Den "miljøvennlige" amerikanske presidentkandidaten Gore er avhengig
av lavere bensinpris for å bli valgt. I landet med verdens laveste
bensinpris - USA. Derfor har USA truet Saudiene og andre land i
Midtøsten med ikke å selge dem våpen - for å få ned oljeprisen.
Dette heter i norske medier underdanig "diplomati" - uten at det
nevnes med ett ord hva dette betyr i praksis. Det må man lese i
utenlandske aviser.
Kanskje Gore og amerikanske velgere burde interessere seg mer for
virkningene av et hemningsløst voksende oljeforbruk? Men det er
jo utelukket i dagens verden. Menneskeheten har sjelden hatt dummere
og mer løgnaktige ledere.
Nedenstående artikler fra DisasterRelief.org kan kanskje tyde på
det.
Karsten Johansen
Persistent Drought in U.S. Threatens South, Midwest
Posted on Tue, 21 Mar 2000 13:33:38 GMT
Written by Cynthia Long, Managing Editor, DisasterRelief.org
A lingering drought that has gripped parts of the United States for more
than a year will intensify this spring, according to the federal
government's annual spring drought forecast. Following the warmest winter on
record, much of the South and parts of the Midwest are facing a worsening
drought that threatens crops and water supplies.
"The news is not good," said Commerce Secretary William Daley. "The drought
of 1999 remains with us in the new century and our data indicate drought
conditions are probably going to get worse before they get better."
Droughts can destroy crops, costing farmers millions of dollars. The hardest
hit states will be southern Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia. In the Midwest, the
drought will continue to plague Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana —states
with large farming populations.
Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama experienced their driest February in 106
years, and streamflows east of the Mississippi River are well below normal
for this time of the year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Last summer, drought pushed farm prices down to a decade low. Agriculture
Department officials say it is too early to tell whether the drought will
have any impact on food prices this year, but more than 60 percent of the
winter wheat crop in Texas is rated as poor.
"We saw last summer what a drought can do to farmers," Agriculture Secretary
Dan Glickman said. "Looking to the future, we need to be ahead of the curve,
prepared for dry weather when it comes and equipped with the mechanisms that
will protect farmers and prevent widespread losses."
A drought has serious economic, environmental and social impacts on a
country or region, with damages comparable to that of major hurricanes.
Already this year, wildfires have claimed 208,000 acres — nearly four times
the amount lost to fire at this time last year.
Reduced crops and increased fire hazards are just two of the many
consequences of drought. A loss of crops may result in reduced income for
farmers and agribusiness, increased prices for food and timber,
unemployment, reduced tax revenues because of reduced expenditures,
foreclosures on bank loans to farmers and businesses, increased crime and
migration. In fact, the web of impacts becomes so diffuse that it's
difficult to come up with financial estimates of damages.
However, the drought of 2000, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Association (NOAA), parallels the drought of 1998, which was one
of the costliest weather disasters in U.S. history with an estimated $40
billion in losses. The average annual cost of droughts is more than $6
billion.
Scientists blame this year's dry weather on La Nina, the weather pattern
associated with cooler-than-normal temperatures in the eastern and central
Pacific Ocean. La Nina is expected to hang on for another several months at
least.
Last fall's series of tropical storms eradicated a drought that parched the
East Coast for three consecutive years, but the South and Midwest have had
unusually dry winters. "Think of it as not having enough money in the bank,"
said USGS Director Charles Groat. "We have not had enough water during our
normally wet winter to put in our groundwater bank for our normally dry
summer and fall. We anticipate additional drought problems in the months
ahead based on the below normal streamflows and groundwater levels we're
seeing now."
.............................................................................
As Planet Heats Up, Scientists Warn of a Future Plagued by Megadroughts
Posted on Fri, 18 Dec 1998 18:53:33 GMT
Written by Doug Rekenthaler, Managing Editor, DisasterRelief.org
The withering drought that plagued Texas this summer and cost the state, its
farmers, and ranchers billions in losses, was nothing compared to the
megadroughts that have parched the U.S. Great Plains in the past. And with
the global temperature rising, we may not have seen anything yet.
The infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted eight years ...
Even the infamous Dust Bowl of the 1930s, which drove thousands of farmers
out of business at the height of the Great Depression and stimulated a mass
exodus of "Okies" to California, can't compare with these epic droughts,
says a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to the study, in previous centuries monster droughts gripped the
Great Plains for years, transforming huge areas into veritable desert
wastelands. These droughts dwarfed those of modern times, including the Dust
Bowl.
The report's authors -- Connie Woodhouse, a University of Colorado research
scientist working at NOAA's Geophysical Data Center, and Jonathan Overpeck,
director of NOAA's Paleoclimatology Program -- released their findings in
the December issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
In it, they suggest that Dust Bowl style droughts aren't all that unusual.
The two scientists said geologic records indicate the U.S. can expect one or
two such droughts per century.
More worrisome are the really big droughts that baked the Midwest for years.
In the 16th century, for example, a vicious drought gripped the nation's
BreadBasket for 20 years.
And prior to the 13th century, droughts may have been even worse and "at
least decades in duration," wrote Woodhouse and Overpeck.
... and drove countless farmers from their homes.
According to their study, which was assembled using data from tree rings,
sediment records, and other information, the 20th century has seen
relatively few droughts of any significance. The Dust Bowl, which lasted
eight years, was the worst, followed by a more limited drought in the 1950s.
A look at some recent droughts -- Courtesy NOAA
"However, when we look even father back in time, we see indications of
droughts with much greater duration," said Woodhouse, who coined the term
"megadrought" to describe the phenomena. Woodhouse added that "future
droughts may be much more severe and last much longer than what we have
experienced this century."
Complicating the picture are data trends indicating the planet is rapidly
warming. Last week, the World Meteorological Organization announced that
1998 was the warmest year since records began being kept in 1860. Moreover,
1998 marked the 20th consecutive year in which global surface temperatures
were above normal. Seven of the hottest years on record have occurred in the
past decade.
"Conditions that lead to severe droughts such as those of the late-16th
century could recur in the future, leading to a natural disaster of a
dimension unprecedented in the 20th century," Overpeck said. "Besides the
fact that natural variability could have more severe droughts in store for
us in the future, two human factors could make the Great Plains even more
susceptible to a severe drought in the future. These are land use practices
and global warming."
Whether the recent droughts in Texas, Oklahoma, and other southern states
represent the start of a much larger drought is unknown, said the two
scientists. "In order to know if we're due, we really need to understand the
mechanism of these droughts," said Overpeck.
If anything, climatologists are beginning to understand how very little they
actually know about such phenomena. This year's southern drought caught most
scientists by surprise, since they were counting on the waning influence of
El Nino to blanket the region heavier than normal rains.
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