Sure has been warm lately. Unseasonably so. Record-setting days every month in Des Moines. Above-normal, as they say. This week brought another record at 67 degrees. One day, one month, one year do not a trend make. We prefer thunderstorms to blizzards, we suppose, while acknowledging that blizzards in Iowa are supposed to be normal.
You would have to chalk this up to climate change. Most of Iowa is getting warmer and wetter through the decades, especially since 1980. It’s getting downright steamy in July, with a swelling number of days over 90 degrees that challenge corn pollination and ultimate yield. Our growing season is lengthening. Drought is fixed on the Great Plains and lingers in our neighborhood. The latest Drought Monitor map shows Buena Vista County in moderate drought or abnormally dry, while nearly all of Cherokee County is in moderate drought and has been for several years.
We spoke with professional and amateur ornithologists last weekend at Moline, Ill., who notice declining species. Chickadees are in hiding or gone, checkoff or not. Generally they report songbirds in fewer numbers. They have little doubt about the cause: a changing climate.
Because northern Iowa on the Des Moines Lobe is getting wetter and draining faster by doubling the system’s size, it is ripping apart stream banks and eroding sloped land at increasing rates. The silt chokes Saylorville Reservoir and spawns toxic algae. It contributes to the destruction of Gulf marshes and the suffocation of the Gulf of Mexico (which should be renamed the Gulf of Iowa/Illinois/Indiana).
It affects disease as waterfowl flyways shift. That affects livestock production in Northwest Iowa. Avian flu is a new chronic menace. Other diseases spread as bugs that could not survive our climate — certain ticks, for example — have moved in and grown comfortable.
More demand is put on water supplies. Storm Lake is about to spend more than it can afford witching and pumping more water from an aquifer losing its level.
We could change the way we do business to protect ourselves but that would mean changing the way we do business. Land set asides are laughed at. The legislature refuses to discuss limiting nitrogen applications in any way for fear it might offend Koch Enterprises or the Farm Bureau. President Trump is doing all he can to tear down a clean-energy economy while China pushes full speed ahead on solar and electric vehicles. We started a war with Iran over oil, not security.
Enjoy the warm weather while you can. Cheap gasoline won’t matter if you can’t take the heat in July when the well runs dry. That is what we are up against.
Unsafe water
Our friends at the Harkin Institute at Drake University called for regulation of fertilizer and livestock confinements as Iowa’s water has become “unsafe.” And Hell will go Methodist. The Republicans running this operation have absolutely no interest in regulating the petrochemical conglomerates who bought and paid for said politicians fair and square expecting certain results. Most Democrats have played along while confusing farmers with agribusiness.
Not John Norris, a former aide to Sen. Tom Harkin and chief of staff for Tom Vilsack, governor and US agriculture secretary. Norris knows his stuff. He suggests a moratorium on new livestock confinements, buffer strip requirements and reinstatement of the statewide water quality monitoring system that the legislature defunded.
The Harkin Institute says that measures like these can make a dramatic difference in Iowa water quality. It certainly would not make our horrible cancer rates rise.
None of this will happen under our current political structure.
Congress is trying to pass a farm bill but its status is uncertain. November elections could flip the House, which would produce a moderated piece of farm legislation. A different governor could help by ordering the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to fulfill its statutory function of protecting our air and water.
Meantime we can hope that outfits like the Practical Farmers of Iowa can continue to preach the sustainable and resilient gospel that reads from the same book as Norris.
Fun and games
Tyson Foods announced last week a business deal under which it will sponsor University of Arkansas athletes as the “Official Protein of the Razorbacks.” They will get a Tyson patch on uniforms in return for revenue that will flow mainly to athletes. The company isn’t saying how much it is worth, but it’s not $100 million, said John Tyson. Which reminds us, Storm Lake needs to expand and build a new water system at a cost of more than $100 million.
Tyson consumes most of the city water but probably will pay more to put logos on football jerseys than building water filtration tanks for the meatpacking complex here that drives the profits. Industrial agriculture is drawing down our water supply in the Dakota and Jordan aquifers. Storm Lake is the official water provider for Tyson Fresh Meats and we could use some help. Tyson provided for a water tower but this upgrade is way more than that. We could use some major help. The city is pushing an inordinate burden on residential consumers through double-digit percentage rate increases for years. Tyson gets a lower rate with volume consumption. Something is wrong with the whole picture. People who live here are drowning in higher costs and fees.
War and agriculture
President Trump promised to dole out at least $12 billion to ag producers over his trade war with China that wiped out soybean exports. Many farmers are having a tough go. That was before Trump decided to bomb Iran. Oil jumped over $100 per barrel on Monday. That means a big increase in fertilizer and herbicides that are all based in petroleum. That $12 billion starts to look smaller.
No one including the defense secretary knows how long oil production and shipping will be restricted. Trump isn’t sure how long to carry on. No one can predict how markets will react. This is the worst interruption of oil commerce in history. The effects ripple out from the farm, where they are felt first. We have not heard anything from the USDA about additional disaster payments based on this war of choice.
Horse chips for all!
Fortunately, the Iowa Legislature in these times of war and economic peril take their business seriously. The House passed a bill that allows for the sale of the drug ivermectin without a prescription because the Internet says it can cure Covid and cancer. The approved use by the FDA is for parasites. It is mainly used in veterinary medicine. It could kill you if you take too much. Legislators who run a trucking company or farm certainly know better than Dr. Austin Baeth, a Democratic representative, who warned against the bill. Soon you will be able to run down to the drug store and get a dose on your own if you have a bout of ringworm or a nasty brain tumor.
Legislation that would ban the release of chemtrails into the wild blue yonder advanced. Republicans believe that climate conspirators are releasing something that look like jet trails but actually are chemicals aimed at changing the weather. This will not be allowed. You are allowed to fill the air with stench from livestock manure as much as you like. The Senate beat back an attempt by those pesky Democrats to increase fines for water pollution.
As for curing the exploding property taxes around here, they’re talking about hiking rates on apartments to make up for cuts on apartments in 2013. This is how it goes. They will have a “soft cap” at 2% for rate increases, which can mean no cap at all, and a bunch of other mishmash that the legislators themselves barely fathom. This is all the result of slashing and flattening income tax rates over the Branstad and Reynolds administrations.
This is what Republicans will take to voters in November: horse pills and horse hockey for a heehaw state while a billion-dollar deficit festers.
Credit: Source link
