The Mississippi River is drying up!
Rhamlin
Posts: 9,031 ✭✭✭✭✭
Don't believe me look it up. The word is the Mississippi will be closed to commercial navigation in December above Cairo IL,when they shut off half the water coming out of the Missouri River . This is normal procedure unfortunately we are already expierencing record low water conditions. I doubt any of the small towing companies will survive. And the big ones will have massive layoffs. Not to mention the tens of thousands of people who make their living in one way or another from river transportation.
This is expected to be a national economic disaster that's unparalleled. Our only hope is if congress or the President forces the corp of engineers to keep the Missouri flowing.
This is the first time in my 30 Years working boats that I've ever feared losing my job.
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Hey, why don't we endorse fracking? You know, pump water into the ground to lubricate the tectonic plates so we'll have earthquakes, I mean "natural" gas, so we won't have to do something sensible like replace "fossil" fuel with either solar or nuclear energy.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
http://nation.time.com/2012/08/23/the-big-dry-up-where-the-missouri-and-the-mississippi-meet/
I know the reservoirs around here are about 15-20 below normal and most of the "water releases" have been cancelled this summer.
This problem will only get worse in the future, as demand increases for this finite resource. Heck, the mighty Colorado has not reached the ocean on a regular basis since the 90s....
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
"You think man can destroy the planet? What intoxicating vanity. Let me tell you about our planet. Earth is four-and-a-half-billion-years-old. Theres been life on it for nearly that long, 3.8 billion years. Bacteria first; later the first multicellular life, then the first complex creatures in the sea, on the land. Then finally the great sweeping ages of animals, the amphibians, the dinosaurs, at last the mammals, each one enduring millions on millions of years, great dynasties of creatures rising, flourishing, dying away all this against a background of continuous and violent upheaval. Mountain ranges thrust up, eroded away, cometary impacts, volcano eruptions, oceans rising and falling, whole continents moving, an endless, constant, violent change, colliding, buckling to make mountains over millions of years. Earth has survived everything in its time. It will certainly survive us. If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at once and all the plants, all the animals died and the earth was sizzling hot for a hundred thousand years, life would survive, somewhere: under the soil, frozen in Arctic ice. Sooner or later, when the planet was no longer inhospitable, life would spread again. The evolutionary process would begin again. It might take a few billion years for life to regain its present variety. Of course, it would be very different from what it is now, but the earth would survive our folly, only we would not. If the ozone layer gets thinner, ultraviolet radiation sears the earth, so what? Ultraviolet radiation is good for life. Its powerful energy. It promotes mutation, change. Many forms of life will thrive with more UV radiation. Many others will die out. Do you think this is the first time thats happened? Think about oxygen. Necessary for life now, but oxygen is actually a metabolic poison, a corrosive gas, like fluorine. When oxygen was first produced as a waste product by certain plant cells some three billion years ago, it created a crisis for all other life on earth. Those plants were polluting the environment, exhaling a lethal gas. Earth eventually had an atmosphere incompatible with life. Nevertheless, life on earth took care of itself. In the thinking of the human being a hundred years is a long time. A hundred years ago we didnt have cars, airplanes, computers or vaccines. It was a whole different world, but to the earth, a hundred years is nothing. A million years is nothing. This planet lives and breathes on a much vaster scale. We cant imagine its slow and powerful rhythms, and we havent got the humility to try. Weve been residents here for the blink of an eye. If were gone tomorrow, the earth will not miss us."
I'm confused. I thought that the planet went through these cycles pretty regularly.
It seems once again I'm out of touch with things.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
- NASA Earth Observatory
A good place to start...^^^^
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
I've seen tons of information from both sides showing their "facts" on why it is or isn't.
In some cases, scientists from the same office argue the case. It's kind of comical.
Can I say with absolute certainty that it isn't man-made global warming? No. Can I say it is? No.
It's up to each individual to sift through all the crap and make their own decision.
But one should keep in mind that common sense should play a large part in making that decision.
Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy cigars and that's close enough.
With all due respect, sir, you are a liar. I have never threatened you, or anyone else with anything. Every time you repeat this lie, I will call you a liar for repeating it.
No beat, it isn't. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA. Their Appolo Space program put a man on the moon. You remember - Astronauts, "The Right Stuff", and scientists in space. They've put robots on Mars. They are responsible for the Hubble Telescope, and all of the WEATHER SATALITES that record the earth's weather, and they measure the conditions of the atmosphere, and take note of any CHANGES that are happening.
It's called science, not socialism.
I'm not sure how we got to man-made global warming here, I know I didn't imply it. My comment on the Ganges was something told to me by an acquaintance of mine who used to be an Army hired scientist studying weather phenomena of various sorts. Also a member of the Cato institute, just for the record.
1. Global warming is a fact, and yes, I'm referring to the cycles the Earth has always gone through, long before we inhabited the planet.
2. No one is going to help us, but us.
3. Turning it into a political battleground gets us nowhere.
4. We do contribute, although I believe our contribution to be negligible.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
With grain prices already high this wouldn't be good, food costs would soar.
And I'm with you, Ricky - aside from the cost increases -- I doubt there's enough trains/rail cars available to "pick-up the slack" and, correct me if I'm wrong. but isn't there already a shortage of truck drivers?
* I have a new address as of 3/24/18 *
**** Durbin is advising Obama not to get involved.
Of all the factors involved in the lower water levels the Mississippi is experiencing, this is about the only one we can control. I'm all for business, and governments breaking even, but once the water's gone, how do you get it back?
Meanwhile, Army Corp of Engineers is having trouble keeping a 9 foot channel open on the mississippi, which means enormous amounts of goods cannot be transported.
"If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed. If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." -- Mark Twain
Global warming...... you bet....... happens all the time......
So what caused the warming long long ago? Was it all the cars? Coal fired industrial plants? Man made? Natural change? I would like your opinion.
(oh and for all you 'scientists' who say this chart is bogus cuz the thermometer didnt exist that far back and that there are no records, well, this data (which you may say is bogus) is based on other scientists who study global temperature proxies (sediments, boreholes, pollen, oxygen-18, stalagmites, magnesium to calcium ratios, algae, cave formation, etc. over a wide geographical range)