Drought is Collapsing the U.S. Economy

The U.S. breadbasket continues to bask in an ongoing drought which not only threatens food production, but had drastically reduced the water supplies.

droughtmonitor.unl.edu...

A quick check of the drought monitor shows just how bad the conditions are.
News reports are continuing to mount about the effects the long term is having on water supplies.

Water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron fell to record low levels for December, and are expected to break the all-time low sometime in the next few months. Cargo ships like Berkey's are being forced to lighten their loads, some harbors have already been forced to close and the tourist trade is bracing for an impact as well.

www.cnn.com...

Wracked by the worst (and longest) droughts in memory, the Midwest and the river are critically short on water, so short that the shallowest stretch of the river between Cairo, Ill. and St. Louis could become unnavigable in the next month, and the Corps of Engineers is just about out of geoengineering options to mitigate the problem,

www.popsci.com...

These effects alone will soon be seen in ever increasing transport costs which will appear in the cost of food and other items increasing dramatically. The question remains as to whether this is the new norm of weather pattern change, or simply standard cycles that play out over time.

Your thoughts and other news links?

Reply to post by winterkill

I just like how in our environment we have numerous cars sitting in one place spewing CO2 (traffic jams and the like), factories with byproducts of CO2 and other crazy gases, ozone depletion, deforestation, and other human activity, but none of that is contributing to our situation of droughts and warmings because it has been happening for millions of years...


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

If anyone out there is living in the drought effected regions, please give us an overview of what you've been experiencing.

Thanks

reply to post by winterkill


The collapse of the economy has nothing to do with Obama? And EVERYTHING to do with the drought, huh?

Unemployment rate highest ever
Food stamps given out by the truckload
No new jobs as promised
Value of the dollar steadily falling

"change" is what I thought we needed, but not change in weather......Change as in someone other than Obama wrecking this place from the ground up!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you are wrong in saying the drought assists in this, but there are other things that could be changed to actually help the economy, and Obama is doing nothing to help!!

Banning guns, well that is taking away more jobs and hurting the economy also.....

Someone with a giant set of nuts needs to come riding in on a white horse and save this place!!

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by winterkill

 

The collapse of the economy has nothing to do with Obama? And EVERYTHING to do with the drought, huh?

Unemployment rate highest ever
Food stamps given out by the truckload
No new jobs as promised
Value of the dollar steadily falling

"change" is what I thought we needed, but not change in weather......Change as in someone other than Obama wrecking this place from the ground up!!

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you are wrong in saying the drought assists in this, but there are other things that could be changed to actually help the economy, and Obama is doing nothing to help!!

Banning guns, well that is taking away more jobs and hurting the economy also.....

Someone with a giant set of nuts needs to come riding in on a white horse and save this place!!

Unemployment is only 7.8%. Hardly catastrophic.

The Food Stamp President is Bush.

And the value of the dollar is constantly up and down depending on current economics.

Not only did you completely derail from the topic on a bad smear campaign, but you did it with complete lies.

Things are getting serious. Barges are having trouble navigating the now too low Mississippi.

post gazette

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Unemployment rate highest ever
Food stamps given out by the truckload
No new jobs as promised
Value of the dollar steadily falling

I think we can thank the Bush/Cheney administration and all their yes-men flunkies for that. The Republicans did more damage than can be fixed in a few terms.

Originally posted by BlueMule

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein

Unemployment rate highest ever
Food stamps given out by the truckload
No new jobs as promised
Value of the dollar steadily falling

I think we can thank the Bush/Cheney administration and all their yes-men flunkies for that. The Republicans did more damage than can be fixed in a few terms.

edit on 15-1-2013 by BlueMule because: (no reason given)

So Obama in office going on 5 years has nothing to do with the national debt, unemployment, food stamps, etc??



I would love to hear why you want to back him up and point fingers at someone else.....He has had ample time to make a "change" FOR THE BETTER! So far it's been a change alright, but nothing good.....

reply to post by nixie_nox


LIES??? Are you completely kidding me? Oh, I see you are an Obama supporter? That makes much more sense.....Pointing fingers at a president from 5 years ago is hardly a reasonable accusation...

Bush sucked, I agree......But if your boss gave you 5 years to improve on a number, could you do it? If not, would you still have a job??

As much as I am enjoying the verbal teeter totter ride, if we could get back to the water situation that effects whether a farmer and his family will see income this year it would be appreciated.

Thanks people.

When the frackers inject water underground, they may as well rip clouds from the sky.

It isn't as though you weren't warned.

As for visible effects of the drought, we live on the shore of Lake Huron and let me tell you the water is low low low!
There are visible sand bars and actual beaches where not even 10 years ago our local fisheries were putting down deep draft nets.

If you want a way back machine post here I am, born and raised on Lake Huron (born 1960) and started swimming at the age of 4 as we all did in our area.

I can recall very high water levels where shore side homes got swept away or the lake banks collapsed and they fell into the sand.

I can also recall very low water levels many years ago and they made for some good swimming also.

But But never have I seen anything like this nor has our neighbours either, we still live here right on the Lake.

I have read that this is a cycle that does repeat and I hope they are right.

The bad news is right now the Great Lakes are ice free and that means some serious evaporation is going to happen.
We had a no winter last year and so far this year it is the same deal. No Ice breakers, all ships that are not laid up for maintenance are sailing.
You asked for a personal view and you got one.

I remember a thread from about a month ago from a member of ATS with some very scary pictures of the Mississippi river.

Regards, Iwinder

S&F

Thanks for the post, It gives a nice historic view of what's been happening.

What kind of depth difference is there if ships used to net at those points?

Originally posted by winterkill
Thanks for the post, It gives a nice historic view of what's been happening.

What kind of depth difference is there if ships used to net at those points?

They are not really ships as you call them but large tugs or powered barges.
I am guessing but they are about 80 feet long and I have no Idea of their draft depth.

I can tell you as a young man I used to swim to the bottoms of the nets and then back up just to see if I could do it and also to check out all the fish in the nets.

I was in A-one health and these nets were very deep ......again guessing but I would say around 35-40 feet.
It does not sound that deep but going down you used a lot of oxygen even with big flippers, the easy part was going up.

Today as I type this the nets are about 2 miles off shore, when I swam them they were about 150 yards off shore.

Mind you currents change and sand bars rise and fall but the water is not there now Period.

Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by winterkill
If anyone out there is living in the drought effected regions, please give us an overview of what you've been experiencing.

Thanks

when it rained (which really means mist) on jan 1st this year i was stunned. i hadn't seen "rain" in MONTHS. we've finally had a bit in the last couple of weeks but i can attest that it doesn't even soak in. i can dig a hole an inch into the ground in my backyard and hit DUST. before the rain in january i could turn the hose on the dirt and it would just cause a spray of dust. it's really really really bad. the trees are dying.

Originally posted by doclec
Reply to post by winterkill

 

I just like how in our environment we have numerous cars sitting in one place spewing CO2 (traffic jams and the like), factories with byproducts of CO2 and other crazy gases, ozone depletion, deforestation, and other human activity, but none of that is contributing to our situation of droughts and warmings because it has been happening for millions of years...

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

Agreed. Shows you just how weak the deniers reasoning is.

Doesn't really matter. It seems we're going to ride this one out regardless of the petty bickering from those with intellectual deficits, and the rest who can comprehend what's actually going on.

reply to post by Iwinder


Did you know the frackers have a contract to steal water from the Great Lakes? It takes millions of gallons each time they frack, and like I say, it doesn't matter if they are nicking the water from the upper peninsula or from a drainpipe in Kazakstan. IF THAT WATER IS PUMPED DEEP IN THE GROUND, CONSIDER IT LOST, FOREVER. Same as pulling down rain clouds, imo. They lie and say they recover the water, which is injected much deeper than oil wells are drilled. How is this water recovery even possible? If so, then why are they siphoning water from the Great Lakes like there's no tomorrow? I haven't mentioned that all the water the remove from the ecosystem, forever, is poisoned to the hilt.

Trading water for gas, most of which goes straight to the sky. But the frack-bastards say they only lose 9% of the gas they loose. I suspect they lose more like 90% of it. It is a recipe for doom. I hate the frackers, and everyone who took a cent to allow their land to be raped. Water has a property exactly like the rules of multiplication in mathematics. It is associative, touches us all. Pure economics, John Galt with a raging hard on, not giving a flying frack who or what it effects. Thee almighty dollar. The carnage will 'stabilize' when the marginal price of water equals the marginal price of gas or oil. Think about what this implies.

Dear citizen, please understand that it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to waste even a drop of water, even were you to leave your faucets running 24/7, worldwide. All you are doing is moving the water from one place on the surface of earth to another. Unless you are a frack-bastard, or shooting water into outer space, it is IMPOSSIBLE for you to waste water. It is ludicrous for your water heater to have a sticker telling you to recycle your flush water into your garden etc..., just dump it in the drain. It will get to your garden all the same, unless the frackers grab it en route.

Remember this when obama begins water rationing, and all the associated guilt trips 'Cal' will lay on your soul for your supposed 'wastefulness'. You CANNOT waste water. Not even a drop of it. Only the frackers can make it disappear.

Originally posted by davidmann
reply to post by Iwinder

 

Did you know the frackers have a contract to steal water from the Great Lakes? It takes millions of gallons each time they frack, and like I say, it doesn't matter if they are nicking the water from the upper peninsula or from a drain pipe in Chicago. It is water all the same, affecting us all. Same as pulling down rain clouds, imo. They lie and say they recover the water, which is injected much deeper than oil wells are drilled. How is this water recovery even possible? If so, then why are they siphoning water from the Great Lakes like there's no tomorrow? I haven't mentioned that all the water the remove from the ecosystem, forever, is poisoned to the hilt.

Trading water for gas, most of which goes straight to the sky. But the frack-liars say they only lose 9% of the gas they loose. I suspect they lose more like 90% of it. It is a recipe for doom. I hate the frackers, and everyone who took a cent to allow their land to be raped. Water has a property exactly like the rules of multiplication in mathematics. It is associative, touches us all. Pure economics, John Galt with a raging hard on, not giving a flying frack who or what it effects. Thee almighty dollar.

I did not know that and thanks very much for that information.
I have some searching to do tomorrow and I will see what I can find on Google.
Many thanks.
Regards, Iwinder

After the dryest summer I ever remembered it was in the upper 50s over the weekend.The strange weather continues here in Michigan.

reply to post by winterkill


Well basically what we have been experiencing here in the panhandle of texas is.... No rain. Surprise surprise.

No but seriously, our economy is booming up here. Maybe it's crashing the economy of the rest of the US, but here it's looking good.

As always you get the usual farmers who go broke because they didn't make a crop, but there are usually other reasons besides the drought for that. Mostly these guys rely on subsidies and mult-peri crop insurancel to get through the year anyways so meh.