Drought
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Snowflake Cold

Experts warn we only have 12 years left until the timeline on global warming will be changed again

Global Warming
© The Babylon Bee
World — Climate experts have solemnly warned that we only have twelve years left until they change the dates on global warming again.

"If we don't take action, then in 12 years we will have to explain why the world hasn't ended and come up with a new number," one UN scientist warned. "This is a very serious threat, and we urge everyone to hand control of the economy to the government immediately before we have no more time left to change the timeline again."

Cow Skull

Is climate change driving exodus of Central American migrants to the US?

migrants central america
© Girls carry water jugs after filling them in a nearby stream in Tizamarte, Camotán, Chiquimula, Guatemala, 18 May 2019.Girls carry water jugs after filling them in a nearby stream in Tizamarte, Camotán, Chiquimula, Guatemala, 18 May 2019.
At sunrise, the misty fields around the village of Guior are already dotted with men, women and children sowing maize after an overnight rainstorm.

After several years of drought, the downpour brought some hope of relief to the subsistence farmers in this part of eastern Guatemala.

But as Esteban Gutiérrez, 30, takes a break from his work, he explains why he is still willing to incur crippling debts - and risk his life - to migrate to the United States.

"My children have gone to bed hungry for the past three years. Our crops failed and the coffee farms have cut wages to $4 a day," he says, playing nervously with the white maize kernels in a plastic trough strapped to his waist.

"We hope the harvest will be good, but until then we have only one quintal [46kg] of maize left - which is barely enough for a month. I have to find a way to travel north, or else my children will suffer even more."
caravan migrants central america
© James Rodríguez/The GuardianWilson, 8, son of Estéban Gutiérrez, stands in the family’s coffee plants holding mangoes.

Comment: It's hard to say how much effect environmental upheaval is having on migration flows, but it's a sure thing that the elites are wary of it and believe it will loom large in the coming years.

That may, in fact be why they're pushing acceptance of mass migration (which is the result, to this point, of their wars) so hard - to get people in host nations (usually Western) familiar with it.

They may not be far off. Another 'Great Wandering' may be in the cards. It has happened before...


Info

Ancient apocalypses that changed the course of civilization

Volcano Hekla
© Abraham Ortelius/Wikimedia CommonsThe eruption of the Icelandic volcano Hekla may have led to the collapse of multiple thriving Bronze Age societies.
Life, as they say, goes on. Until one day it doesn't. For ancient societies, without the means to predict natural disasters, destruction could often come suddenly and completely by surprise. Below are four of the most devastating natural events in recorded human history, and the societies that they wiped off the map.

The Storegga Slides

Until about 8,000 years ago, the British Isles were a peninsula, joined to mainland Europe by a strip of chalk downs, swamps, lakes and wooded hills. Today, we call this submerged world Doggerland.

Today, fishermen routinely bring up carved bone and antler tools from the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who lived here. But by the end of the 7th millennium BC, a warming world caused sea levels to rise. The people of Doggerland must have watched with dread as their villages were swallowed up one by one. But one event would turn the slow advance of the sea into an apocalyptic terror.

The edge of the Norwegian continental shelf is an underwater cliff that runs for six hundred miles along the Atlantic Basin. And one autumn day around 6225-6170 BCE, this cliff collapsed. An estimated 770 cubic miles, or over 50 Mount Everests, of rock broke off and slid into the deep ocean. The rubble flow reached a speed of 90 mph underwater.

Bizarro Earth

Missing Mekong waters raise suspicions of China motives

Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand
© REUTERS/Soe Zeya TunFishermen fish in the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand July 24, 2019. Picture taken July 24, 2019.
Ban Nong Chan, Thailand - By this time of year, the Mekong River should have been rising steadily with the monsoon rains, bringing fishermen a bounty of fat fish.

Instead, the river water in Thailand has fallen further than anyone can remember and the only fish are tiny.

Scientists and people living along the river fear the impact of the worst drought in years has been exacerbated by upstream dams raising the prospect of irreversible change on the river that supports one of Southeast Asia's most important rice-growing regions.

A Chinese promise to release more dam water to ease the crisis has only raised worries over the extent to which the river's natural cycles - and the communities that have depended on it for generations - have been forever disrupted.

"Now China is completely in control of the water," said Premrudee Deoruong of Laos Dam Investment Monitor, an environmental group.

"From now on, the concern is that the water will be controlled by the dam builders."

In the northeastern Thai province of Nakhon Phanom, where the now sluggish river forms the border with Laos, the measured depth of the Mekong fell below 1.5 meters this week. The average depth there for the same time of year is 8 meters.

"What I have seen this year has never happened before," said Sun Prompakdee, who has been fishing from Ban Nong Chan village for most of his 60 years. "Now we only get small fish, there are no big fish when the water is this low."

The collapse in the water level is partly due to drought - with rainfall during the past 60 days more than 40 percent below normal for the time of year.

Sun

Extreme weather has had massive impact on food production in Andalusia, Spain

DRIED FRUIT
As reported by COAG Andalucía, the dry weather registered in 2019 in Andalusia has had a massive impact on many parts of the region and has had consequences on the fruit and vegetable production, reducing the harvest forecasts in most provinces.

So far, as far as rainfall is concerned, the hydrometeorological year has been very dry, without significant changes until September with the start of the new rainy season.

The month of April stood out, as the amount of rainfall stood 30% above the average for the whole region, which partially alleviated the situation and allowed the water supply for irrigated crops to be increased (from 4,500 m3 / ha to 5,400 m3 / ha at the Confederation of the Guadalquivir). This was followed by the driest May ever recorded, and those same dynamics continued in June. With such a beginning of the summer, we can expect the water supply situation to worsen in the coming months.

When it comes to the productions affected, in Almería, the rainfed almond harvest has been disastrous, both due to the scarcity of rain and to the drop in temperatures recorded in spring, as well as the gusts of wind that caused the fruit to fall from the trees.

Sun

Severe drought in its 4th year in Klein-Karoo, South Africa badly affecting crop production

Berg River dam, 29 June 2019
© My Franschhoek / TwitterBerg River dam, 29 June 2019
Vegetable seed and fruit production badly affected, irrigation dams running dry

The water situation looks better in the Boland and Cape Town but alas, that doesn't tell the full story of the Western Cape: the Klein-Karoo has barely had rain or snow this winter and the dam levels are shocking: two important irrigation dams, the Kammanassie Dam and the Stompdrift Dam are 8% and 2% full respectively. The Poortjieskloof Dam is 0.2% full.

According to Agri Western Cape, many fruit orchards and wine vineyards in the Klein-Karoo have either already withered and died because of the drought, or have been removed to relieve pressure on extremely limited water sources.

The production of onion, carrot and beetroot seed in this important seed production area has been hit very hard by the acute shortage of irrigation water.

Sun

Thai farmers asked to delay rice planting as drought bites

A farmer plants rice in a paddy field in Thailand's Nakhonsawan province
© REUTERS/Chaiwat SubprasomFILE PHOTO: A farmer plants rice in a paddy field in Thailand's Nakhonsawan province, August 16, 2015.
The Thai government has asked farmers to delay planting rice because of drought and the pumping of water from reservoirs for irrigation threatens household supplies, an agriculture ministry official said on Monday.

Farmers in the world's second-biggest rice exporter usually plant their main crop in May, the beginning of the rainy season, for harvest between August and October.

But this year, the rain has been sparse and drought has been declared in more than a dozen provinces in northern and northeastern rice regions.

The government is considering measures such as cloud seeding to try to bring rain but in the meantime, farmers have been asked to hold off.

"We would like to ask farmers not to grow new crops of rice because there may not be enough water," Irrigation Department official Sanya Sangpumpong told Reuters.

The pumping of water to keep crops alive had led to a serious depletion of reservoirs, he said.

Comment: A Global Food Disaster is in The Making


Info

Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: Ancient palaces and multi-thousand rain cycles return

Mittani palace
© YouTube/Adapt 2030 (screen capture)

The discovery of a Mittani Palace from 3500 years ago that resurfaced in the Mosul Dam brings us to a 3500 year rain cycle and over 6000 years a cycle of Grand Solar Minimums on a 400 year pattern. The rise and fall of civilization time immoral are dictated by the Sun. We are in another cycle of contraction.

Climate Revolution is a 'Must Read' for understanding our Sun driven climate as we progress deeper into the new Eddy Grand Solar Minimum. Weather extremes leading to Global food scarcity and high food prices are here now, and this book describes the expected changes, how to survive & thrive during future challenging times with practical preparations.


Comment: For further information read:


Sun

Damaged agricultural acreage could reach one million hectares due to dry weather in Spain

dry earth
According to data on the agricultural acreage affected by the dry weather, provided by Agroseguros, it is estimated that the total figure will rise to more than 980,000 hectares. To date, 643,000 hectares have been damaged, with Castile-Leon and Castile-La Mancha as the most affected autonomous regions, with 376,000 and 109,000 hectares damaged, respectively.

According to the agro-insurance company, and based on the data available on June 24, the acreage affected and the total expected in the various autonomous regions is as follows: Andalusia 32,658 ha (37,920), Aragón 35,738 ha (60,379), Castile-Leon 376,117 ha (585,019), Castile-La Mancha 108,684 ha (182,455), Catalonia 10,760 ha (12,500), Navarre 17,614 ha (28,325) and the rest 61,651 ha (75,995).

Sun

Lithuania declares emergency as drought hits farmers

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded
© AFPLast month was the hottest June ever recorded in Lithuania
Lithuania declared an emergency on Wednesday as a severe drought hit the Baltic EU state, threatening to slash this year's harvest by up to half.

Apart from jeopardising crops, scant rainfall has also drastically reduced water levels in some rivers, threatening fish stocks and shipping activities.

The formal declaration of an "emergency situation" will allow the government to compensate farmers for some losses as well as help them to avoid EU financial sanctions should they fail to reach production goals.

"Farmers believe their harvest can be slashed by 40 percent or 50 percent, while fish stocks are also endangered," environment minister Kestutis Mazeika told AFP.