Here are this week’s headlines, many still focus on the drought and the fact that it may not end this winter, or even next year. It’s a reminder to become resilient.
How Can We Prevent Another Dust Bowl – Six experts discuss the current drought and the relationship it has to fossil fuels, the farm bill and current farming practices. One of the points I took away from these contributions is that the return of dust bowl type conditions are unlikely, as our farming techniques (though far from perfect) have changed for the better since the 1930s.
Corn for Food, Not Fuel – An OpEd about diverting the corn grown for ethanol back into our food chain.
The Missing Link: Droughts, the Economy and Climate Change – Forbes draws connections between rising commodity corn prices, drought and the economic security of both public and private enterprises.
Is the Great Drought Here to Stay? – More on how this drought could have a long lifespan, depending on El Nino and La Nina. In some parts of the nation under extreme and exceptional drought conditions, good precipitation over the winter would still not lift them out of drought.
Earth at Tipping Point – “…In the journal Nature, the researchers warn that the world is headed toward a tipping point marked by extinctions and unpredictable changes on a scale not seen since the glaciers retreated 12,000 years ago. There is a very high possibility that by the end of the century, the Earth is going to be a very different place,” study researcher Anthony Barnosky told LiveScience. Barnosky, a professor of integrative biology from the University of California, Berkeley, joined a group of 17 other scientists to warn that this new planet might not be a pleasant place to live…”
A Fungus Emerges as a Weapon Against Cheat Grass – “Cheatgrass is a very insidious kind of biotic virus,” said Stephen Pyne, a Western fire historian at Arizona State University. “It takes over and rewrites the operating system. Because it grows earlier, it can burn earlier,” then in its regrowth “drive off all the other competitors. That makes for a complete overthrow of the system.”
Tour de Cluck – A 16 mile tour of city chicken coops.
Anyone out there want to share about how you are dealing with drought? We love comments.
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