U.S. declares drought-stricken states largest natural disaster area ever

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That's so weird that there's like ONE county in Texas that isn't experiencing a drought.
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again...the Earth s p*ssed, and she's fighting back. Trying to get rid of the parasites that humanity has become. We were alright a few thousand years ago, we were the type of parasites that realized how much we needed our host...we lost sight of that, and were damaging our host. Now she is trying to get rid of us before we turn the whole planet toxic and kill it off too. And, yes, I know the meteorological explanations, but I have more faith in my explanation. How long did people really think we could go on not caring about the health of a huge, self sufficient, life providing organism, such as the Earth, (that I believe is also conscious of us and everything that goes on on it's surface), before the really big planet got mad and started withholding the things that we need for life. Such as water. The Earth could probably keep two or three continents from getting any usable moisture for several years, without harming herself a bit. The drought, the heat, the quakes, the microbursts, it's all just the beginning.

ALL MOO
 
not_my_kids said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again...the Earth s p*ssed, and she's fighting back. Trying to get rid of the parasites that humanity has become. We were alright a few thousand years ago, we were the type of parasites that realized how much we needed our host...we lost sight of that, and were damaging our host. Now she is trying to get rid of us before we turn the whole planet toxic and kill it off too. And, yes, I know the meteorological explanations, but I have more faith in my explanation. How long did people really think we could go on not caring about the health of a huge, self sufficient, life providing organism, such as the Earth, (that I believe is also conscious of us and everything that goes on on it's surface), before the really big planet got mad and started withholding the things that we need for life. Such as water. The Earth could probably keep two or three continents from getting any usable moisture for several years, without harming herself a bit. The drought, the heat, the quakes, the microbursts, it's all just the beginning.

ALL MOO
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Well, actually we've been through this before. The Dust Bowl of the 1930's was well before major pollution, for example. Not to mention other significant changes and extreme weather, so this is not new, just rare (thankfully.)
 
not_my_kids said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again...the Earth s p*ssed, and she's fighting back. Trying to get rid of the parasites that humanity has become.
Click to expand...
I agree, and I certainly don't blame Mother Earth. It's just too bad this will effect all the people who care as well as those who don't.

Whenever my sister and I talk about the effects of things like littering and pollution, all my 86 year old mother can say is, "Why should I care. I won't be around." I feel that hers was the generation that started raping the earth for all they could get. After WWII, prosperity was abundant and they became spoiled. It seems to me that every other generation had to struggle, but theirs seemed to reap the most benefits, all the way up until the present. For instance, my father was too young to fight in WWII and too old to serve in VietNam. Jobs were abundant and he was able to support a family of 6 with a city maintenance man's salary. Back then people were able to advance within a company and accrue a pension. They are now living comfortably on social security which was easily funded by the Baby Boomer's salaries.

This is all just a personal observation and MOO. I haven't done any specific research. I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts on this.
 
It's really tough here in the south. Our front yard looks like it's been scorched by fire.
All of our plants and small trees are dying within days.
When we do get rain, it dries up within minutes.
Don't even get me started on the pets I see outside. I take mine out several times a day and I don't let them goof off because of the heat. It's do your business and get back inside where it's cool.
 
I can relate, Evan's Mom. We're in monsoon season here in the high desert, yet it hasn't rained nearly enough. I actually found myself watering a few of my outdoor cactus plants! I'm in the city, but it seems like a ghost town. Everyone is indoors hiding from the heat and it's super quiet outside. Our winters have been getting milder and milder. The old timers tell of winters with so much snow they had to shovel it off their flat roofs. It's nothing like that now and I haven't needed a heavy winter coat in years. Something is definitely changing and I, for one, am worried.
 
No offense, DK, but we haven't been through this before. or of we did, we have never been through this with as many people on the planet as there are right now. The last year has been the hottest on record. that is not just personal observation, I watched the story on Nightline the other night. So, since there were records being kept during the Dust Bowl, and this is the hottest it's been and the largest recorded disaster that we have had, at the same time, no less, I think it's safe to say that something is different this time.

Of course, I would love to see it be that this is just a warm snap and it'll break and everything will go back to normal...but I don't see that happening. We don't fully understand this planet, in fact the only thing that we have ever known about the planet with certainty is that there aren't any others like it that we can find. We only had one Earth that had the perfect balance to support our lives, and yet, we didn't do what we would have needed to be to keep that balance. I don't think the world will go back to the way it was, and I don't think this is just another drought, or just another heat wave, or just another strong nationwide storm system.

Once again, all MOO.
 
Cracka*Jaxx said:
I agree, and I certainly don't blame Mother Earth. It's just too bad this will effect all the people who care as well as those who don't.

Whenever my sister and I talk about the effects of things like littering and pollution, all my 86 year old mother can say is, "Why should I care. I won't be around." I feel that hers was the generation that started raping the earth for all they could get. After WWII, prosperity was abundant and they became spoiled. It seems to me that every other generation had to struggle, but theirs seemed to reap the most benefits, all the way up until the present. For instance, my father was too young to fight in WWII and too old to serve in VietNam. Jobs were abundant and he was able to support a family of 6 with a city maintenance man's salary. Back then people were able to advance within a company and accrue a pension. They are now living comfortably on social security which was easily funded by the Baby Boomer's salaries.

This is all just a personal observation and MOO. I haven't done any specific research. I'd be interested to hear any other thoughts on this.
Click to expand...

That same generation basically founded the modern ecological preservation movement (along with fighting for civil rights for several groups).

If your father came of age in the late 40s or early 50s, then he was competing for jobs with the millions of servicemen who were returning from overseas or just graduating from college on the G.I. Bill.

Yes, there was relative prosperity: by 1945, we were the only giant industrial nation still standing. But there were also recessions as the war economy wound down, etc.

And who lives "comfortably" on Social Security? It may be enough to keep people from being destitute; perhaps your father supplements his SSI with a pension from a government job. Is there any reason to think he didn't work hard for that all his life?

As for "raping the earth", you are basically talking about the Industrial Revolution, which began hundreds of years ago. It's just that it reached a critical mass in the past 50 years as the number of urban, industrial workers exceeded rural, agricultural workers for the first time.

If you must blame them, blame your parents for having four children instead of two.
 
The claim of "greatest disaster in U.S. history" seems based on the number of counties affected, according to the link. DK is certainly right that thus far, it doesn't compare to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, when much of the Plains states became deserts and people actually suffocated to death in dust storms.

Of course, the current drought also isn't over...
 
Nova said:
The claim of "greatest disaster in U.S. history" seems based on the number of counties affected, according to the link. DK is certainly right that thus far, it doesn't compare to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, when much of the Plains states became deserts and people actually suffocated to death in dust storms.

Of course, the current drought also isn't over...
Click to expand...

But you also have to remember building codes and things of that nature (AC, central air in most every home) that have made it a little harder for people to die of exposure type events while in their own homes. I understand that it's based on the number of counties affected...doesn't a larger affected area indicate a larger disaster? It does to me.

Like you said, it's not over yet, either. That's the scary part. I always feel better discussing the effects and general impact of a disaster after it's over and the rebuilding has begun, but frankly, it doesn't look like this will change any time soon. Certainly not in MI, where we are suffering a lot as well, nothing is growing, it's just being baked off the vine. Today it was 90, for the rest of the ten day forecast, we have nothing but the same, and no rain forecast. From what I've seen f the national weather, the rest of the country is in much the same boat.
 
not_my_kids, I honestly don't know if "number of counties" is a fair barometer. I don't know enough about federal law in the 1930s to know if they used the same criteria in declaring a disaster area. But it may well be that today's drought is spread over a much bigger area. I certainly didn't mean to belittle the current problem.

One thing is certain: we've had 30 years of migration to the Southern states where the drought is concentrated. So a lot more people live in the affected areas.

I'm just haunted by pictures I saw recently from the 1930s of a carload of young people buried alive during a sand storm. The only part of them that remained visible were their outstretched hands, frozen in death but still literally "grasping" for air. Another young man got so lost in the dust storm that he curled up into a ball because he couldn't see to walk the short distance home; by the time they found him, the wind had driven the sand up inside his eyelids and he was permanently blind.

AFAIK, we ain't quite there yet.
 
Nova said:
not_my_kids, I honestly don't know if "number of counties" is a fair barometer. I don't know enough about federal law in the 1930s to know if they used the same criteria in declaring a disaster area. But it may well be that today's drought is spread over a much bigger area. I certainly didn't mean to belittle the current problem.

One thing is certain: we've had 30 years of migration to the Southern states where the drought is concentrated. So a lot more people live in the affected areas.

I'm just haunted by pictures I saw recently from the 1930s of a carload of young people buried alive during a sand storm. The only part of them that remained visible were their outstretched hands, frozen in death but still literally "grasping" for air. Another young man got so lost in the dust storm that he curled up into a ball because he couldn't see to walk the short distance home; by the time they found him, the wind had driven the sand up inside his eyelids and he was permanently blind.

AFAIK, we ain't quite there yet.
Click to expand...

Oh, I agree, we aren't there yet, and I hope we don't get there. I also have to remind myself, we are much more alarmist now than we used to be, as a society in general. In the 1930's, there was a really bad drought, and that was what they called it. Now there is a really bad drought, and it's THE WORST THERE EVER HAS BEEN OR WILL BE. Media influence has changed a lot in the way that we perceive things, and the way we are informed of things.

I still think this has the potential to get there again, and possibly worse.
 
not_my_kids said:
No offense, DK, but we haven't been through this before. or of we did, we have never been through this with as many people on the planet as there are right now. The last year has been the hottest on record. that is not just personal observation, I watched the story on Nightline the other night. So, since there were records being kept during the Dust Bowl, and this is the hottest it's been and the largest recorded disaster that we have had, at the same time, no less, I think it's safe to say that something is different this time.

Of course, I would love to see it be that this is just a warm snap and it'll break and everything will go back to normal...but I don't see that happening. We don't fully understand this planet, in fact the only thing that we have ever known about the planet with certainty is that there aren't any others like it that we can find. We only had one Earth that had the perfect balance to support our lives, and yet, we didn't do what we would have needed to be to keep that balance. I don't think the world will go back to the way it was, and I don't think this is just another drought, or just another heat wave, or just another strong nationwide storm system.

Once again, all MOO.
Click to expand...

People said the same stuff during the hurricane seasons of 2004-2005 when we had record breaking hurricanes, but we've gone years with no similar activity. People only recently starting understanding El Nino and La Nina and it's effects on the weather, with more to learn. With records only going back so far, we don't really know how often these extreme years happen. I do know we had an ice age long before man "raped the planet" and I know that the climate used to be VERY different from what it is now, with today's deserts once being oceans, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in being responsible stewards of the earth that God gave us and taking good care of it, but I just don't buy into the chaos theories that come out every time we have some unusual weather events. We've always had them, and we always will.
 
Nova said:
The claim of "greatest disaster in U.S. history" seems based on the number of counties affected, according to the link. DK is certainly right that thus far, it doesn't compare to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, when much of the Plains states became deserts and people actually suffocated to death in dust storms.

Of course, the current drought also isn't over...
Click to expand...

Correct, the article title says "largest natural disaster AREA ever" not the worst natural disaster ever.
 
Dark Knight said:
People said the same stuff during the hurricane seasons of 2004-2005 when we had record breaking hurricanes, but we've gone years with no similar activity. People only recently starting understanding El Nino and La Nina and it's effects on the weather, with more to learn. With records only going back so far, we don't really know how often these extreme years happen. I do know we had an ice age long before man "raped the planet" and I know that the climate used to be VERY different from what it is now, with today's deserts once being oceans, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in being responsible stewards of the earth that God gave us and taking good care of it, but I just don't buy into the chaos theories that come out every time we have some unusual weather events. We've always had them, and we always will.
Click to expand...

Not sure why Central Florida is considered in a drought right now. This has been the wettest we've been in a long time and it's been going on for months.
 
"NOUS42 KMLB 040236
PNSMLB
FLZ041-044>047-053-054-058-059-064-141-144-147-041200-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MELBOURNE FL
1036 PM EDT TUE JUL 3 2012

...COOLER THAN NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOVE NORMAL RAINFALL
OCCURRED OVER EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA DURING JUNE 2012...

A FEW DISTINCT PERIODS OF DISTURBED WEATHER OCCURRED ACROSS THE AREA
DURING JUNE...INCLUDING THE FORMATION AND CROSSING OF TROPICAL
CYCLONE DEBBY OVER FLORIDA LATE IN THE MONTH. THIS LED TO TIMES OF
WIDESPREAD RAINFALL AND INCREASED CLOUDINESS OVER THE AREA WHICH
HELPED PRODUCE BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOVE NORMAL
PRECIPITATION OVER MUCH OF EAST CENTRAL FLORIDA."

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/data.php?file=/summary/Jun2012.txt
 
Dark Knight said:
People said the same stuff during the hurricane seasons of 2004-2005 when we had record breaking hurricanes, but we've gone years with no similar activity. People only recently starting understanding El Nino and La Nina and it's effects on the weather, with more to learn. With records only going back so far, we don't really know how often these extreme years happen. I do know we had an ice age long before man "raped the planet" and I know that the climate used to be VERY different from what it is now, with today's deserts once being oceans, etc.

Don't get me wrong, I strongly believe in being responsible stewards of the earth that God gave us and taking good care of it, but I just don't buy into the chaos theories that come out every time we have some unusual weather events. We've always had them, and we always will.
Click to expand...

2004 and 2005 were real anomalies. 2004 was actually an El Nino season. 2005 was Neutral heading into La Nina. El Nino seasons are usually less active with the exception of 1969 and 2004.
 
Reality Orlando said:
Not sure why Central Florida is considered in a drought right now. This has been the wettest we've been in a long time and it's been going on for months.
Click to expand...

Florida prior to Tropical Storm Debby was in a drought.
 
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