingly clear that the world has reached a tipping point.  We aren’t producing enough food for everyone anymore, and food reserves will continue to get lower and lower.  Eventually they will be totally gone.

The United Nations has issued an unprecedented warning about the state of global food supplies.  According to the UN, global food reserves have not been this low since 1974…

Read moreGlobal Food Reserves Have Reached Their Lowest Level In Almost 40 Years

World On Track For Record Food Prices ‘Within A Year’ Due To US Drought

by

Brace yourself for some painful “agflation”. That is the shorthand for agricultural commodity inflation, otherwise known as rising food prices.


Rabobank thinks the consumer impact could be less painful this time around compared to 2008, when there were severe shortages of wheat and rice. That is because today’s shortages are being seen more in crops used as animal feed, such as corn and soybeans. Photo: Reuters

– World on track for record food prices ‘within a year’ due to US drought (Telegraph, sep 23, 2012):

They are being driven upwards by the climb in grain and oilseed prices as US crops weather the country’s worst drought since 1936, while the farming belts of Russia and South America suffer through similar water shortages.

What we are seeing represents the third major rally in global grain and oilseed prices in just half a decade.

Read moreWorld On Track For Record Food Prices ‘Within A Year’ Due To US Drought

‘We’ll Make A Killing Out Of Food Crisis’, Psychopathic Glencore Trading Boss Chris Mahoney Boasts

by

– ‘We’ll make a killing out of food crisis’, psychopathic Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts (Sott.net, Aug 30, 2012):

Drought is good for business, says world’s largest commodities trading company

The United Nations, aid agencies and the British Government have lined up to attack the world’s largest commodities trading company, Glencore, after it described the current global food crisis and soaring world prices as a “good” business opportunity.

With the US experiencing a rerun of the drought “Dust Bowl” days of the 1930s and Russia suffering a similar food crisis that could see Vladimir Putin’s government banning grain exports, the senior economist of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, Concepcion Calpe, told The Independent: “Private companies like Glencore are playing a game that will make them enormous profits.”

Read more‘We’ll Make A Killing Out Of Food Crisis’, Psychopathic Glencore Trading Boss Chris Mahoney Boasts

What Was Behind Mysterious Collapse Of The Mayan Empire?

by

Greece, Italy and Spain also had a different climate before they all started to cut down their forests.

Related info:

– Greening the Desert


A temple in Tikal, one of the Mayan city states

– What Was Behind Mysterious Collapse of the Mayan Empire? (LiveScience, Aug 22, 2012)

The city states of the ancient Mayan empire flourished in southern Mexico and northern Central America for about six centuries. Then, around A.D. 900 Mayan civilization disintegrated.

Two new studies examine the reasons for the collapse of the Mayan culture, finding the Mayans themselves contributed to the downfall of the empire.

Scientists have found that drought played a key role, but the Mayans appear to have exacerbated the problem by cutting down the jungle canopy to make way for cities and crops, according to researchers who used climate-model simulations to see how much deforestation aggravated the drought.

“We’re not saying deforestation explains the entire drought, but it does explain a substantial portion of the overall drying that is thought to have occurred,” said the study’s lead author Benjamin Cook, a climate modeler at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, in a statement.

Read moreWhat Was Behind Mysterious Collapse Of The Mayan Empire?

US Corn, Soy Prices Hit New Record Highs As Drought Lingers

by

Related info:

– AND NOW … Ranchers Struggling With Skyrocketing Corn Prices Feed Their Cows Second-Hand Candy During Drought

– Global Geoengineering Programs: ‘Why In The World Are They Spraying?’ (Full Length Documentary HD):

– US corn, soy prices hit records as drought lingers (France 24/AFP, Aug 22, 2012):

US corn and soybean prices closed at new record highs Tuesday as a new survey showed worse-than-expected crop damage from a brutal drought across the country’s central breadbasket.The price of corn jumped 1.7 percent to $8.3875 a bushel, while soybeans finished at $17.3025 a bushel, up 2.8 percent from Tuesday.

That left the corn price up 68 percent from June and soybeans 39 percent higher.

Read moreUS Corn, Soy Prices Hit New Record Highs As Drought Lingers

The Growing Threat Of Soybean-Inspired Social Unrest In China

by

– The Growing Threat Of Soybean-Inspired Social Unrest In China (ZeroHedge, Aug 19, 2012):

Two weeks ago we explained why the drought-inspired soaring price of Soybeans  – specifically from the US – would notably influence global central-planners’ actions – and more specifically the Chinese (given its high impact on food price inflation). Food prices remain elevated and the PBoC is undertaking Reverse Repos – the exact opposite of an RRR-driven easing program so many expected. However, there is a further, deeper, and more troubling consequence than ‘simple’ inflationary arguments – that of social unrest. Confirming our insight, the LA Times points out,

Soybean oil is the most important edible oil in China with more than two-thirds of cooking oil consumed in China coming from soybeans – and most of those soybeans are supplied by the US (more than half of US exports are to China and the US is China’s number 1 supplier). According to one official this “makes [China] vulnerable to the drought” and bound to the fortunes of farmers in the American heartland. The Chinese devote more than 20% of their income to food (three times more than Americans – according to the USDA).

Read moreThe Growing Threat Of Soybean-Inspired Social Unrest In China

AND NOW … Ranchers Struggling With Skyrocketing Corn Prices Feed Their Cows Second-Hand Candy During Drought

by

– Cows eating candy during the drought (WPRI, Aug 16, 2012):

MAYFIELD, Ky. (CNN/WPSD) – Ranchers have struggled with skyrocketing corn prices, because the drought has made feeding their livestock very expensive. But one rancher has turned to a very sweet solution.

At Mayfield’s United Livestock Commodities, owner Joseph Watson is tweaking the recipe for success.

“Just to be able to survive, we have to look for other sources of nutrition,” he said.

His 1,400 cattle are no longer feeding off corn. The prices, Watson says, are too high to keep corn in stock. So earlier this year, he began to buy second-hand candy.

“It has a higher ratio of fat than actually feeding straight corn,” Watson explained. “It’s hard to believe it will work but we’ve already seen the results of it now.”

Read moreAND NOW … Ranchers Struggling With Skyrocketing Corn Prices Feed Their Cows Second-Hand Candy During Drought

The Return Of The 1930s Midwest Dust Bowl

by

This time it is the ‘Greatest Depression’.

– Return of the Dust Bowl (Independent, Aug 11, 2012):

The parched prairies of the Midwest are facing a natural disaster not seen since the ‘dusters’ of the 1930s

The jam jar sitting on John Vannatta’s kitchen table appears to be filled with coffee, until he shows you the label on the lid. The preserve inside is history, saved from a time when black blizzards filled the sky, turning day into night; a time when Americans starved. “Pure 1930s Blow Dirt,” it reads. It might also say: don’t forget, lest it happens again.

Not that Mr Vannatta, 92 – or his neighbour Huston Hanes – needs reminding. Both retired farmers, they are members of a very small club indeed: the last survivors of that great American epic, the Dust Bowl, that spanned 1932 to 1936 and coincided with the Great Depression.

Read moreThe Return Of The 1930s Midwest Dust Bowl

Monsanto Capitalizes On Drought And Enslaves Farmers

by

– Monsanto Capitalizes on Drought and Enslaves Farmers (Farm Wars, Aug 8, 2012):

Monsanto is by far one of the greatest disaster capitalists around. Not only does this paraiah of a company manufacture and sell genetically engineered crops (GMOs) that actually increase drought conditions, but it is now poised to capitalize on the very same conditions that it helps to cause.

In “Why in the World Are They Spraying?,” we talk about how Monsanto has a patent on genetically engineering plants able to withstand abiotic stresses such as drought and how it stands to profit from the effects of “climate change.” Therefore, with drought conditions worsening, like any good disaster capitalist, Monsanto is about to cash in. I expected it, others expected it, and here it is… just what we’ve been expecting…

Read moreMonsanto Capitalizes On Drought And Enslaves Farmers

Dead Crops, Extreme Drought And Endless Wildfires Are Now The New Normal In America

by

Flashback:

– Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: ‘Worldwide Water Conspiracy’ (FULL LENGTH):

– Dead Crops, Extreme Drought And Endless Wildfires Are Now The New Normal In America (Economic Collapse, Aug 5, 2012):

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 United States are in “poor” or “very poor” condition.  As you read this, 38 major wildfires are ripping across the central and western United States.  The brutal wildfires in Oklahoma have been so bad that they have made national headlines.  The price of corn has hit a brand new record high this summer and so has the price of soybeans.  More than half of all the counties in this country have been declared to be “natural disaster areas” by the U.S. Department of Agriculture at this point.  Things are so bad for ranchers that the CEO of Smithfield Foods is projecting that meat prices will rise by “significant double digits” in the months ahead.  Sadly, this drought is projected to continue throughout August and into September.  As you will read about below, some meteorologists are even openly postulating that there may not be enough moisture to avoid another drought next year.  Yes, things are really bad this year, but when you step back and take a look at the broader picture they become truly frightening.According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of July 31st close to two-thirds of the continental United States was experiencing at least some level of drought….

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 United States.

The week before, this is how the U.S. Drought Monitor described conditions in the center of the country….

“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.

Read moreDead Crops, Extreme Drought And Endless Wildfires Are Now The New Normal In America

Devastating US Drought Heralds Global Food Inflation

by

An aerial view of drought affected Colorado farm lands, 74 miles east of Denver, Colorado on Saturday, July 21, 2012 [Photo: USDA]

Severe drought spread rapidly across the central US this week, further damaging staple crops and heightening the risk of a global food crisis. The Midwest, where roughly one-third of the world’s staple grains are produced, is experiencing the deepest dry spell in over half a century.

The National Drought Mitigation Center in a statement Thursday reported “tremendous intensification of drought through Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, and into part of Wyoming and South Dakota in the last week.” Almost 30 percent of the Midwest is under extreme drought, triple that of the previous week.

Every state in the country had some counties under abnormally dry or drought conditions, making the disaster the most widespread US drought since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has declared 1,369 counties across 31 states disaster areas—officially the largest US disaster on record.

Read moreDevastating US Drought Heralds Global Food Inflation

The Price Of Corn Hits Record High As Global Food Crisis Looms

by

– The Price Of Corn Hits A Record High As A Global Food Crisis Looms (The Economic Collapse, July 21, 2012):

Are you ready for the next major global food crisis?  The price of corn hit an all-time record high on Thursday.  So did the price of soybeans.  The price of corn is up about 50 percent since the middle of last month, and the price of wheat has risen by about 50 percent over the past five weeks.  On Thursday, corn for September delivery reached $8.166 per bushel, and many analysts believe that it could hit $10 a bushel before this crisis is over.  The worst drought in the United States in more than 50 years is projected to continue well into August, and more than 1,300 counties in the United States have been declared to be official natural disaster areas.  So how is this crisis going to affect the average person on the street?  Well, most Americans and most Europeans are going to notice their grocery bills go up significantly over the coming months.  That will not be pleasant.  But in other areas of the world this crisis could mean the difference between life and death for some people.  You see, half of all global corn exports come from the United States.  So what happens if the U.S. does not have any corn to export?  About a billion people around the world live on the edge of starvation, and today the Financial Times ran a front page story with the following headline: “World braced for new food crisis“.  Millions upon millions of families in poor countries are barely able to feed themselves right now.  So what happens if the price of the food that they buy goes up dramatically?

Read moreThe Price Of Corn Hits Record High As Global Food Crisis Looms

U.S. Declares The Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due To Drought

by

– U.S. Declares the Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due to Drought (The Atlantic, July 12, 2012):

The blistering summer and ongoing drought conditions have the prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare a federal disaster area in more than 1,000 counties covering 26 states. That’s almost one-third of all the counties in the United States, making it the largest distaster declaration ever made by the USDA.

The declaration covers almost every state in the southern half of the continental U.S., from South Carolina in the East to California in the West. It’s also includes Colorado and Wyoming (which have been hit by devatasting wildfires) and Illinois, Indiana, Kansas and Nebraska in the Midwest. However, it does not include Iowa, which is the largest grain and corn producer in the U.S. This map show the counties affected:

 

The USDA’s latest crop report is projecting a 12 percent decrease in the corn harvest this year, which would still be the third-largest haul on record. Despite the negative outlook, grain prices remains quite low, according to CNBC.

Read moreU.S. Declares The Largest Natural Disaster Area Ever Due To Drought

The Corn Is Dying All Over America

by

See also:

– 25 Signs The Collapse Of America Is Speeding Up As Society Rots From The Inside Out

Flasback:

– Former governor Jesse Ventura Conspiracy Theory: Worldwide Water Conspiracy (Video)

– The Corn Is Dying All Over America (The Economic Collapse, July 9, 2012):

All over America the corn is dying.  If drought conditions persist in the middle part of the country, wheat and soybeans will be next.  Weeks of intense heat combined with extraordinarily dry conditions have brought many U.S. corn farmers to the brink of total disaster.  If there is not significant rainfall soon, many farmers will be financially ruined.  This period of time is particularly important for corn because this is when pollination is supposed to happen.  But the unprecedented heat and the extremely dry conditions are playing havoc with that process.  With each passing day things get even worse.  We have seen the price of a bushel of corn soar 41 percent since June 14th.  That is an astounding rise.  You may not eat much corn directly, but it is important to realize that corn or corn syrup is just about in everything these days.  Just look at your food labels.  In the United States today, approximately 75 percent of all processed foods contain corn.  So a huge rise in the price of corn is going to be felt all over the supermarket.  Corn is also widely used to feed livestock, and if this crisis continues we are going to see a significant rise in meat and dairy prices as well.  Food prices in America have already been rising at a steady pace, and so this is definitely not welcome news.

The weather conditions in the middle part of the country during the last couple of months have been highly unusual.  The following is from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times….

Read moreThe Corn Is Dying All Over America

Food Price Spike Dead Ahead: US Cuts Corn Crop Forecast By 12% As 56% Of America Is Under Drought Conditions (Video)

by

– Food Price Spike Dead Ahead: US Cuts Corn Crop Forecast By 12% As 56% Of America Is Under Drought Conditions (ZeroHedge, July 11, 2012):

Who knew the next black swan would be deep fried? The biggest piece of imminent food inflation news over the past months, coupled with what is shaping up to be another record hot summer (for the best tracking of real-time electricity consumption primarily for cooling news we recommend the following PJM RT tracker of power load), has been the collapse in the corn harvest due to the worst drought since 1988 as 56% of America is in drought conditions. Today, the US just added some burning oil to the popcorn by cutting the corn-crop forecast by 12% to 13 billion bushels on expectations of a 13.5 billion harvest. Then again, who needs corn, when you can have cake?

Bloomberg explains: