Chinese Will cause Return of the Dust Bowl

[GoneOffShore]

(Subject edited because I realized everyone thougth I might be talking about it happening here - though of course it could happen here. I also added some more quotes from the article relevant to China)

A friend sent me the following and it highlighted the fact for me how quickly we can change the planet.

It also shows how someone somewhere, will always try to make money from misfortune - "Fortune passes everywhere." - Frank Herbert "Dune"

The Return of the Dust Bowl
By Chris Mayer
February 10, 2007

A darkness blacker than night is how it was often described. At least one could pierce the black veil of night. Not so with this kind of darkness. It was opaque. People were afraid. It was only midmorning. They had never seen anything like it.
<snip>
It was Nov. 11, 1933, Armistice Day, South Dakota.
<snip>
The great black blizzard of 1933 destroyed acres of farmland stretching from the Texas Panhandle all through the Great Plains and clear to the Canadian border. The following day, the skies darkened over Chicago. A steady stream of filth fell on the city like snow. Even people as far east as Albany, N.Y., could see the menacing dark clouds roll their way across the horizon. That winter, red snow fell softly on New England.
<snip>
Yet 1933 was "only a prelude to disaster," as Frederick Lewis Allen wrote in his panorama of the 1930s, "Since Yesterday".
Unlike a natural disaster such as a hurricane, "There was a long story of human error behind it," as Allen wrote. After World War I, there was a great demand for wheat. Mechanized farming also became common. Farmers tore up the sod that covered the plains and farms expanded. Production soared.

The Plains were a region of high winds and light rainfall. Yet the 1920s were pretty forgiving in terms of drought. There were warnings, though, such as stories of topsoil blowing in Kansas after a stretch of dry hot weather. But in the 1930s, we had some real drought in these places. The combination of drought and desiccated farmland would create the epic dust storms. "Retribution for the very human error of breaking the sod of the Plains had come in full measure," Allen wrote.

<snip>
As Lester Brown, author of Outgrowing the Earth, explains: "With little vegetation remaining in parts of northern and western China, the strong winds of late winter and early spring can remove literally millions of tons of topsoil in a single day soil that can take centuries to replace." These dust storms are so strong that they can peel the paint off cars. They often force the closure of schools, airports and stores even in places as far away as South Korea and Japan.

As with the Great Plains, northern China is dry and farmed intensely. Already, China's farmland is turning to desert at an alarming rate. Estimates peg the loss at more than 900 square miles per year. Chinese farmers struggle to meet the demands of the Chinese people. Meat production, for example, has grown at an 8% clip since 1980. That's the biggest increase of any major meat-producing country in the world, yet it still falls short of demand.
<snip>
By some estimates, we'll need to produce about 136 million tons of grain in 2007 to prevent grain stocks from falling again (they fell in 2006). Yet annual increases in grain production have averaged only about 20 million tons since 2000. That gives you something of a snapshot of the hurdle in front of us.

The investment conclusion from all this seems to be that we are in a long bull market for grains. Expect the prices of corn and wheat to keep rising. Expect the price of meat to rise. It also seems that fertilizer producers, such as Agrium, should continue to do well. Other ancillary ideas also come to mind — shippers of dry goods (i.e., grains) and manufacturers of farm equipment. If you followed along with my Mayer's Special Situations letter, for example, you're up 40% since June on irrigation equipment maker Lindsay Co.

The potential for another 1930s-style Dust Bowl only adds to the power and durability of these trends.

Full article here - http://www.dailywealth.com/archive/2007/feb/2007_feb_10.asp

Or maybe we should all start investing in body bag manufacturing.

[patricia92243]

1. I've always wondered what happened to make the dust bowls STOP. Was grass planted or what???

[GoneOffShore]

2. I found a link here

http://www.usd.edu/anth/epa/dust.html

And during FDR's first 100 days he formed the Soil Conservation Service I think.

[havocmom]

5. Now we have the Natural Resources Conservation Service

and bushco appointees are doin a helluva job pissing the good people of that agency off to the point there is serious brain drain. Bad enough the agency faces a huge loss as boomers retire and the pay/conditions inhibit younger people from joining the good fight. But the politically loyal, but not qualified, appointees at the top (same as other agencies) are making life hell for the worker bees in the field offices who work with land owners to improve methods, plant for wildlife, improve the land and ensure a future on it for the next generation.

The good people in the trenches get it from both sides: Management that sets about making doing the job well damned near impossible and populations that blame all their problems on 'the governmint', taking it out on the nearest Fed employee.

The GOP is making damned sure government will be drowned in the bath tub. For over 25 years, media has hidden the real threat to Americans - Corporate consolidation of power & wealth. The pundits have made careers out of blaming the wrong group so the population would be distracted until the last sucker punches landed.

One of the first orders of business when bushco came in power was the congressional repeal of the law mandating that foods be labeled with Country of Origin. At THAT time, about 40% of foods in most stores came from overseas. No way to be sure what the number is now. One thing for sure, if you bristle at Big Oil holding your gas tank hostage, you will really hate Big International Corp. Farm being the boss of your belly! America is not safer being so dependent on imports, but corporate profits are!

And struggling farmers, the ones who have been trying to make a living AND be good stewards of the land, are being phased out. With them gone, the corporate Mega-Farms are returning to bad methods - miles and miles of fields all tilled the same way, planted with mono-culture products. Hey, it's good for the bottom line of those Quarterly Reports!

But is is bad for the land and the drought has been hanging in there. The dust cloud will be mind numbing.

The average age of the American farmer is now somewhere past mid 50s. The land is being evacuated via economic policy, Big Ag and patented seeds, red tape in the few programs not yet gutted making too many just throw in the towel.

We are in trouble, folks. When the family farm is gone, we are in BIG trouble.

And the dust will blow over what was once the bread basket of the world... right past the closed factories of the rust belt and eventually swallow those who think they are safe in the east.

Mars. I don't want this nation to look like Mars.

But the dust is coming unless we change a lot in a big hurry.

[Kali]

4. War on bare ground.

Perennial grasses are THE best soil retainers.

[Sal Minella]

6. And Bison bison is THE best-suited critter for the weathers of the prairie.

But it took the Europeans almost 200 years to learn what the people who lived here already knew.

For many years, I've felt that good black dirt is the only wealth worth having.

[dapper]

3. Thanks Everyone....

Cool reads.


Dapper

[bikebloke]

7. The Worst Hard Time

by Timothy Egan

This is a good history of the causes and solutions.