PBS has a series out on the Dust Bowl, where they try to blame the 1930s drought on Oklahoma farmers.
The map below shows the area of the drought in red and yellow, and the area of the Dust Bowl in blue.
As usual, PBS is hating Americans at taxpayer expense.
Steve, I think it’s a stretch to say PBS is “hating Americans”. We are, after all, its audience.
Over the centuries, this drought-prone area of the continent has seen repeated, cyclic and damaging droughts. The most recent one in the past was back in the 1300s. But what has made this one different– and what the program dutifully explained– was that farmers had plowed virtually the entire plains, cutting the dense mat of grass roots that held the land together, piling them up and burning them off. So when the drought came back there was no place left to store residual moisture. And the land dried up and blew away.
Was it the “fault” of the farmer? I’d hate to cast this in terms of blame. But it was as a result of poorly understood natural mechanisms (they believed that rain followed the plough) plus people acting in what they saw as their own best interests. (Much like our burning fossil fuels today.)
The program depicted that very well.
The Dust Bowl made up a tiny percentage of the drought area. That is the whole point of this post.
Lefties hate themselves, and enjoy being abused by other lefties. That is why they elected Obama.
IMO, political rant like the jibe about self-hating lefties is inappropriate on a website claiming to be about science. Not to mention off-base. But it’s your site, Steve. So let me respond:
A casual glance at anything at all will show you that people on the left don’t especially like or respect Obama, and haven’t for a long time. Their disappointment in this candidate, really someone of the center-right like Bill Clinton, has deepened their cynicism toward American party politics generally. Similarly the disappointment many Republicans experienced when they saw the results of their decision to elect George Bush caused many on the right to swing in the opposite direction for the last couple of election cycles. Neither side has much good to say about the parties they’d ideally like to promote to power. I agree, of course, with both. Our politics are nearing terminal hopelessness.
Global warming is all about America hating lefties. It has nothing to do with science.
A casual glance at anything you have posted here at all will show people reading it that you don’t especially like or respect yourself, and haven’t for a long time. Your disappointment in yourself, really someone slightly off center of rational thought, has deepened your cynicism toward yourself and people like yourself generally. Similarly the disappointment many people like you experienced when they saw the results of their decision to bankrupt their own countries caused many voters to swing in the opposite direction for the last couple of election cycles. Your paranoia over imaginary science is nearing terminal hopelessness.
WTF, no American would used that phraseology. So you are a foreigner commenting on American internal politics? That’s stupid and if you had any intelligence whatsoever you would have realized that most people do not do that. Basically you have outed yourself as a typical international leftist, one who comments on anything and everything regardless of knowledge and expertise. You fit right in with the scientific pretenders of the AGW cult. You know nothing about us except what escapes the corrupt media onto your radar, and most of that is tainted.
And what’s even stupider is writing on someone’s blog that you think they shouldn’t talk about this or that. That’s like walking into someone’s house and telling them how to decorate, which I would fully expect you to actually do in real life. Leftists are hardcore narcissists through and through. Start your own blog and fill it up with idiotic neo-Communist propaganda so it matches all the others out there. We all promise not to come over and act like concern trolls.
I’ll have to give you an A for attitude, Blade. You really have one. But I should correct you on one small point: you say “WTF, no American would used that phraseology. So you are a foreigner commenting on American internal politics?”
No, actually quite a few of us talk that way. You’ve just never talked with any.
It’s really easy to gain a misimpression of outsiders when one lives inside the bubble. Because the only things one knows about them are the things one’s “trusted media” tells one about them. Fantasies about “the left” abound on this site in particular, and show an unfamiliarity with people of that persuasion.
As for my impertinence in suggesting that this site is best used debating science, not just firmly held opinions, I did soften that by saying “But it’s your site, Steve”. So I trust he has not been unduly offended.
I always like to see what the “other side” is thinking. So I actually read far more of the material put out by the far right (that is, you) than I do by people I might agree with. Why should I read the progressive press? I already know pretty much how they will feel about things.
“You know nothing about us except what escapes the corrupt media onto your radar, and most of that is tainted.”
I know what you write, therefore I know what you think.
So I was right, you are a foreigner commenting on our internal politics. And just as I expected you see nothing wrong with it. But you will, someday.
Look, you can believe that over here we’re all wearing blinders and living in bubbles, whatever helps you maintain your stereotyping prejudices. The only problem with that thinking, is that it itself is wrapped in blinders and bubbles. No-one gets around more than we do. When we run out of places to visit we go to the moon. Almost everyone here is directly from, or descended from elsewhere. We’re the actual melting pot, not the fake one that American hating scum have built in their heads. We live it everyday. Compared to the USA, every other place on Earth is a segregated clean-room of uniformity one small step away from another invasion or border war or ethnic cleansing.
Your problem is that you are confusing our lack of attention and respect for you personally or leftists in general, with an alleged fortress mentality against the rest of the world. But even a child can debunk that drivel. No-one cares more about the rest of the world than us. No-one pours more money and blood and lives into foreign lands and cesspools than us. We walk the walk that you, wherever you are, only talk about. Talk is cheap, which is precisely why you are so good at it.
Now back to your narcissism for a moment. There will most likely come a day when you grow up and have that epiphany that makes you understand the point about interjecting yourself into foreign politics. No doubt you will be in a forum about your own miserable national government and be treated to lecturing from some troll from some other miserable place. I probably did the same thing as a kid too ( sans Internet naturally ) , but now I wouldn’t think of it because I can’t vote there and I’m no longer stupid enough to think I know everything about everyone. When we grow up we tend to stop making fools of ourselves ( Hansen, McKibben, Mann and others excepted ).
But I will give you one further clue you haven’t considered. Nothing unites the USA like a foreign intruder. Just opening your mouth in this manner drives all but the most ardent leftists together in a way you cannot possibly understand. It never fails. I probably shouldn’t have told you that because your kind really is the gift that keeps on giving. So now you owe me one.
The entire global warming debate is based on the false demonization of “carbon”. But CO2 was much lower in the 1930’s, therefore the Dust Bowl was a natural occurrance. But try explaining that to low-info voters.
Obama can no more control global CO2 than he can control the sea level. But there are so many mouth-breathing head nodders who vote, that it only takes some free Obamaphones to buy elections. Things will have to get a lot worse before these criminals are booted from office.
Not sure its just lefties, in the last election I remember clearly reading about how Romney loved the planet and was going to install wind turbines to fight climate change. If Romney HAD been elected, the green agenda would be doing the same thing it is now except complaining that somehow Romney was holding them back. I don’t think you can claim its lefties blaming the victims as there are just as many delusional republicans who have these outregous delusions of grandeur where they likewise save the world by forcing a pointless tax on Americans. For the record, I voted for a third party candidate when I heard about Romney being a “green loving hippy.” Heck, if I wanted a green loving hippy, why not vote for Obama?
As for PBS, yea I kind of agreed that blaming the dustbowl on farmers is just plain retarded and the actions of a selt-hating person who wants to blame man for anything that ever happened that was bad. Not sure how we can blame the left for gerbil warming, however. I blame the right just as much for not putting a stop to the nonsense and confronting the Obama administration on their proclamations and laws that they pass illegaly through executive orders. What has the house done exactly to stop coal from being regulated out of existence by the EPA?
Sorry, but I am not buying its the left’s fault. I can name TWO republicans who have talked out against global warming in the last year. The rest lack the anatomy somehow to ever talk bad about global warming.
This is supposed to be an article about PBS misrepresenting the cause of a horrific drought and dust bowl.
I do not believe many realize just how bad it was and for so long, almost a decade in the 30’s. I sent to Steve, aerial pictures of southern MN lakes in 1937.
Compared to DNA topographical maps lakes were down 15 to 25 feet. Crops became dust. Lakes were farmed. Trees which began growing on some lakes actually caught on fire.
Then in the late 50’s we played ballgames on beaches which were once lake bottom.
We had hysteria around here last year with one year of drought conditions. AGW was blamed.
With age and experience comes at least a smidgen of wisdom.
Once it was witchcraft, now its AGW. Either way we have to blame humans.— It is human nature to do so.
As for PBS, it must survive financially. So they give some people what they want.
It seems people want to listen to bad news too often. In the News business too often bad news is good news and good news is no news.
Good news would be that warming has stopped for about 15 years. If that ever happened it should make the front pages of all major news outlets. Right!!! sarc.