Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
Of course, the media are advancing all kinds of claims about the current drought affecting much of the US, because it is the “worst in fifty years”. They claim that it is clear evidence of global warming, that it shows how much things have changed, that this is the face of global warming.
Figure 1. “Drought in Australia”, or as it is known there, “Australia”.
Does this drought show how things have changed? Yes, for the better. The US drought situation was worse in the 1950s. And before that, it was worse in the 1930s. And before that? Among the first entries when I google “megadrought are these:
Tree rings document ancient Western megadrought
Sierra Nevada 200-year megadroughts confirmed
Scientists find evidence of ancient megadrought in southwestern U.S.
I don’t want to minimize the suffering of those in the drought-affected areas. Droughts are bad news for the people affected. But this is not the worst drought in 50 years—it’s among the best droughts in 5,000 years. So the claim that big droughts are evidence of human-caused warming is a sad joke.
But that’s not my favorite drought joke. It’s this one:
As reported by Agence France Presse (AFP)
Iran drought part of ‘soft war’ by West: VP
The drought in southern Iran is part of a “soft war” launched against the Islamic republic by the West, the Fars news agency quoted an Iranian vice president as saying on Monday.
“I am suspicious about the drought in the southern part of the country,” Hassan Mousavi, who also heads Iran’s cultural heritage and tourism organisation, said at a ceremony to introdue the nation’s new chief of meteorological department.
“The world arrogance and colonist (term used by Iranian authorities to label the West) are influencing Iran’s climate conditions using technology… The drought is an acute issue and soft war is completely evident… This level of drought is not normal.”
You probably didn’t realize that the US was that Machiavellian. You didn’t know we were using our secret weather control technology to create a drought in Iran, while simultaneously not using the same technology to turn off the drought in the US.
That way, you see, we had hoped to throw off Iranian suspicion. We figured that if we had a drought at the same time our secret weather machines were causing the Iranian drought, the Iranians would be fooled into thinking that we couldn’t control the weather… but the crafty Persians are the representatives of an ancient civilization, they were too quick-witted to be taken in by that transparent ploy.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …
w.
Many years ago Dorothea Mackellar wrote a poem about Australia that all Aussies are familiar with that I would like to share with this mob here
http://www.imagesaustralia.com/mycountry.htm
Says it all really , climate-wise it`s business as usual downunder , unless yer names Tim Flannery , in which case You run around like a headless chook , screaming “We`re all doomed to permanent drought forever……”
I just watched that movie! It was about this pressure thingy that could control a thunderstorm cell and move it to wherever they wanted and then turn it into a huge hurricane! I nearly “Pirates of Penzance”! I think we should send a care package to this towel head Hassan Mousavi complete with popcorn and a movie. And put a magazine mixed-print pasted message in there telling him it was actually a documentary and we have corrected the flaws in the design of the pressure thingy.
@ur momisugly thingadonta says: July 17, 2012 at 4:42 pm
Cyclone Tracy was 1974 – so that would be 38 years ago – not 20 !!! How time flies when we are enjoying oursleves.
So, the Iranians have finally caught on to the effects of the Stuxdrought virus.
That can’t be a photo taken during a drought in Australia as there is clear evidence of dead grass still poking out of the ground. After any sort of decent drought in Australia, there is only bare red earth visible, no stubble. It is probably just a typical Summer Scene at Molong in N.S.W.
Figure 1. “Drought in Australia”, or as it is known there, “Oz”.
Fixed.
After spending most of 60 years in the midwest, I had the premonition a few months ago that we were in trouble. Early springs are not that unusual, but the extended periods of low humidity were not typical, and many mornings with no dew. With all the brain power this site has to offer, I kept watching for some confirmation of my suspicions, and then bought corn on the futures market at under six bucks. But no, La Nina was on the decline. Sheesh
Well I don’t know about droughts but the US does have a history of weather warfare. Operation Popeye for example.
” Weather warfare is the use of weather modification techniques such as cloud seeding for military purposes.
The Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques (Geneva: 18 May 1977, Entered into force: 5 October 1978) prohibits “widespread, long-lasting or severe effects as the means of destruction, damage or injury”.[1] However it has been argued that this permits “local, non-permanent changes”.
Prior to the Geneva Convention, the United States used weather warfare in the Vietnam War. Under the auspices of the Air Weather Service, the United States’ Operation Popeye used cloud seeding over the Ho Chi Minh Trail, increasing rainfall by an estimated thirty percent during 1967 and 1968. It was hoped that the increased rainfall would reduce the rate of infiltration down the trail.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_warfare
I suppose if you can seed clouds you could also make them disperse.
The droughts in the US look like global warming, while in the UK the p*ssing down rain and cold weather look like… global warming. At least according to Peter Stott of the Met Office.
Clearly the CIA aren’t affecting Iran’s climate with technology, they’re doing it with anagrams.
That was nothing compared to the Raman Climate Optibum. And that wasn’t a patch on the Moanin’ Warm-Up!
Or SLT.
I suppose if you can seed clouds you could also make them disperse.
If you get precipitation from seeded clouds in one place. There’s another place or places downwind that doesn’t get a comparable amount of precipitation.
Which was my point about aerosols from the industrialisation of the south side of the Persian Gulf.
thingadonta says:
July 17, 2012 at 4:33 pm
By the way, according to Flannery, expert in soil moisture physics, the dry soil in the above photograph can’t get wet again when it rains, because it is ‘too hot’ from the drought, so the rivers won’t run, and the waters won’t reach the dams.
Don’t laugh, this sort of argument was used to build costly desalination plants instead of cheap dams, which the taxpayer in Australia is now paying for.
In the future our grandchildren won’t know what dams were built for!
Last year, it was the Europeans who were “emptying the clouds so that Iran would have no rain” (Iranian Prez. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, respected leader of the world’s next nuclear power, May 2011)
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2945.htm
Art imitates life. We made it rain in Vietnam along the trail???? Really???? We made it rain more in a hot, humid, rainforest. And in Iran we are accused of making it rain less in a hot, dry, desert. Whose bad! Whose bad!
What’s next? Insect bombs? If I remember right, during WWII, was it the German’s who came up with the idea of bat bombs?
Dan in California says:
July 17, 2012 at 1:27 pm
When I see a headline such as: “Worst drought in 50 years” my immediate reaction is that 51 years ago it was worse than today…..
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Sort of makes me think the PDO cycle might have something to do with drought conditions or perhaps the Arctic Oscillation (AO) or the AMO….
Persistent influence of the North Atlantic hydrography on central European winter temperature during the last 9000 years GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L02704, 4 PP., 2007
More on the subject of the AMO + PDO: http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2952
Sean says:
July 17, 2012 at 2:52 pm
Study says Mayan civilization was wiped out by drought…
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More to the point is the 24 year drought that caused the Anasazi to move to better land Beginning in 1276, a 24 year drought began in the area of Four Corners… By 1300, the Anasazi had abandoned Mesa Verde.
Of course there is another theory that the move was caused by a religious crisis as divisive as European medieval heresies. In some scenarios, the Anasazi were pulled farther south en masse by an attractive new religion. Trying to recreate ideology from artifacts requires huge stretches of the imagination….
The first article also points out.
Add in a 24 year great drought and I can certainly see why the Anasazi people might have a problem with their religion esp. if said religion was supposed to influence the harvests and the rain. (They died before the age of 40 so we are talking close to a generation of drought)
Leo Norekens says:
July 18, 2012 at 2:27 am
Last year, it was the Europeans who were “emptying the clouds so that Iran would have no rain”
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And four years ago it was the Chinese:
http://www.universetoday.com/16728/the-chinese-weather-manipulation-missile-olympics/
I don’t recall anyone piling ridicule on the idea at the time:
http://www.google.com/search?q=china,+olympics,+cloud+seeding
Paul R says:
July 17, 2012 at 10:35 pm
That there used to be (and in some countries still are) laws against witchcraft doesn’t mean witchcraft works.
Beale says:
July 18, 2012 at 8:01 am
Paul R says:
July 17, 2012 at 10:35 pm
“That there used to be (and in some countries still are) laws against witchcraft doesn’t mean witchcraft works.”
Does’nt mean it does’nt work either. I’m not real sure about shaking a rattle over someone but those witches brews with snake venom or peyote could be pretty potent I suspect.
“The world arrogance and colonist (term used by Iranian authorities to label the West) are influencing Iran’s climate conditions using technology …”
Are they saying we have our heads where the sun doesn’t shine?
The drought is severe. We went into this season with very low soil moisture, and we’ve had almost no rain compared to normal. A friend of mine says his farm has gotten 1/10 inch of rain, in July we normally get 4-6 or more.
Pamela Gray says:
July 18, 2012 at 5:08 am
What’s next? Insect bombs? If I remember right, during WWII, was it the German’s who came up with the idea of bat bombs?
Nope, Operation X-Ray was Dr. Lytle Adams’ brainchild, who convinced FDR to give it a go. The idea was to strap incindiary time bombs to bats, then drop them over highly-flammable Japanese cities, on the theory the bats would roost in the buildings — when the timers hit zero — poof — multiple cities in flames. The Army Air Force got the mission to develop a bat-sized firebomb.
http://www.bu.edu/cecb/files/2009/08/bookreviewlhomme1993.pdf
During the final trial run near Carlsbad, NM (during which several hundred patriotic bats gave up their lives), the bat kamikazes succeeded in burning down both the hangar housing the aircraft that dropped them and the staff car of the general officer who was there to observe the mission.
The AAF turned the mission over to the Marines, who had the uncommon good sense to forget about even trying to accomplish it…
Khwarizmi says: July 18, 2012 at 7:19 am
“(…) And four years ago it was the Chinese (…) I don’t recall anyone piling ridicule on the idea at the time (..)
There is a difference between preserving the Olympics from an expected local shower (which is possible and may in certain cases -such as this- be judged efficient) on the one hand, and causing a nationwide drought as part of a “soft war” on the other hand. The latter, assuming that it would be possible, would be “Macchiavellian” as Willis put it, in that “the means” would be out of all proportion to “the end”.
For some perspective, search “The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Destruction:
“Owning the Weather” for Military Use
by Michel Chossudovsky
And where were the news folks last year, when western Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, and eastern New Mexico were drier than the worst of the 1950s? What about the drought of 1988, when people were arranging hay-lifts to get feed into the Midwest from places that had a surplus? *cups hand to ear* Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?