photos drought disaster 2012

[bcbm]

need rain so bad (http://www.weather.com/news/drought-disaster-photos-20120713?pageno=1)

[Lenina Rosenweg]

To what extent could this effect the global food supply? Will heat, droughts, and extreme storms be a permanent condition for the rest of this century?

[Lenina Rosenweg]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jul2012/corn-j18.shtml


Worst US drought since 1950s threatens to drive up global food prices
By Naomi Spencer
18 July 2012
A large swath of the US Midwest and mid-South has been devastated by extreme heat and the worst drought since at least 1956. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared more than 1,000 counties disaster areas—more than half of the land surface of the country—making the drought officially the largest disaster on record in the country. More than two-thirds of the country is experiencing drought.


The long-term economic, social, and environmental consequences of the extreme weather may be even more catastrophic than the immediate disaster. Meteorologists have noted that the 2012 drought is unusual in comparison to previous years in that it is impacting virtually all US growing areas at once. The widespread nature of the disaster, like other recent severe weather events, points to the impact of global warming.

A parallel disaster is gripping the grain belt of southern Russia, the world’s third largest wheat exporter. At a press conference July 16, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fedorov forecast a 22 percent year-over-year decline in the wheat harvest. A mild winter, followed by a spring drought, then torrential rains, have battered the entire region. The Ukraine has not publicly released an estimate on its wheat crop, but the International Grains Council has said that the country’s harvest could be halved from its initial projections.

If anyone likes apocalyptic scenarios, well, here ya go.

[DasFapital]

well, at least the band Korn hasn't been affected. They're still putting out shitty music.

[CryingWolf]

No such thing as global warming, they said.

[Permanent Revolutionary]

This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with global warming, and personally I prefer the term "climate change".
The climate has always fluctuated, so some years are better than others. This is just a shitty year.

[bcbm]

pretty sure record crazy storms, wild fires, drought has to do with climate change

[Lenina Rosenweg]

But by some interesting coincidence, the years from 2000 to 2011 have had 8 out of the 10 shittiest years ever.

The planet's climate is a complicated system, determined by many factors and there isn't an exact one to one correspondence between events.The planet's climate is changing though, radically, and industrial capitalist civilization is the reason..

[Permanent Revolutionary]

I'm not denying climate change, Gods no.

All I'm saying is, that we're often too fast to blame climate change, when it might as well be natural fluctuations.

I'd be interested to see a source for 2000-2011 having 8 of the worst years ever, though.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

My dates weren't exact but..

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071213101419.htm
.

The decade of 1998-2007 is the warmest on record, according to data sources obtained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The global mean surface temperature for 2007 is currently estimated at 0.41°C/0.74°F above the 1961-1990 annual average of 14.00°C/57.20°F.



The University of East Anglia and the Met Office's Hadley Centre have released preliminary global temperature figures for 2007, which show the top 11 warmest years all occurring in the last 13 years. The provisional global figure for 2007 using data from January to November, currently places the year as the seventh warmest on records dating back to 1850.

I was wrong for severe storm activity, but it was still abnormally high.

http://www.wafb.com/story/15208481/april-was-record-breaker-for-severe-weather


This guy's liberal politics are limited but his understanding of climate change seems spot on

http://www.billmckibben.com/eaarth/eaarthbook.html

[Permanent Revolutionary]

Its important to note, that when something is said to be "hottest on record" it means that humans have not recorded anything hotter.
This graph shows global temperatures thousands of years back:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vostok_Petit_data.svg
And from that we can see, that the global temperature follows a cyclical pattern.

However, climate change is happening, but that's more than just temperature and storm activity.

[Ele'ill]

I think the increasing severity in storms kind of indicates that it's not just a natural weather cycle we haven't experience yet because storms don't just summon themselves over a city or relatively localized area they are built from weather patterns coming together all from numerous fairly large regions.

[L.A.P.]

well, at least the band Korn hasn't been affected. They're still putting out shitty music.

Watch yourself, Korn is the shit.

[bcbm]

i would ban you for the above commenbt if i were in charge

[cynicles]

This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with global warming, and personally I prefer the term "climate change".
The climate has always fluctuated, so some years are better than others. This is just a shitty year.

Climate change was a label created by right wingers to downplay the severity of the situation, they did market research and found people were less induce to urgency by it.

[L.A.P.]

i would ban you for the above commenbt if i were in charge

And that's why you're not in charge, all people in charge know Korn is awesome.