Climate Change – 1930-39
In late October the nightly news was attributing the severe weather and flooding in California and the Northwest and the early ‘nor-easter’ in the Northeast to climate change.
Previously this year the forest fires plaguing California and later drought were also presented by most of our media as the result of climate change. The recent heavy rain and some flooding in California is tagged with the same explanation – climate change.
Did any one of those reporters and/or anchors do any research, analyze any historical data or ask any reputable meteorologist whether there was any precedent for the ‘climate change disasters’ on which they were so eager to report? Of course not. The “news” is now, the worst is now, bad news makes “news’ – particularly when it fits a preconceived narrative – one that’s held by their bosses and expected from the ‘journalists.’ Reporting on severe weather is news. Presenting severe weather assuming they know the cause thereof is not news. It’s propaganda. (Look that word up before making a negative judgement)
I invite anyone who hasn’t read my June 2021 dive into the data – the science – of the globe’s climate change to do so:
https://spiderinstitute.com/the-truth-about-climate-change/
Severe weather? Let’s take a few paragraphs to replay what happened in the US in the 1930’s, commonly referred to as the Dust Bowl.
In 1930 the plains states, from Texas to Nebraska and east, entered a period of lack of rain (drought) to support the newly plowed under, deep rooted prairie grasses. Land grants over the years had created farms all over the region. The Great Depression added to the problem of those farmers trying to raise and sell wheat, corn and other row crops to survive as prices plummeted.
That left the now loose topsoil vulnerable to erosion as the drought was accompanied by record-setting high temperatures and high winds.
All those factors converged to form a ‘perfect storm’ of disaster. The result was failed crops, dust storms – and clouds of dust covering eastern states. That outcome in turn resulted in a mass migration to the west of farmers and their families – and the businesses that relied on them.
While “black blizzards” constantly menaced Plains states in the 1930s, a massive dust storm 2 miles high traveled 2,000 miles before hitting the East Coast on May 11, 1934. For five hours, a fog of prairie dirt enshrouded landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the U.S. Capitol.
Many who inhaled the airborne prairie dust suffered coughing spasms, shortness of breath, asthma, bronchitis and influenza. Dust pneumonia, called the “brown plague,” killed hundreds and was particularly lethal for infants, children and the elderly.
It was a time of major upheaval. Static electricity played havoc with electrical transmission wires, radios and wire fences.
By 1934 an estimated 35M acres of formerly cultivated land had been rendered useless for farming, while another 125 million acres—an area roughly three-quarters the size of Texas—was rapidly losing its topsoil.
Seemingly biblical plagues of jackrabbits and grasshoppers descended on the Plains and destroyed whatever meager crops could grow.
John Steinbeck memorialized the plight of the times in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.
If that were to happen now, one can only imagine the fodder it would feed to the climate change fervor espoused by many levels of government and in our news reports. It would be front and center ‘proof’ of the effects of CO2 and global warming. We might even be getting a mandate to walk if you couldn’t afford an incentivized, tax credited bicycle. There would be predictions of pending Apocalypse, which would be as unfounded as the end-of-the-world warnings now if we don’t stop burning fossil fuel.
You see, in the fall of 1939 it rained. Rain finally returned in significant amounts to many areas of the Great Plains and signaled the end of the Dust Bowl without humans trying to change anything.
But what caused the 1930’s cataclysm? It wasn’t CO2 or other greenhouse gases. It wasn’t burning coal to generate our electricity. Yet it was the biggest weather, meteorological, event – lasting nearly a decade – that impacted the 20th century in the United States.
Having been born and growing up on a Midwest farm, I vividly remember worrying about whether there would be enough – but not too much – rainfall at the right times to assure a successful harvest. It was a roll of the dice every year. No one cares more about the weather than farmers.
Farmers learned they had to rotate the crops raised on the same land to preserve the topsoil. Today most of the various crops are also planted and raised with minimal tilling without disturbing the land more than necessary. Herbicides have reduced the need for cultivation of crops.
There have been many, severe weather events over the years since we’ve been recording the weather. There’s been tornado outbreaks, devastating hurricanes. Throw in volcanic eruptions for good measure. Each of those events sadly resulted in major property damage and loss of life.
But prior to the 1990’s they weren’t attributed to anything humans did or were doing to cause them. Out of the blue, humans now control the earth’s atmosphere, the weather – whether it’s cold or hot, storms and the jet stream, etc. etc. etc.
We did create smog; we did poison our rivers and lakes with human waste and chemical disposal. In the United States we fixed those things. We’ve also significantly lowered emissions of greenhouse gases by creating better, cleaner burning of our abundant fossil fuels.
As our President and his huge, 4-plane load, 85 car entourage left the recent climate change conference in Scotland it’s noteworthy that Russia and China did not attend – which barring India – are the largest global emitters of greenhouse gases. They still have smog, for criminy sake.
Of course, we all want clean air and water – and in the US we have those things.
Sometimes it just rains on the parade and there’s nothing we can do about it.
Look at the 1930’s.
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Have a great and prosperous week.
Hug somebody.
References:
SPIDER Bites
The Rotary Clubs’ set a goal in the late 1980’s to eradicate polio in the world. Since February 2021 there have been two cases of wild polio – one in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. Almost…. The biggest problem now in Afghanistan is in trying to keep the vaccination workers alive as the Taliban takes over again.
The media is making a big deal out of a Republican winning the governorship in Virginia last week, implying it has national extrapolations. Maybe so. But it was a state election. Hopefully it’s enough to wake up the ‘woke.’ Meanwhile the Democrat won the New Jersey governor’s race.
We’ve heard of dark matter and dark energy, yet we know so little about it. it’s postulated that 75% of the energy in the universe and 25% of its matter is ‘dark.’ The only reason cosmologists, astronomers and physicists know it exists is from measurements of supernovae which show the universe is expanding not at an expected slowing down or constant rate, but at an accelerating pace. That energy to accelerate is coming from somewhere. Just when we think we know all the answers, ignorance shows up.
The Fed is walking an economic tightrope telegraphing again it will curtail purchases of treasuries and raise interest rates slowly over the next two years. Unlike the Fed, economists don’t believe the current rise in inflation is transitory – especially considering the massive spending bill pending in Congress – and thinking the Fed will need to increase interest rates much sooner. I happen to agree. The question is how much.
Related: vaccine mandates are exacerbating the worker shortage, especially in the service and retail industries, driving wages up which in turn is spurring price increases – inflation. That’s not to mention the impact on public safety as opposition is flaring among police officers, firefighters and first responders. Isn’t all this wonderful!
Speaking of vaccine mandates, 26 states filed suit on Friday challenging President Biden’s mandate for private companies. A showdown between the federal government and state’s rights is in the offing.
Stay tuned for SCOTUS to rule on a NY case involving denying registered-gun people the right to carry a gun on the subways. It has greater implications now that police presence in so much smaller in the city. Another case from W. Virginia to be heard could significantly affect the government’s active policies and regulations on climate change.
