Posted on 11/11/2011 6:31:19 PM PST by Racehorse
Texas needs rain — and needs it quickly — to keep farmers and ranchers from suffering even bigger losses next year from the drought that already has left them with record-breaking losses this year, producers said Friday while in San Antonio.
Corn growers in Texas could encounter even bigger losses in 2012 after seeing output fall by 40 percent this year; and rice plantings, which fell by only 2 percent this year, could be cut nearly in half if more water does not become available soon, officials said.
“It could drive us to acreage levels we've probably not seen in 80 years or more,” said Ronald Gertson . . . “Without some serious rain in the next two months, we're going to be at that 50 percent level.”
The drought was not an official topic of discussion during the ranch show's South Texas Commodity Symposium. But with damage from the current drought building and forecasts suggesting rainfall won't return in any meaningful way until 2013, it was a dominant topic of conversation.
“I don't want to be all about doom and gloom, but you can't grow crops without rain,” said David Gibson, executive director of the Texas Corn Producers Board.
(Excerpt) Read more at mysanantonio.com ...
Agriculture, industrial and municipal (population growth) needs will all compete for diminished water resources.
Texas needs a national day of prayer for rain.
It’s bad. In my area, we’re down 25 inches from a year ago. A lot of people lost trees and had other problems from the 2009 drought, and it’s going to be worse. Drinking water got mighty tight in a few areas this year as well.
Texas needs the Jet Stream to start dipping down South again so we can have a destabilized atmosphere which allows tropical systems in. No Jet Stream stirring things up = Huge, longlived dome of pressure that evaporates rain before it hits the ground.
Instead of relying on unpredictable weather, Texas should instead use two very available resources to create a constant supply. Texas has vast amounts of sea water through the Gulf Coast, and Texas also has a vast amount of natural gas.
Put the two things together and you have desalinization and vast quantities of fresh water pumped inland. And because these resources are year around, pump water to inland reservoirs for drought periods.
If they want to really do a good job, then their inland reservoirs should be underground, as giant, man-made lakes.
2 Chronicles 7:14 says if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and change their wicked ways, then will I hear them and forgive them and heal their land.
If Texas has done its part in obeying every part of 2 Chronicles 7:14, then rain should be on the way. God keeps His promises.
Gos is in control, He is faithful<His mercies are new every morning... Blessed be His Awesome Name!
We lost dozens of trees, and we’re 50 miles from Texas.
Food prices will continue to climb...especially beef and beef products.
We need higher ethanol prices.
Increase the mandate!
Two weeks ago my husband and son cut down all the dead trees. I also lost my Magnolia and my Holly Bushes.
The good news is that we’ve got a three year supply of firewood. :-(
I fully agree with you. We’re at the point where we shouldn’t be dependent on the capriciousness of nature.
Texas has been in a drought for nearly a decade (with a one-year break a few years ago). It’s happened before and it’ll happen again.
A desalinization plant that carries water to all of Texas and Oklahoma would be a game-changer. Heck, you could turn Texas into an oasis.
Woopse! It’s already being done:
http://www.epwu.org/water/desal_info.html
http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/innovativewater/desal/
http://www.edwardsaquifer.net/desalination.html
http://www.beg.utexas.edu/environqlty/desalination/Final%20Report_R1_1.pdf
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/water/4334777
We’ve got quite a few of them. Apparently, it’s not enough.
“If Texas has done its part in obeying every part of 2 Chronicles 7:14, then rain should be on the way. God keeps His promises.”
Yes. And good people never die of cancer and babies are always saved from evil and wicked men and innocent, pure virgins are always spared from rape, leukemia and car crashes... /s
I believe in Gd and trust in Gd and I know that He has a plan that is much better than anything that I could come up with.
Gd allows good people to suffer but He always has a purpose for it.
Just because it’s not raining doesn’t mean that Gd is punishing us.
There may be an even better form of desalinization in the near future.
Carbon nanotube filters have been created that are essentially tubes only wide enough to pass a single water molecule at a time. Since there are very few common molecules smaller than water, this results in water even purer than by reverse osmosis, or even distillation.
These filters also have other advantages, in that they are scalable, so can be made in many sizes for the desired volume of purified water passed; they are low maintenance; and they use only 1/4th the energy of reverse osmosis.
This seems to be much better than current desalinization efforts, which are very energy consumptive, though in this case energy is far less an issue.
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