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photo by USDAgov on flickr
This morning, we rode by several drought-stressed cornfields where we live, in Western Kentucky, and lamented that the farmers will likely lose their entire crops. In many cases, entire patches in any given field have plants that simply never grew at all. Also, the Mississippi River has sunk to near-historic lows, and towed barge groundings are up, complicating shipping on the river.
I have a family member in Indiana who reports the same observations about corn fields. She has horses, and there is no hay, because there is nothing to harvest this year. Also, she was riding in the light of day, and two coyotes tried to attack her horse while she was on it. The coyotes have twice bitten her horses previously. In order for coyotes to attempt to down such a large animal, they are hungry. They are hungry because there are not enough rodents in the fields for the coyotes to eat. These animals are also drought-stressed.
In Texas, cattle ranchers and farmers are selling animals for slaughter by the millions because they cannot afford to feed them; there is not enough food.
On July 16, 2012, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Climatic Data Center released a State of the Climate update on the US national drought.
We are currently experiencing the worst drought in my lifetime- the worst drought since the 1950s- and a widespread natural disaster.
Based on the Palmer Drought Index, a moisture supply versus moisture demand calculation, and according to the report, about 56 percent of the US was experiencing moderate to exceptional drought by the end of June, 2012.
The US Drought Monitor Map as of July 5, 2012. with the summary:
By the end of the month, the core drought areas in the U.S. included:
a large area of moderate (D1) to exceptional (D4) drought in the Southeast;
moderate to extreme (D3) drought in the Southern Plains spreading into the Southwest;
moderate to extreme drought in the Southwest to Intermountain Basin, with moderate to severe (D2) drought stretching to the West Coast, and into the Pacific Northwest and pockets of exceptional drought in Colorado;
pockets of moderate to severe drought lingering in the Mid-Atlantic states, with abnormally dry areas in the Northeast states;
moderate to extreme drought across much of the Midwest and Central to Northern Plains, with pockets of exceptional drought in the High Plains of Colorado; and
parts of Hawaii, where moderate to extreme drought persisted.
Highlights from the report:
June 2012 was the 14th warmest and the 3rd driest by measure, on record, since data collection began in 1895. Warmer temperatures accompanied the dry conditions, and Colorado, for example, experienced the warmest June on record.
Two states (Colorado and Kansas) had the warmest April-June, 25 more were in the top ten warmest category, and 19 more ranked in the warmest third of the historical distribution. Twenty-eight states were record warm for January-June 2012 and 26 were record warm for July 2011-June 2012. The rest of the Lower 48 States fell in the top ten warmest or warmest third categories — except Washington and Oregon for January-June and Washington for July-June.
Wyoming statewide Palmer Z Index, April-June, 1895-2012.
As noted earlier, excessive heat increases evapotranspiration and exacerbates drought. The combination of third driest and fifth warmest April-June gave Wyoming the most severe April-June averaged Palmer Z Index in the 1895-2012 record.
The corn and soybean agricultural belt has been hit especially hard by this drought, the report explains.
“Everything’s hungry.”
This Indiana corn farmer takes us through his dried up corn farm, and explains some of the problems related to the 2012 drought:
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Interesting note. In the video, the man explains that “you don’t hear too many birds anymore.”
Lately, I have heard flocks of birds chirping all throughout the night, starting at 12:30 AM. Strange phenomenon. I have never heard anything like it in my life.
The man also claims not to hear the locusts. I can agree with this. Things are very strange this summer.
American election campaign for President is in full swing.
Heard anything about this from Romney or Obama?
nope. Not one word.
The organizations that Mr. Obama and Mr Romeny actually represent and work for, the people that they really care about, the Oil companies, the Gas companies, and the coal mining companies, won’t let them talk about it, or, much more importantly, do anything meaningful about it.
Sadly, and Unfortunately for all living things, this is just the start.
“Heard anything about this from Romney or Obama?”
Nope. Not a peep. And some are calling this ongoing drought the largest natural disaster in US history:
http://theintelhub.com/2012/07/17/the-largest-natural-disaster-in-u-s-history-the-endless-drought-of-2012-will-bake-america-well-into-august/
On the Mississippi River:
http://www.examiner.com/article/drought-sinks-mississippi-river-to-near-historic-lows
CS I am now sitting in my new digs, still Cleveland. It’s hotter than the hammers of Hades inside and outside. And those poor mover guys must have nearly melted.
We are supposed to get some rain and a cool down tomorrow and my window AC arrives Thursday.
I took a cold shower after they left and did not want to get out. :-)
C-S–
Thank you for another excellent diary.
We are in a neighboring state, and until this past week, had not had any rain at all, for at least six weeks.
We feed birds, rabbits and squirrels, and their numbers have doubled, from this time, last year.
A bit OT, but I wanted to thank you for the wonderful diary about the Bald Eagle, “Freedom” (can’t remember her human’s name). (I read the diary on my phone–which is not user friendly, so I didn’t post a comment, at the time.) I literally “teared up,” reading their incredible and touching stories.
Highly recommended.
Mad As Hell
New digs! For real? Too cool!!
Yeah, I believe how hot it is. We had a so-called thunderstorm today, but there just wasn’t hardly any rain, for real. As if the clouds tried, but nothing much came out, likely because nothing much is evaporating into the clouds.
Oh, thank you so much, Mad As Hell! I really appreciate your comment and your rec!
Freedom and Jeff. Yes, I teared up also.
Those animals that you feed are hungry and desperate. The man in the cornfield video says he sees animals eating things they never ate before- leaves, just odd things. They can’t help it. They are hungry, and there is nothing left to eat. So, good on you, for helping them to find a meal.
Thanks again!
Watched the movie Gasland the other night. How depressing. I agree with mafr and C-S. Obama, Romney, State and local politicians are for the most part in the pockets of the oil, gas, and coal industries.
Not sure if anyone saw it, but in a post on climate by WeatherDem, we did a back of the envelope calculation of Solar power production. Turns out a 10 mi by 10 mi (100 sq mile) area of solar panels can produce about 12% of the nation’s annual electric consumption. The land mass of the contiguous 48 states is about 2.96 million square miles. So 1200 sq miles, about an area 30 by 40 miles, could provide 100% of our annual consumption. That’s 0.0041% of the contiguous US land mass. On paper it seems if we agressively pursued solar power and installed panels on rooftops across America, we could eliminate all that demand for oil, gas, and coal. And, think about a distributed power production system in terms of national security and weather related catastrophes as well as lower energy costs and less environmental destruction. A lot of people in the mid Atlantic region would not have lost power or gotten it back sooner after that recent thunderstorm outbreak. I don’t want to hear any yipping about “Oh, think of all the lost jobs”. Yeah? Think about all the new jobs created manufacturing, installing, and servicing these systems and the required distribution infrastructure. Until the 1%ers can figure out a way to make a buck – nothing will change. Our only card is to nibble at the edges, install alternative energy and improve efficiencies on the small scale. We can only hope over time alternative energy will prevail.
BTW I just received my annual copy of the state of the climate in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. To sum – not good. Worldwide (not just the US), average global temperatures increased again in 2011. I fear we are on a runaway train or in an experiment that has gone bad and we can’t stop it. I feel sorry for future generations over the legacy we are leaving them. My generation (I’m in my late 50s) will be cursed for our lack of concern and inaction when we could have done something.
Techgeek, I share your concern for future generations, I really do. Things are very strange right now. It is almost 9 PM and it is 90 degrees, no crickets, no cicadas, just silent.
Your second paragraph makes all kinds of sense. There will come a day when we can no longer buy into Big Oil. Somehow, someway, the greed has got to stop. We cannot keep adjusting to this climate stress. We just can’t.
Wish you’d write a blog with your thoughts. I always enjoy WeatherDem as well.
thanks, c-s. recommended. it really brings it home to see or read about how the drought affects particular individuals and communities in a way that statistics can’t do for me.
have you read the book starbuck recommended to me? the time it never rained. great book about the 1950′s drought in west texas. it really made me understand in a way that reading other things didn’t.
From “Climateprogress” today:
Michael Swanson, agricultural economist at the largest commercial agriculture lender, said:
“It might be a $50 billion event for the economy as it blends into everything over the next four quarters.”
and
Ignoring this, is evil, and insane.
The truth is, that banks lying, cheating, and stealing, drone flights, war in Syria, the fate of Julian Assange, the American presidential election, are all molehills, relative to this mountainous crisis.
It’s the mother of all problems right now. sadly, the way to minimize it exists right now, but our leaders are too insane, evil and greedy, to save us.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/issue/
And here one of those “lets tinker some more” ideas.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/17/us-geoengineers-spray-sun-balloon
I have not read the book, but it sounds really good. I will have a look on Amazon.
Some of the stuff I have read and heard this season are heartbreaking. How the ranchers and farmers are sending animals to slaughter because there is no food for them. Just all of it is heartbreaking, and a bit of a different take from statistics, that are alone scary.
Thank you so much for reading and for the rec.
From Think Progress:
Good that they covered this report. This is a disaster. I don’t know what it will take for Big Greed to ‘get it,’ but I am sure that a lot of Federal aid will be sought over this. There is a big picture here, and it is being ignored. It cannot be ignored forever.
Wow. It will be interesting to see how that all works out.
i got it at my local library.
One of the possible consequences, if they get a bit carried away.
The year without a summer.
Cool, we have a good library. I will check.
Fascinating. I had not read this.
And yeah, artificial earth cooling- there could be complications.
the author is elmer kelton.
Got it, thanks again.
Glad to see this gathering attention in the blogosphere and in more of the media in the past week. Drought conditions have been slowly but steadily getting worse throughout the year. Even having watched conditions evolve, it seems like this recent extent and severity jumped on the scene suddenly. Conditions aren’t expected to get better any time soon either. I wrote something on this today also at my blog, but will wait to post it here until tomorrow now that I’ve seen yours up.
Nice write-up, CS!
techgeek-
The numbers for renewables are both amazingly small yet amazingly large – one of the things I worked on in a policy class last fall. I’m still trying to find the time to write some of what was done in a post. Hopefully soon…. But you’re nearly spot-on with your observation about those on the Atlantic coast. As I learned recently, rooftop solar – in the absence of on-site battery storage – doesn’t work when utility power is down due to line safety concerns. So unless a lot of innovation on batteries is done, distributed power faces some real-world limitations. That said, it’s obvious that distributed renewables reduces fossil fuel burning and its wide-ranging consequences.
What’s most worrisome about the 2011 temp increase in my mind is it comes on the heels of a moderate and double-dip La Nina episode – which is predominantly a cooling event! 2012 is turning out to be fairly brutal across the US, of course. Then there’s the fact that we’re flirting with the next El Nino event, which might help shift precipitation back to over the US, but which would also warm the globe up on top of the recent anthropogenic warming signal.
BTW, I found the attribution article in the “normal” BAMS issue very interesting. I’ll blog something about that in the coming days…
Hey!
Cleveland is so hot tonight. I’m melting…
Before corn and soybeans were hit by the drought, they were hit by the “commodity market manipulators”. The price of corn went to $7.50 a bushel in 2008, and it went to $8.00 a bushel in 2011, before returning to $8.00 a bushel since the drought. Soybeans went to 1628 in 2008 before the drought, and they just returned to 1628 since the drought.
While the drought could be the largest “natural disaster” in US history, the commodity market manipulators might be an even bigger disaster.
Go to this website for details http://wp.me/p2vRlu-4
Thank you for commenting, WeatherDem, I am honored that you stopped by, and very much look forward to your post and your analysis of this in the next day or so. This is an important topic. Thanks again.
Thank you for this link, lakota. I found it informative. I had not known that much about these markets until I started scrapping and watched people collect large amounts of copper to sell at auctions and such. I began to understand how there could be an available bin of copper someplace, that was worth a fortune. This was sort of my introduction to these markets.
I can see the grain-based foods soaring in price. In fact, I am now sure that will happen. And with so many people barely making it as it is, I don’t know how they will continue to feed their families.
Thanks again for stopping by.
The reason people know so little about these markets is because there was never any need to know, unless they intended to speculate in commodities. What you read on this link, is about something that has never happened before in the history of this country. With this drought upon us, more and more people will want to know what that something was.
I think you are right, and I think the article does a very good job of explaining things.
That healthy food crops (not ‘dought-resistant Gen-modified’ ones) and potable water for all would become increasing problematic, I had hope ten years ago that these issues would become a clear opportunity for global cooperation that might lead to other cooperative ventures.
There were those agriculture visionaries at the time who wrote about corn’s need for temperatures cool enough to keep the silks open to bees pollinating it, so that the kernels might form. The author posed the scenario that perhaps corn would need to be grown in the cooler climes of the former Soviet Union, and listed other swaps that might be made after looking at the best future climate models. Nope.
Now that it’s panic time, it looks as though the major powers are pre-positioning in the water resource wars, too. Some have mentioned Libya in that regard, but certainly Africa, and declaring ownership-by-force of her rivers, intending and in fact damming them for multinational quick-hit profits.
Sooo…we can hope that Dec. 21 will bring the needed planetary rise of consciousness. Chief Arvol Looking Horse is right on part of it: there do seem to be more white/albino creatures being born now (part of White Buffalo Woman’s prophecy, and other Indigenous are hoping/praying/seeking for better changes. ;o)
Meanwhile, I’ll go mulch my garden; we’re not even supposed to be using household water to wet it.
“There were those agriculture visionaries at the time who wrote about corn’s need for temperatures cool enough to keep the silks open to bees pollinating it, so that the kernels might form.”
I noticed that the man in the video opened an ear of corn that had scanty kernels in it. He talked about the pollination, how the ear was not able to get much in the way of pollination.
“Now that it’s panic time, it looks as though the major powers are pre-positioning in the water resource wars, too. Some have mentioned Libya in that regard, but certainly Africa, and declaring ownership-by-force of her rivers, intending and in fact damming them for multinational quick-hit profits.”
This is a very scary scenario, for real.
I will add my vibes to December 21, and I hope there is a rise in consciousness.
Finally,
“Meanwhile, I’ll go mulch my garden; we’re not even supposed to be using household water to wet it.”
I totally believe that. Warmest June on record for Colorado- the place nearly burned up. My heart goes out to you guys. I hope you can save your garden.
Thank you so much for stopping by and for commenting, Wendy, much appreciated.
If anyone more qualified than me sees this message, can you please write about the heat stress to the electricity grid right now? I am noticing that in New York, there is now reduced wattage (brownout) and in Ohio, businesses are being asked to “power down.” Our power in this heat advisory has been flickering for the past hour.
I can attempt this, but there are several others who would cover it better than me, with backgrounds in energy, for example.
On edit- I will wait a while to see if anyone responds- run an errand, and if not, I attempt it.
Big Flaw: Nightfall or Storage.
” Clean energy creates three times more jobs than fossil fuels
A national study showed that job creation in clean energy outdoes fossil fuels by a margin of 3-to-1 — every dollar put into clean energy creates three times as many jobs as putting that same dollar into oil and gas.
Wind energy has already created 75,000 jobs, which could grow to as many as 500,000 if we transitioned to getting 20 percent of our energy from wind.
Job quality is better. Twice as many medium- and high-credentialed jobs are being created in the clean economy as in fossil fuels.
Median wages are 13 percent higher in green energy careers than the economy average. Median salaries for green jobs are $46,343, or about $7,727 more than the median wages across the broader economy. As an added benefit, nearly half of these jobs employ workers with a less than a four-year college degree, which accounts for a full 70 percent of our workforce.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/28/453122/fact-sheet-6-things-you-should-know-about-the-value-of-renewable-energy/
analysis:
http://www.peri.umass.edu/fileadmin/pdf/other_publication_types/green_economics/economic_benefits/economic_benefits.PDF
Of course storage and nighttime has to be taken into account. There are a lot of schemes for power storage that could be brought to into play and electrical production may include augmentation by oil gas, and coal. The point is that the amount of surface area required to produce most if not all our electrical needs is relatively modest. Solar would also reduce dependency on fossil (and nuclear) fuels with attendant reduction in costs and environmental damage associated with extraction, transportation, and use.
Thanks to WeatherDem and mafr for other thoughts. Lets not make the mistake and assume aggressive solar power deployment is without cost and technical risks, particularly in the near term. Its in the out years as we decommission nuclear and fossil fuel power plants, shut unneeded mines and wells, etc. where we will see the benefits of this policy. It won’t happen overnight.
Great reporting CS, more please.
Thank you, Elliott. Much appreciated.