Historic Drought, Giant Dust Storms, Mother Nature's version of "CHANGE".

Historic Drought, Giant Dust Storms, Mother Nature's version of "CHANGE".(AP).By Michael Snyder.This week has provided two very clear examples of why it is so important to keep on prepping. In the United States, the historic drought ravaging the central part of the country is absolutely devastating our crops.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, drought is affecting nearly 90 percent of all corn crops in America at this point.

This is pushing the price of corn to levels never seen before. On Tuesday, the price of corn hit another new record high of $8.20 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. Over the past six weeks the price of corn has risen more than 50 percent, and it could go a lot higher as the drought continues to absolutely bake America.

Meanwhile, the massive power grid failures in India are reminding us all just how incredibly dependent we are on electricity and technology. Power was cut off to nearly a tenth of the entire global population on Tuesday, and there was quite a bit of panic about that even though power is rapidly being restored.

So what would happen to them (or to us) someday if the power went off for good?

As much as humanity would like to think that our technology has conquered nature, that simply is not the case.

Without the rain that falls from the sky, there would be mass starvation on this planet. We are not immune to drought, and there are a lot of indications that the drought we are experiencing right now is just the beginning of a longer trend.

For example, one team of scientists has just published a study that says that the western United States could be facing a "100-year drought".

They say that the recent drought of 2000-2004 was the worst long-term drought in more than 800 years. The following is from a recent CTVNews article....

The four-year-long drought that affected western Canada and the U.S. at the turn of the century was the worst to hit the region in 800 years, say scientists who warn that dry spell was nothing compared to the 'megadroughts' still to come.

A group of 10 scientists from the University of British Columbia as well as several American universities write in Nature GeoScience that they believe the bone-dry conditions seen between 2000 and 2004 could become the 'new normal' in the region.

 And as I wrote about recently, this current drought is the worst single year drought in more than 50 years, and the federal government has declared the largest natural disaster area in U.S. history because of this drought.

On Monday, the high temperature hit 111 degrees in Little Rock, Arkansas. That was a new all-time record for July 30th, and it was the third-highest temperature ever recorded in Little Rock.

The heat and drought are causing massive problems for farmers and ranchers all over the country. The following is an excerpt from the shocking information that Ron Klinefelter shared on standeyo.com the other day....

This month, the 3 nearest cattlemen’s livestock auctions set ALL TIME EVER records for livestock sales, as farmers sell off their herds. There was only one early cutting of hay this year, and the round bales are going for $100/bale. (This should normally cost $20-25/bale.) We had a pipe break in our 340 foot deep well, which necessitated us getting the pump pulling truck out here this last month. When we originally drilled the well, in the “plenty of rain years”, the water rose to within 24 feet of the surface. Last month, it was 180 feet down to the water level, and we are down in a valley bottom, and not irrigating out of it. The guy pulling the pump told me that the call he made earlier in the day to a guy who wasn’t getting any water in his pressure tank, found, when they pulled the pump, that the water level was now 40 feet BELOW the pump, which was completely dry and burnt out! Some of the rural water systems have also run out of water, and burnt their pumps out.

I talked to one of my sons today. He manages the largest elderberry farm in the U.S., up by Jefferson City, Mo. They are in their harvest now. He said that last week, they picked 10 long field rows, where, in a 'normal' year, they would get about 700 pounds of berries. This year they got 35 pounds!

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor map is posted below. As you can see, the drought continues to get even worse....
 As the drought drags on, more crops continue to fail. According to Businessweek, the condition of some key crops has gotten progressively worse in recent weeks....

The condition of the U.S. corn crop worsened for an eighth straight week amid the worst Midwest drought in a generation. Soybean ratings also fell.

About 24 percent of the corn was in good or excellent condition as of yesterday, down from 26 percent a week earlier and 77 percent in mid-May, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a report. An estimated 29 percent of the soybeans got the top ratings, down from 31 percent.

Sadly, even when this summer ends our problems will be far from over.

In a previous article I detailed a bunch of signs that the western United States is progressively becoming drier and drier. If something does not change, it is only a matter of time before dust bowl conditions return to the western United States.

Already, giant dust storms that are thousands of feet high called haboobs are hitting major cities in the southwest such as Phoenix, Arizona.

You can see video of giant dust storms hitting Phoenix right here and right here.

What will people do in these areas when these giant dust storms get even worse? Read the full story here.