ST. LOUIS (AP) — Nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states were added Wednesday to the U.S. government's list of natural disaster areas as the nation's agriculture chief unveiled new help for frustrated, cash-strapped farmers and ranchers grappling with extreme dryness and heat.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's addition of the 218 counties means that more than half of all U.S. counties — 1,584 in 32 states — have been designated primary disaster areas this growing season, the vast majority of them mired in a drought that's considered the worst in decades.
I don't really know what to add to this except, if anyone was wondering what it would look like when global warming finally arrived, this is it. And it's just getting warmed up.
This July was the hottest month in the US, ever. The AP article expresses the extent of the disaster in terms of counties counted. NBC has an article that expresses it in percent: 63%. The writer, Jeff Black, doesn't specify what that number is a percentage of - that would be like, scientific or something. But one can assume it's a geographical reference. 63% of the US mainland is in a drought.
Mr. Black did manage to honor NBC News' commitment to global warming denial by quoting useful idiot Jake Crouch:
"These events are kind of what we'd expect with climate change, we'd expect expanding drought, we'd expect warm, record breaking temperatures," Jake Crouch, a NOAA climate scientist, told NBC News. "But it's kind of hard to pinpoint this month or past several months as a telltale sign that climate change is happening. The drought is more of a local factor and isn't necessarily driven by large scale climate change, but is impacting local temperatures."
I guess "local" has been redefined to mean
63% of the US mainland.
We're entering a dark age, on so many fronts. And, distracted by a political season which I am rapidly beginning to see as nothing but a big media psyop (I'm just waiting for Barack Obama's underwear to become an issue), no one is facing reality. I'm scared for my children. I mean that most sincerely. I'm really scared for my children.