Hello, and welcome to this edition of Whew-I'm-Glad-I-Live-Here-and-Not-There. Today's list of places you're glad you don't live:
Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, and Wyoming
A blistering drought is bringing on conditions that are being compared to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, leaving farmers and ranchers desperate. No really, desperate:
Gov. Michael Rounds of South Dakota, who has requested that 51 of the state's 66 counties be designated a federal agricultural disaster area, recently sought unusual help from his constituents: he issued a proclamation declaring a week to pray for rain.
Colombia, Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, and Bolivia
Glaciers in the Andes are melting at a not-just-alarming-but-all-out-terrifying rate: some are expected to disappear within 15 to 25 years. Besides, you know, changing the whole ecosystem, deglaciation is likely to threaten water and food supplies in the region's cities. Says a report by the IPCC's Working Group on Climate Change and Development:
The [drastic melt] forces people to farm at higher altitudes to grow their crops, adding to deforestation, which in turn undermines water sources and leads to soil erosion and putting the survival of Andean cultures at risk.
Latin America and the Caribbean
The same IPCC report warns that less predictable, more extreme weather is undermining ecosystem adaptation and efforts to end poverty.
Says Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation:
The region has had to deal with highly variable climates for many centuries. It has developed very resilient forms of agriculture based upon high levels of diversity of crops, which are adapted to grow in a wide range of microclimates.
The danger that now seems to be facing people in the region is that those conditions could become more permanent and more extreme.
Don't get too jealous, readers, of these regions' time in the climate spotlight. Considering the all-around climate chaos our planet is experiencing, your area could be next!
Comments
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caniscandida Posted 5:09 pm
29 Aug 2006
There are a number of Indian reservations in that region: Crow, Northern Cheyenne, Lakota and others. In the old days, I guess the Plains Indians would just move along to a place that had better conditions. But as it is, they are locked down on the land, like everyone else.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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amazingdrx Posted 10:24 pm
29 Aug 2006
The citizens most likely to pray are those that voted for more bushwackin', kind of ironic?
You can actually feel the desperation, smoke was in the air when I visited Bismarck, ND. A storm brought a (temporary) sigh of relief.
Wind power to reverse this global climate disaster related dust bowl trend and boost the economy of these states is not even on the radar of government entities in this region, though many citizens seem to be willing to embrace it.
But instead of some sort of action on this front, prayer is the alternative? Mighty strange.
And even though the US Department of energy (nuclear energy boosters above all) admit that 1/3 of human created CO 2 emmissions are absorbed by conservation reserve land and other non-agricultural land, the idea of devoting this potential dustbowl region to a combination of wind power and conservation land is not even deemed worthy of response by any of the governor's offices in these states.
Perhaps they need a more "epileptic" reading list like the "decider" has?
(The chimp in chief substituted "epileptic" for "eclectic" in a recent Brian Williams interview in reference to his reading list that included "The Stranger".)
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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Amy Gregory Posted 5:19 am
30 Aug 2006
As recommended above, wind power development could be a great move for many of the places now devastated by this drought (and it would, by reducing global warming emissions, likely lessen the severety and frequency of future droughts).
It really is a sad day when all of these terrible things are happening and all our leaders can offer is a prayer.
Amy Gregory
GreenpeaceUSA
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bookerly Posted 7:00 am
30 Aug 2006
Not to disparage religion (which should be left, I believe to religions leaders, not our so-called secular leaders), but really, don't most of our leaders worship money?
When they pray, they should take out their wallets and hold them up!
Ummm, oh, yeah, they take out OUR wallets and hold them up!
Anyway, it doesn't cost politicians any money to pray, doesn't interfere with the flow of bribes, er campaign contributions, from big companies, and can be forgotten minutes later!
One of the advantages of removing religion from politics is it no longer provices a cover for do-nothing politicians.
patrick
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