Low Water Levels On The Mississippi River A Major Threat To Commerce: ‘This Is Absolutely Not Normal
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:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/16/520241/low-water-levels-on-the-mississippi-river-a-major-threat-to-commerce-this-is-absolutely-not-normal/
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it is the will of the Almighty OR cyclical, OR they may even call it Malthusian economics . . . ridding the world of the hou polloi and letting the entitled rich survive. 
are good subjects to read up on. 
http://permaculture.org.au/2008/09/12/water-worries/
http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/
I fear how much topsoil is being lost in this drought - as if we weren't decimating it already with our industrial farming practices. And since those mono-culture, petro-chemical intensive methods don't do anything to build back up/add to the biomass, I wonder how well some soils will even rebound after this season.
The only hope we really have is to come to our goddamn senses and move towards those permaculture techniques that foster nature's closed-loop genius - being mindful of and tending to the interdependent relationship of big organisms (herbivores, birds, pigs, etc...), small organisms (worms, ants, etc...), microorganisms (bacteria, protozoa, fungi, etc...), and, of course, efficient harvesting of rainwater. This is the way nature maintains and builds soil! It may not be insta-fast and full of eye-glazing techno-glitz, but it's the only way it can be done.
Thanks again for the resources! I had a thread from awhile back that you might enjoy (be sure to check the links down thread as well):
To Kick Climate Change, Replace Corn With Pastured Beef
and good to see you Drokhole and thanks for the link too.
I also love Paul Stamets' ideas, you may have already heard of him. I think we can do a lot with the land, to replenish the soils, then the plants and then sort of affect microclimates. It is great to check into how people in deserts plant in ravines and along waterways too.
http://www.fungi.com/about-paul-stamets.html
I'm a HUGE Paul Stamets fan, and am constantly amazed by his discoveries and revelations on the seemingly limitless properties/potential of fungi. Especially the replenishment of soils via bioremediaion with fungi (or, as he calls it, "mycoremediation"
. It's one of those things that makes you realize just how interconnected/intergrated/interdependent the ecosystem really is ("realize" in a competently ignorant kind of way, because it really is so mindbogglingly intensely complex it is almost beyond comprehension). I have a good number of his speeches/interviews favorited on the Youtubes.
It really does come down to the management of the land/resources, and how grossly inept we are at it. Just look at how much of it is wasted on one of America's ultimate status symbols - the lawn. Vast expanses of chemically treated, water-devouring emptiness. This guy does a good job of covering the basics:
We could easily be converting portions of that to edible landscapes, using soil-building compost in the process. Joel Salatin has covered this subject in-depth in his books and speeches, and mentions it in one of those links from that thread I had:
"Truth No. 3: There is plenty of land for farming. Unused land is everywhere. The U.S. has 35 million acres of lawn. How about all those irrigated golf courses around Phoenix, Az.? The U.S. dedicates 36 million acres to housing and growing feed for recreational horses. I’m not against lawns or horses, or golf for that matter, but to run around like Henny Penny proclaiming “we’re running out of food” is a bit premature when actually on these lands alone we could grow all the food America needs. Edible landscaping should be promoted by everyone. In Italy, the expressway intersections are divided into quarter-acre gardens tended by urbanites who spend their weekends connecting to their ecological umbilical: building community, having fun, growing food. Forget the batwing mowers—grow squash instead."
And I totally agree with how great it is to see permaculturists use their ingenuity in desert landscapes. You might already be familiar with this, but here's a really cool case of it in action:
And great to see you too, felix_numinous!
people's ornamental bushes are totally plumbed. Not that it is totally bad--maybe if food trees and crops and beneficial ground covers were grown instead. Water management IS a science and a very developed skill that could present some great civil engineer projects. I think after the Dust Bowl, there were nationalized projects that put people to work, although they made dams and canals, perhaps the 21st century version could be more sustainable
This is a very important discussion--how to take care of the Earth we stand on--without a good foundation, nothing else works.
Thanks for the fantastic links too--I love this guy!
Thanks for posting!
There is no such thing as Global Warming. 
Most barges go up the Big Muddy empty and come back laden. 
