The chronic drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 left dying forests and depleted river basins in its wake and was the strongest in 800 years and it’s still going on. Scientists have concluded that those conditions will become the "new normal" for most of the coming century. As bad as conditions were during the earlier drought, they may eventually be seen as "the good old days."
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The US is going through the worst drought in half a century. Since we feed the world, this could lead to a global crisis as crop shortages push food prices up. The US supplies half the world’s corn exports and a large amount of its soybeans and wheat. We even sell Texas-grown rice to Asian countries.
In the July 20th edition of the Financial Times, Jack Farchy and Gregory Meyer quote senior commodities trader David Nelson as saying, "I’ve been in the business more than 30 years and this is by far and away the most serious weather issue and supply and demand problem that I have seen by a mile."
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It’s feast or famine in the Arab world, which is why climate change–NOT a hunger for freedom–may be what’s behind the revolutionary movements in the Middle East that have become known as the "Arab Spring."
In the April 8th edition of the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman writes that "the Arab awakening began in Tunisia with a fruit vendor who was harassed by police for not having a permit to sell food–just at the moment when world food prices hit record highs." He goes on to remark that it began in Syria and Yemen with similar situations.
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When plants talk to each other, what do they say? Some of them compare notes on how to survive a drought and plants that have been subjected to a previous period of drought learn to deal with the stress thanks to their memories of the experience.
This discovery could lead to development of crops better able to withstand drought. This research also confirms what home gardeners and nursery professionals have often learned through hard experience: Transplants do better when water is withheld for a few days to harden them to drought before they’re moved.
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