The shrinking river

http://www.thetrumpet.com/article/9694.8596.0.0/world/environment/the-mighty-mississippi-to-run-dry

What is the single greatest reason America is so wealthy? According to the analysts at Stratfor, it is because of a river.

They have to be joking, right?

What about America’s vast gold resources? What about its mountains of coal? America is the world’s third-largest oil producer—surely that is why. Then there is America’s temperate climate and fertile soils that traditionally make it the world’s breadbasket. And don’t forget America’s human capital, Yankee ingenuity, and Protestant work ethic. Surely these factors are cumulatively more important than a river.

Not according to one of America’s premier think tanks. Many countries have large natural resources and hospitable climates, but don’t even come close to having America’s wealth. What sets America apart from the rest of the world is the Mississippi River basin. It is what makes exploiting America’s resources economically possible.

But now, due to the worst drought since the 1950s, the Mississippi may be about to go dry




Click on that above to read the whole story. Now below is something else. Please excuse my rather bad tring grammers and such I'm in the throes of a series of quite horriffic back and neck spasms which I have taken a pain pil and a muscle relaxer, well hat I though was a muscle relaxer but might have bee a sleeping pill, whih I was going to take after I finished this but I may have messed it up. Now back to below.....
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This should be the feed from the Poplar Street Bridge on the west bound lanes. Idon't know how well it will work. I am once again trying to type under the influence of pain medicationnand a sleeping pil. Not fun, but lets try this.

http://wrc.dot.il.gov/il_traffic_cameras/images/camera1.jpg



This photo should updated every time you reload this particular page/post of my blog. IT should be showing the westbound US 64, US 70, SH40 and I believe US 44 as they cross the Mississippi River. If I grabbed the right camera you should be able to see the water level in front of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial AKA The Gateway Arch's front steps and Lenore K Sullivan Boulevard which used to be Wharf Street. If you can see the large concrete wall at the end of either leg of the Arch, I'd like you to notice that during the flood of 1993, shortly before my eldest child was born I was doing security there, and the water covered all of that and most of the steps. Seriously if you can see the steps, only the top 20 to 26 steps were dry, the rest were submerged. The reason I'm showing the 2 of these to you is for you to see for yourself just how low the river actually is. It is dark now as I type this, but I hope that you can see during the day, by looking over to the right of the above photo, in the background you will see Lenore K. Sullivan street, and the cobbles laid on the riverbank. When the river is at it's proper level you can see about 20 to 30 feet of the cobbles. As the water gets low though you can get to the point where the cobbles stop and the mighty Miss mud is shown instead. If you are seeing the mud and not the cobblestones the river is a minimum 17 feet low at that point. And if you have read the first link up there you know that levels that low reduces necessary barge traffic. Lessening how much can be carried safely. When less, lets say grain is carried, how does that effect food prices? Through less animal feed, less bread being made, less major foodstuff are able to move fast and inexpensively.

This is the next phase of our country's financial problems.Low supply with high demand. And the government won't be able to keep the coming inflation in check much longer. Between the corn subsidies for ethanol taking feed corn out of the market so it isn't available to feed livestock, farmers are going to have to cull their herds drastically. For a bit, meat prices will fall, until the farmers get to their breeding stock levels. They can't afford to purchase feed for the animals, so rather than let them starve and be subject to sever health problems they will cull the herds. The herds of Cows, Pigs, Sheep, Chickens, Turkeys you name it. the farmers and ranchers will have to cull the herds back to what is called the bloodstock, the core breeding animals. The animals that will give birth to next years herd. And the farmers hope they can get enough for what they had to cull to pay their bills and purchase enough feed to keep the bloodstock alive, so they can be bred next year.

Down here in Texas many farmers are already harvesting what they can early. Trying to save whatever they can. Cotton, Sorghum, Corn, Rice anything and everything they are trying to get it in and sold. So hopefully they can make enough money to pay the bank notes coming due, and hoping to still have enough to purchase seed and fuel for next year. Any major investments in ne machinery they might have planned for this year, those plans are put on hold. So the Implement dealer can't sell new equipment, so he orders less. The manufacturer can't get the dealers to order more, so they start idling plants to stretch out the work as long as possible.


All this means, is very soon, there will be a glut of farm products going into the supply line, which will deflate the value. You might be able to purchase prime cuts of meat for what you currently pay now for ground chuck. You will find a rather limited selection of fruits and vegetables, but for a good price, so they get sold before they spoil. This will take place over a few weeks to maybe a month. But then, there won't be that much left in the inventory. Just bloodstock, and you don't slaughter bloodstock, the large silos will have been emptied to reduce spoilage. This country used to export quite a lot of foodstuffs. After this, we will have to import a lot of foodstuffs just to keep our pantry's stocked. Even with the importing of foodstuffs, it has to be delivered. With the rivers at all all time lows, that leave trucks and trains. I hate to tell you, but our country doesn't have enough truckers or train operators to take up the slack. Especially if with all these other prices are going up so does fuel for those trucks and trains.

This is all interconnected. You cannot do "A" without also having "B", which requires "C" which means you need "D" That is what a lot of people don't seem to understand. We are on the precipice of having a total breakdown in our country's infrastructure, and many people could die, from malnutrition, diseases such as pellagra, I should think we would have a new outbreak of rickets and other disorders as well.

It is time for the politicians to stop their little oneupsmanship games and pay attention to the problems and take corrective actions to try to alleviate this. I don't think we can head it off, it's gone too far. But they may be ways to alleviate some of the worst symptoms.

I myself. I'm going to continue my prayers for our country, and I suggest you do the same.