Over and over the point has been overlooked by the spoiled, just-in-time, new-age pollies. This forum has always stressed preparation. The only response from pollies regarding preparation has related to their personal amusement or reaction to the fringe lunatics. As a general rule, pollies have exibited attention deficit disorder. The most responsible people on this forum have been scapegoated along with the fringe lunatics, therefore, the pollies have been categorized in derogatory terms. This is the life story of this forum rolled up into one paragraph. In the good ol' days, pollies would have been considered lunatics for their optimism. In 1988, there was very little grain harvested that year, certainly not enough to feed America. We were lucky to have had stored grain in silos from previous harvests. We came very close to a disaster. 1999 was a drought year. The Pollies humorous gloatings are going to backfire someday while the G.I.'s will be sitting in the Cat Bird Seat. What is wrong with people today?

-- Feller (feller@wanna.help), January 08, 2000

Answers

Don't know about everywhere else...but here in Iowa there seems to be a drought going on...not serious yet...but I've been here since June...rained once. One day of real snow that's pretty much gone and the weather hangs in the 40's during the day....anyone wanta guess what Iowas main economic 'growth' is?????

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), January 08, 2000.

Here in southern Oregon we are about 30" of rain behind normal this year. Last time that happened ('87 I think) we burned up 150,000 acres of forest the following summer.

-- prepared (prepared@nowhere.com), January 08, 2000.

I was watching this T.V. program discussing the Earth and its evolution. If this drought situation continues much longer, I think we're going to be seeing this forum operate under a new name, yet with the exact same point. Prepare for food and water shortages. This time we will wish there were computers involved instead of rain, or lack thereof. The rain that should have landed on crops will be replaced by deminished lakes and rivers, which will deminish further due to irrigation. Nobody knows exactly when the drought will fail crops. The preparations won't happen during a reasonable period before a deadline such as 1-1-2000. The preparations won't be happening at all except within the farming community, the meteorological society and their intellectual and intimate counterparts. The timeframe will be close for a few and too late for most if the drought/harvest situation became real bad. This could make Y2k seem like a 9 or 10 in translation terms. I think it is time to stop taking our lives for granted and make it easy on others (as this forum has suggested) by keeping enough storable items for longer term. We need a strong U.S.A!

-- Feller (feller@wanna.help), January 08, 2000.

This forum has been operating with some kind of paradigm or light at the end of the tunnel to focus on. Since Much of the Y2k issues have made our old time-table obsolete, we need to be more scientifically and intuitively tuned to the needs of the Forum Readers regarding the potential drought issue. It will require more involvement in areas many may not be familiar with, however, it will be neccesary nonetheless to evolve in this manner if we want to keep up the good work caring for others and others with like minds. This forum has been operated by some very considerate people. Keep up the good work :)

-- Feller (feller@wanna.help), January 08, 2000.