Drought-damaged corn in Lawrence, Mich. (AP)
Common Dreams staff
August
3, 2012
The worst US drought in 56 years has intensified over the
past week as scorching temperatures continued and too little rainfall parched
corn and soybean crops across the Midwest and central Plains, a report from
climate experts said on Thursday.
Nearly
two-thirds of the contiguous United States was under some level of drought as
of July 31, more than a fifth of it classified as extreme drought or worse,
according to the Drought Monitor, a weekly report compiled by U.S. climate
experts.
Reporting by The Guardian highlighted how the latest drought map, released on Thursday by
the National Drought Mitigation Center, showed the drought intensifying across
the grain belt in the Midwestern and plains states.
"It's hard to believe that it's getting worse, but it
is, even with some rain in the region," Brian Fuchs, a climatologist and
drought monitor author at the National Drought Mitigation Center, which is
based at the University of Nebraska, said in a release. "Drought continues
to intensify through the Midwest and plains states."
As the drought continues to ravage the nation's corn, wheat
and soybean fields, crop insurance losses are expected to break records, CNN reports.
"It will be a major loss situation," said Thomas
Zacharias, president of the National Crop Insurance Services, a lobbying group
representing private crop insurers. "The companies are in the field
adjusting claims as we speak."
An economist with the group roughly estimated that losses
could top $20 billion, said CNN, noting that sixty cents of every dollar of
crop insurance is backed by the federal government which will leave US
taxpayers picking up the tab, while at the same time facing increasing prices
at the grocery store.
The crop failures, according to The Guardian
report, have already raised fears of price rises later in the year. The
department of agriculture said dairy, poultry and meat prices would go up by
about 4%.
Might it be, as this article asserts, that weather is manipulated for the profit of banksters speculating in derivatives and reassurance?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/08/03/geoengineering-for-financial-gain-a-history-of-weather-derivatives/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pakalert+%28Pak+Alert+Press%29&utm_content=Google+Reader