The Earth Shifts (Kunstler)

[CanonRay]

Those Panglossians around the USA awaiting something like an election in Egypt are going to be disappointed. What's going on in the streets of Cairo right now is an Egyptian election - minus the American-style trappings of corporate grift , scripted "debates," and polling places that make our elections so satisfying.

Many here in the dreamland of Happy Motoring and Cheez Wiz are asking themselves why President Obama is waffling about the obvious tides of "change" now lapping over the ancient Kingdom on the Nile. How can he not believe in it? Why isn't Mr. O out there in front with a bloody bandage around his head, cheerleading for the street fighters? If you lay aside the subtleties, the answer is simple: nothing beyond the status quo of recent years is good news for America.


more...http://kunstler.com/blog/2011/01/the-earth-shifts-1.html

[SpiralHawk]

1. The Happy Land of Cheez Whiz?

Hey, I didn't get no stinkin Cheez whiz?

Reckon I don't want none neither...

[loudsue]

2. "dreamland of Happy Motoring and Cheez Wiz"....LOL!! Ain't it the truth!

That's the America the corporatists would love us all to believe in.

[social_critic]

3. Kunstler is another American imperialist

One thing about Americans, their imperialism is so deeply ingrained, they don't really understand how it works out here in "the world". People don't really care for American interference. The truth is nobody gives a hoot for Mr Kunstler's ideas when it comes to liberation, and nobody wants to see Mr Obama meddle anywhere.

This is a message many Americans just keep missing over and over and over again. Yesterday I had to correct an American friend who made a comment about "why do these countries always expect us to come help them out"? When the truth is exactly the opposite - people are sick and tired of American interferance. And they don't really give a hoot if it's left wing or right wing interference. What is it you guys don't understand about "Yankee go home"?

[BobbyBoring]

5. You Mean

They don't hate us for our FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????????????

[Arctic Dave]

4. Uh, Obama isn't there because IT'S NOT HIS COUNTRY!

Maybe the idiot who wrote this should stop trying to hijack their revolution and let them resolve it.

[snagglepuss]

6. You obviously didn't read the article but don't let that stop you.

snip

But it's not really up to us, no matter how many times Hillary Clinton says "uh," through her tightly pursed lips. And Barack Obama is kicking back like everybody else watching things beyond our control spin out on cable TV. Remember something else: these uproars in the Middle East are only the first stirrings of political reaction to a scarcity of key world resources, especially grain crops, which have never been in such short supply in modern times. And the part of this problem that isn't due to sheer population overshoot is almost certainly a result of climate change - which many idiots in the US congress refuse to acknowledge out of sheer obdurate stupidity.




It's an interesting and well written piece, you may want to actually read it.

[social_critic]

7. I don't think food shortages are a result of climate change

They seem to be caused by people in China and India eating better after they liberalized their economies. When 2.4 billion people start eating more, that's a lot of eating.

[snagglepuss]

8. In all honesty it's frightening that when so much science is available

about the the effect climate change has on the food supply that you would make such a statement. Please google 'climate change and food shortages' if you have any suspicions that the two aren't connected.




snip

Guardian UK

Billions face food shortages, study warns• Climate change may ruin farming in tropics by 2100

snip

The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," said David Battisti, at the University of Washington, who led the study.

Battisti and Rosamond Naylor, at Stanford University in California, combined climate models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and historical examples of the impact of heatwaves on agriculture, and found severe food shortages were likely to become more common.

Among the periods they examined was the record heatwave across western Europe in 2003, which killed an estimated 52,000 people and also cut yields of wheat and fodder by a third. In 1972, a prolonged hot summer in south-east Ukraine and south-west Russia saw temperatures rise by between 2C and 4C above the norm, driving down wheat and coarse grain yields for the whole of the USSR by 13%. The disruption affected the global cereal market for two years.

Naylor, who is director of food security and the environment at Stanford, said the study emphasised the need for countries to invest in adapting to a changing climate. To develop new crops to withstand higher temperatures could take decades, she added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jan/09/food-climate-change

[social_critic]

9. But the science isn't available to support what you said

Let me quote from your post:

"The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the higher temperatures," said David Battisti, at the University of Washington, who led the study."

I don't know David, but it's clear to me he's forecasting an impact. On the other hand, you claimed today's high prices are caused by global warming. We don't see that yet.

You do have to be careful when you discuss these subjects, because there's a crowd out there which denies global warming, and underplays its impact on the ecosystem. When you start making an outlandish comment such as "global warming is to blame for high food prices", you lose credibility for our side (yes, you are on my side even though you're still learning).

Food price increases today are largely the result of economic growth in third world countries - the world economy is growing again like a rocket. They are also in part caused by the US biofuels industry, which takes crops people eat and turns them into highly subsidized ethanol. Some of it may also be caused by La Nina, but we're not able to quantify whether this year's event is enhanced by global warming.

To complicate matters, there are signs the sun is getting weaker, and soot and dust are increasing. Anybody from any university who would claim they know exactly what's going on right now is a charlatan. It's too complex and it'll take a few months to sort it out.

[snagglepuss]

10. Spare me your condescension. Your misquoting me speaks volumes.

What we see happening is production being negatively affected by climate change as Times of India reports:


Across India — from east to west, south to north — the effects of climate change are seen to be slowly becoming apparent. Karnataka coffee, Assamese tea and Himachal apples are just three on a lengthening list of crops that are affected by changing climate patterns. Maharashtra's grapes, Goa's mangoes and cashew nuts, Kerala's paddy crops and Haryana's wheat — are seen to be affected too.

It's part of a change that is sweeping the globe, which the United Nations ' Food and Agricultural Organization took note of in September. At the time, the agency's assistant director general, Hafez Ghanem, predicted a turbulent long-term outlook for food prices across the world because of more frequent extreme weather due to climate change.

snip

Down south, the Coffee Board of India has begun a special insurance scheme to help farmers cope but it admits it might find it hard to cushion them against the impact of sharply falling exports. Karnataka coffee is sent to Italy, Russia, France, Germany and the UK and Jayarama, the Coffee Board's director of research , says these markets may be put off by the declining quality of the coffee.

This, because coffee is acutely sensitive to rainfall and badly needs the blossom shower in the flowering season — mid-March — and the backing shower — roughly three weeks after that. This is crucial to bean development. Jayarama says the problem is the additional showers in January and February, which cause "the coffee crop to fruit twice or maybe three times." The beans that come later, he adds, are inferior.


Read more: Basket Case - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/special-report/Basket-Case/articleshow/7388512.cms#ixzz1CjmCd230