1937 : FDR Blamed Floods And Droughts On Evil Humans

7 Responses to 1937 : FDR Blamed Floods And Droughts On Evil Humans

1. nzrobin says:

   May 3, 2013 at 11:35 pm

   As Solomon said, ‘there’s nothing new under the sun’. Blaming the weather on sinful people, that’s been going on since Noah and Elijah were cowboys.

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2. Andy DC says:

   May 4, 2013 at 12:46 am

   Since CO2 was less than 350 ppm in 1937, the droughts and floods back then could not have possibly have been natural and therefore had to be the fault of evil white males.

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3. Raindog says:

   May 4, 2013 at 3:33 am

   The droughts for sure were natural, the dust-bowl was a result of poor farming practices – most of which are still practiced today, unfortunately.

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4. omnologos says:

   May 4, 2013 at 5:47 am

   contemporary environmentalism took definite hold at the end of the Vietnam War for two reasons. one was a reaction to a “finite” world where faraway lands couldn’t anymore be taken advantage of.

   second reasons was the fear that in such a “finite” world people in faraway lands might want to get as rich as us, consuming in our place.

   this 1937 article may be considered among the first ones to subtly inculcate the fear of a finite world…

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   • nzrobin says:

     May 4, 2013 at 6:01 am

     Hi Omnologos, The fear of a finite world and a growing population was under way before 1937. Look up Thomas Malthus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_on_the_Principle_of_Population.

     I’d also recommend ‘Merchants of Despair’ by Robert Zubrin. It covers the history of the development of environmentalism, (among other things). It is a most revealing and compelling read.

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5. gator69 says:

   May 4, 2013 at 2:33 pm

   He’s no Frederick Douglass Republican!

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6. Richard Burden says:

   May 6, 2013 at 12:48 pm

   FDR was right. Denudation of the land exacerbates drought by interrupting the water cycle that exists over land areas–the all-too-familiar Third World phenomenon known as “desertification”. Denudation also exacerbates flooding, not by increasing the rate of precipitation during floods, but by making the ground less permeable. And denudation increases summer and daytime temperatures, and may also make the coldest nights colder, and increases wind and dust-storms, by making the land more desert-like! To counter-act denudation and desertification, FDR employed people to plant trees, to rehabilitate eroded areas, and to build the largest water-management structures the world had ever seen. FDR also expanded the agricultural extension services to promote farming practices that both increase farm productivity and improve and maintain the condition of the soil, including contour plowing.

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