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nashvol85, on Nov 9 2007, 05:08 PM, said:
I'm not trying to flame the author of the original post, but the idea that we could have anything remotely similar to the dustbowl in the South in the 2000's is silly. There have been a lot of changes in the economy, farming techniques, and government policy involving land management since the 1930s.
For those that are further interested in the great Dust Bowl disaster in the high plains, I suggest reading Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time. It provides some great insight into the struggles of those who lived through that catastrophe. It was the worst disaster in American history, and I do not think that we will have anything to compare to it in scale anytime soon.
For those that are further interested in the great Dust Bowl disaster in the high plains, I suggest reading Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time. It provides some great insight into the struggles of those who lived through that catastrophe. It was the worst disaster in American history, and I do not think that we will have anything to compare to it in scale anytime soon.
The impacts of a multi-year drought on the Southeastern US could be devestating. The region has been growing at a breakneck pace and evidently water management wasn't a top priority. The parallels I was trying to draw to the Dustbowl was the migration out of the plains states due to lack of economic opportunites. While results would be different, their are many things lining up on the world stage that could set the South up for a environmental/economic disaster:
- Little Rainfall is expected over the winter months and many municipalities are 'supposedly' at less than a 90 day supply of water.
- Sprawl is rampant and continuing as builders, developers, and landscapers are installing non-native plants and grasses to new development which require large amounts of irrigation to stay alive.
- Gas prices are ratcheting higher which will ad economic pressures to Southern homeowners who travel by car alone. Economic growth in our 'sprawl-tropolises' would be hampered as consumers have to budget more and more to fuel costs.
- The economic outlook for the U.S. is dimming amid the credit crunch, if housing completely collapses, you will have a myriad of impacts on the SE region. A large number of migrant workers would be unemployed and a glut of unsold houses would be on the market.
- Agriculture is still being affected, as livestock farmers are thinning herds/numbers and hay is becoming an expensive commodity. Not to mention stunted/failed crops.
