In article ,
Mysterious Traveler wrote:

On 06/25/2011 10:39 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
On 6/24/11 5:24 PM, Nad R wrote:
Mysterious wrote:
I knew it was hot when the garden was dried out after being watered
good early this morning. I was shocked when Time& Temp told the
temperature. Even the weather app on the computer shows 108 degrees.
Monday through Wednesday we were between 95& 98 for the high each
day.

How is the drought affecting England, France& Germany? BBC world
news was saying it's bad there. Anyone from those countries on this
group being affected?

Desert West Texas

--

Not exactly Europe, but here is...

In the MId Seventies Fahrenheit in Michigan. No drought here but the
opposite. We got lots and lots of rain in the last two days. Farmers that
just got their plantings done two weeks ago may lose it all, if they did
not have good drainage.

It rained literally every day in the Month of May. Then two weeks of nice
dry weather to get the planting done. Now rain again.. Lots of rain... Too
much rain that will hurt farmers. They may try and replant.

As my personal garden is going well. Since I use raised beds for almost
everything except corn and corn does not like wet feet.


In time of drought, farmers complain of starving.
In time of flood, farmers starve.
(old proverb)

In times of drought this bad, this area would be almost uninhabitable
without electricity to pump ground water.

--

An' once the Ogallala Aquifer in West Texas is empty, all the
electricity in the world won't help. Recharge in the aquifer is 0.024
inches (0.61Â*mm) per year in parts of Texas and New Mexico

The Ogalla Aquifer in Nebraska and Kansas seems OK, but it is running
dry in Texas and New Mexico. The recharge in the aquifer is 0.024 inches
(0.61Â*mm) per year in parts of Texas and New Mexico.

Aquifers in Yemen, India, northern China, Afghanistan, Mexico, and
Pakistan are being pumped faster than they can recharge. There is fossil
water aquifers in Saudi Arabia, which are close to running dry. One
fifth of the American grain, 3/5 Indian grain, and 4/5 of China's grain
comes from irrigation. India and China account for 40% of the worlds
population. These 3 countries account for 50% of the world's annual
grain harvest. Half the world's population live in countries with
falling aquifers. Forty percent of the world's grain comes from
irrigated land, and 70% of the worlds fresh water is used for irrigation.

Add to this the diminished snow falls (not this year;o), as on the
Sierras in California that is diverted to farming in the Central Valley,
and vanishing glaciers in Bolivia and India, and a scary problem
presents itself. IIRC in 1970 there was 130 days of excess food for
everyone on the planet. Today there is 40 days of excess food.

If the entire ice sheet around Greenland were to melt, it would lead to
a 26 ft. rise in sea level, but even a 3 foot rise in the oceans would
sharply reduce the amount of rice grown in Bangladesh, and the Mekong
Delta. Vietnam exports rice to 20 countries.

When temperatures rise during the growing season, grain yields fall.
Crop ecologists use a rule of thumb that for each 1-degree-Celsius rise
in temperature above the optimum during the growing season, you can
expect a 10% decline in grain yields. Photosynthesis plateaus at 95
degrees Fahrenheit, declines to 104 degrees F, and then stops.

---
"World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse"
by Lester Russell Brown
http://www.amazon.com/World-Edge-Env...llapse/dp/0393
339491/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306790530&sr=1-1
(Available at a library near you [while they are still open])

Actually, only half of the book is doom and gloom, the other half is
very promising, if our leaders don't get in the way.
--
- Billy

Mad dog Republicans to the right. Democratic spider webs to the left. True conservatives, and liberals not to be found anywhere in the phantasmagoria
of the American political landscape.

America is not broke. The country is awash in wealth and cash.
It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the
greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks
and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/.../michael-moore
/michael-moore-says-400-americans-have-more-wealth-/