When you see some of the crazy “issues” being raised in this presidential election instead of leadership on climate change, doesn’t it make you want to scream? Not only are we going to have massive crop failures as a result of this ongoing drought, we aren’t even able to ship the crops we have when shipping channels like the formerly-mighty Mississippi are drying up:
Companies operating along the Mississippi River are seeing a drastic cut in business as severe drought lowers water levels and makes shipping increasingly difficult.The drought, which now covers more than 1,000 counties across the US, has dropped water levels 50 feet below last year’s levels in some places. Last winter’s lack of snow, the absence of any major tropical storms from the Gulf of Mexico, sweltering temperatures, and the lack of rain this spring and summer are to blame for the shallow water.
The Mississippi is a major trade conduit through the central U.S. Barges, which are often cheaper to operate than trains or trucks, carry goods such as grain, corn, soybeans, steel, rubber, coffee, fertilizer, coal, and petroleum products in and out of the interior of the country.
As the water levels fall, barges have run aground near Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the water is already less than 5 feet deep, and shipping companies have been forced to curtail their business. The Wall Street Journal reports:
‘It’s causing headaches all up and down the river system right now,’ said Martin Hettel, senior manager of bulk sales for AEP River Operations, a St. Louis-based barge company.Mark Fletcher, owner of Ceres Barge Line of East St. Louis, Ill., said about 70% of his 220 barges aren’t being used now. First, the drought cut crops, reducing demand for shipping. Now, low water levels are making it more costly to ship.
‘It’s not good if you are in the barge business right now,’ he said. ‘In the last 60 days, you’ve watched a whole lot of money go out the window.’
Some river ports have been forced to close temporarily or shut down parts of their operations because of the low water levels. At the port of Rosedale in the Mississippi Delta, port director Robert Maxwell Jr. said water levels are about 50 feet below what they were last year, when flooding shut down the port. If the water falls any lower, there was a ‘high likelihood’ he would have to close, he said. One of the port’s public loading docks is inoperable, with equipment normally in the water now hanging the air. The Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to come this week to dredge, where heavy equipment is used to dig out sediment from waterways to make them passable for shipping.
We need to talk about many more crazy issues. Issues like why Capitalism doesn’t work. Or why we don’t need to spend $750 billion dollars a year on defense and another $350 billion on intelligence agencies. Then there’s this: When Obama came into office in 2008, coal produced 190 million megawatts of electricity every year. Natural gas produced 60 million megawatts. In April 2012 coal produced 90 million megawatts of electricity and natural gas produced 90 million megawatts. The other 70 million megawatts was produced by alternative fuels such as solar. Now that’s “change we can believe in.”
Climate is cyclical; this has happened before and it will happen again. Giving my money to any given rich person will not change that. See also: Australia’s carbon tax. Teach people to live sustainable lives.
Stop burning fossil fuels and start burning trees, right?
“The Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to come this week to dredge, where heavy equipment is used to dig out sediment from waterways to make them passable for shipping.”
Boy what the residents of the Lower Ninth Ward wouldn’t have given for the one week response time that commercial barge interests get from the Corps.