{"id":525049,"date":"2010-04-12T08:02:06","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T12:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3280"},"modified":"2010-04-12T08:02:06","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T12:02:06","slug":"shortages-bring-threats-of-a-second-dust-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/525049","title":{"rendered":"Shortages bring threats of a second Dust Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/nation\/environment\/2010-04-09-dust-bowl_N.htm\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.usatoday.net\/news\/_photos\/2010\/04\/08\/dustbowl-fencex-large.jpg\" width=\"326\" align=\"right\" height=\"217\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/eenews.net\/climatewire\/2010\/04\/12\/6\/\" >ClimateWire<\/a>: As water shortages and severe droughts threaten the nation,  comparisons are being drawn to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Dust_Bowl\">Dust Bowl<\/a>, a series of dust storms in  the 1930s that destroyed farms across the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Great_Plains_ecoregion_%28CEC%29\">southern Great Plains<\/a>.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has warned that a period of &#8220;relocation&#8221;  is possible, just as thousands migrated to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Energy_profile_of_California,_United_States\">California<\/a> in the Dust Bowl.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As we see the effects of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Climate_change\">climate change<\/a> &#8230; we&#8217;re going to have to  become even more cognizant of our relationship with land, water and  wildlife,&#8221; said Salazar.<\/p>\n<p>Gary McManus, a climatologist in Oklahoma, worries that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eoearth.org\/article\/Global_warming\">global  warming<\/a> could be &#8220;catastrophic&#8221; for parts of Texas, New Mexico,  Colorado, Kansas and Oklahoma, the same areas that suffered during the  Dust Bowl. He says that the typically dry regions could face severe dust  storms with rising temperatures and the constant shifts in weather  patterns make droughts more likely. What&#8217;s more, the surrounding urban  areas and commercial farms are drying up water supplies.<\/p>\n<p>While many residents aren&#8217;t worried about global warming, water  conservation is a must in the region. For example, Jude Smith of the  Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas is filling ditches with hay,  hoping to block the flow of dirt in water that can erode the land. Other  farmers are just cutting back on water use.<\/p>\n<p>Some worry that the impact of the recession will force farmers to  cut back on their land maintenance efforts and ignore lessons from the  Dust Bowl. But James Wedel, a 90-year-old retired farmer that lived  through the Dust Bowl, says he doubts a catastrophe on that scale could  happen again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think we&#8217;ll ever see a time like [the Dust Bowl] again,&#8221;  Wedel says. &#8220;We&#8217;ve got better farming techniques and we know what we&#8217;re  up against&#8221; (Brian Winter, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/nation\/environment\/2010-04-09-dust-bowl_N.htm\" ><em>USA  Today<\/em><\/a>, April 9). <strong>&#8211; JP<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"akst_link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.earthportal.org\/news\/?p=3280&amp;akst_action=share-this\"  title=\"E-mail this, post to del.icio.us, etc.\" id=\"akst_link_3280\" class=\"akst_share_link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Share This<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ClimateWire: As water shortages and severe droughts threaten the nation, comparisons are being drawn to the Dust Bowl, a series of dust storms in the 1930s that destroyed farms across the southern Great Plains. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has warned that a period of &#8220;relocation&#8221; is possible, just as thousands migrated to California in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4055,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4055"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525049\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}