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“Storm over Glebe” by kateausburn is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Catastrophic floods of Biblical proportions have deluged the American heartland, from North Dakota east to Ohio and south to Louisiana. It’s been the wettest 12 months since they started keeping weather records in 1895. Planting of corn and soybean crops has been delayed or canceled over enormous swaths of the nation’s breadbasket, with as yet uncalculated consequences for America’s farmers — and food supply. Climate scientists say these conditions are going to get much worse in the coming years.
But, hey, President Trumpet was consorting with Sumo wrestlers in Japan last weekend, and tweeting his little heart out about Biden having a low IQ, and Mueller finding no collusion, and something something Hillary and something something Obama. For his traveling comfort, he was supplied with Fox News and Big Macs at all times, and a large tarp was draped over the name on the navy destroyer USS John McCain, which was also visiting Japan, so that the name of the national hero would not offend the president’s eye. We’re in good hands.
On the other hand, for two weeks, hundreds of vicious tornadoes have lashed the midwest, killing at least ten people and inflicting untold millions of dollars in property damage. One twister in Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri, was a mile wide when it touched down and stayed on the ground for nearly 20 miles. That’s not a tornado, that’s the end of a significant chunk of the world.
But, hey. how about those 21 Democrats with stars in their eyes out there kissing babies and eating pizza in order to get to be the next captain of the Titanic. It’s wonderful entertainment; Beto jumps in the pool and vanishes; Senator Warren jumps in the pool and vanishes, then appears at the other end, dog-paddling tirelessly; Joe Biden jumps in the pool and splashes all the water out. We could just go on and on about it. And we will.
Meanwhile, in China, where half of the world’s pigs are found, a virus called African Swine Fever has been killing them in droves for almost a year. There is no vaccine, no medicine, and no defense against this virus except culling. Estimates, which are difficult because everyone involved lies about it, are that of the Chinese herd of 500 million pigs, 100 million are already dead and at least 50 million more may die before the epidemic wears itself out. Pork prices have skyrocketed in China and will soon be affected worldwide.
But hey, in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio — so far this year — elderly white men have gleefully passed Draconian new restrictions on women seeking to terminate pregnancies. Just 43 states and a Supreme Court ruling to go, and everything will be okay.
Meanwhile global trade and shipping is contracting viciously, the US automobile industry is in hospice care, retail stores around the county are closing by the thousands, suicide rates are up sharply and life expectancy — in America — is down.
Obviously, it’s time to have a Big Mac and watch some Fox News.
I’ve also been aware of natural disasters ramping up across the heartland. No one I know, read, or hear in the media has yet to connect these particular dots besides you, but doubtlessly where are few who share our observations.
I’ve begun to think about collapse in terms of how many growing seasons we have left. The current year won’t be a complete loss, but it remains to be seen how much destruction can be sustained before food scarcity and full-on famine appear. Yuval Harari wrote in Homo Deus (2017) that we had this problem (famine) mostly licked. A mere two years later, here we are counting unprecedented disasters — and hurricane season is just beginning. Brace for impact indeed.
I wonder how the red dots are doing?
https://miningawareness.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/image35.jpg?w=762
Outside of Number 11, Cooper, which was “officially” surrounded by water back in March (and might be still, who can say?), all my 40 days and nights of Google searches into the status of the red dots have come up empty.
As a person who once believed he could Google anything, I find my endless failures to gather even a tidbit of information on this topic fascinating.
“As in the days of Noah, so shall it be…” In this passage from Matthew, Jesus is predicting conditions that will usher in the End Time.
And what was it like in the days of Noah?…Wet, very wet.
McCain a national hero? Need to dig deeper into his background.
Not mentioned in any report I’ve seen about the problems in the heartland is that in “normal times” 40% of the US corn crop is diverted to biofuel. There are some choices to be made, as only 50% of the usual area has been planted so far.
I suspect that no one wants to circulate the truth. The Pacific Ocean is heating up big time. That means that much water is being forced into the atmosphere, which also means much heat is transferred into the water vapor in the process. This water vapor drifts over the USA and is in what the weather experts call conditionally unstable air. Any lifting and/or cooling of this air causes the release of the original moisture! THIS ALSO LIBERATES ALL THE HEAT USED TO TURN WATER TO VAPOR IN THE FIRST PLACE WHICH CAUSES MORE LIFT AND MORE WATER TO BE RELEASED! Flying around these convective situations is a beautiful sight. YOU DO NOT FLY THROUGH THEM! Add in the jet stream and some additional water from the Gulf of Mexico and this may never get better? I pray it does not get worse. Arnie
All the oceans of this planet are “heating up big time.” How could they not? They have absorbed at least 40C of the warming industrial civilization has produced since whatever baseline you suits your fancy, whether it be 1955, or the far older and much maligned, 1750, or the current favorite, 1890.
Baselines. What could be more irrelevant in trying to come to truthful understanding of global boiling? More than 40C of heat has been pumped to our biosphere … very recently. 40C is not typo, a misrepresentation, or a conspiracy theory, it is simple, measurable known, and one that pretty much everyone in the business of global warming education, be they crack scientists or crackpot laypeople (or vice versa), is now completely aware of – due to a better understanding of ocean absorption rates.
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3wAnHXEs0_w/XNltJ77UiKI/AAAAAAAAaPk/dHI1gFeRsxoThF1HozN0C0YAhZy3ILqGQCLcBGAs/s1600/Oceans-warming-2019.png
Then why is it, that all the focus and concentration of our most brilliant minds is still placed on the 1.C (or 1.73C, depending on baseline!) of warming that has been introduced to our atmosphere? Does this make sense, on any level, particular on the most basic one; how do you win and finally end this absurd debate that global warming is, or is not, a result of man’s activities?
There are 50 US Senators that are global warming deniers, and they will to be able to remain deniers until whatever bleak end awaits humanity, because it so simple to be one. 1C of warming? Yeah possibly maybe/maybe not, but don’t forget solar cycles, or polar tilt, or the influence of bla bla bla, and never question God’s will, or besides! If man really is responsible,yippee-ki-yay! Warming will prove good for plants and speeding thru the Arctic!
Now what could denialists Senators do if they were relentlessly confronted with the BIOSPHERE NUMBER, and therefore the true nature of man made global warming, represented by 40C? Nothing. There are no political gymnastics that would allow them to squirm out of that large, even our co-denialist main stream media, as much as they would want to, couldn’t aid and abet them at that point.
On another level, the one that no one, not even titans of doom, like Carana and McPherson, has the courage to confront directly; if the oceans have absorbed almost all of the the global warming so far, what happens if this rate of absorption significantly slows, stops, or reverses?
Ironically climate change together with ocean acidification and warming is only part of the predicament brought on by the operation of the systems of industrialized civilization. Ecological and environmental devastation are others. The irreversible misuse of fossil fuels and other irreplaceable natural resources are the continuing cause of this devastation.
Tom,
A side note. As quite a few have said, great to have you back writing. We can appreciate the challenges one must face to write on an ongoing basis. It is acknowledged and appreciated.
If it makes you feel better, I go to your site before Kunstler’s (he says ironically while drinking coffee from a Long Emergency mug). The number of comments here may be less but each is worth reading. A fine glass versus box wine per we. (But don’t knock all box wines, some are great mid-grade quality, especially Aussie – and BC).
So I will offer a bit of reprieve from this endless and escalating madness; or, why we moved back to BC after absorbing the observations and wisdom from people such as yourself.
One half-hour from our house we are at a little mountain lake with no one else there. (And yes, it is drive in, even in a Corolla!). When we stand still out on the fishing dock and just listen the full chorus of marsh birds it is in full surround sound. No ear buds or Bose headphones can match it. Then we watch some little marsh bird about the size of a grosbeak chase off a juvenile bald eagle. It was hilarious as the eagle was five times the size. A little while later we hear the same eagle calling while hovering above the fir, pines, and juniper. The air is fresh and only full of wild voices.
Didn’t really try to fish all that much. Not the prime reason for being there. A family with two young girls showed up to take over the fishing duties anyway.
The charm of seeing children with their fishing rod (Spider-Man and princesses even!), never gets old. Hope springs eternal is manifested in a rod, hook, and worm.
A letter of sanity from what may become one of N. America’s refuge – if it doesn’t burn down first…