Now there's some irony...
Aperture Science
10-10-2008, 19:46
My memory was recently jarred when I flipped on the history channel and saw an ad for their new special 'Black Blizzard', which will, apparently, be about the Dust Bowl.
For those outside of the US, the Dust Bowl was basically the result of people tilling up the Great Plains and not taking any measures to stop erosion or preserve soil quality. So, as you can imagine, the first drought that came along basically turned the topsoil into dust, which then blew away. The result was huge dust storms, famine, and general unpleasantness which just happened to coincide nicely with the Great Depression (Wikipedia gives the 'official' US dates of the Great Depression from 1928-36/40, the Dust Bowl from 1930-36).
Anyway, these ads were apparently running BEFORE the stock market took skydiving lessons.
So, what do you think, NSG? How long before Al Gore starts telling us that the planets magnetic field is going to shut down and the entire planets crust is going to get blown off by solar wind?
Hey, at least it's not as bad as the Virgin Lands Campaign...they managed to almost destroy an entire sea with that one.
Sdaeriji
10-10-2008, 20:07
Hey, at least it's not as bad as the Virgin Lands Campaign...they managed to almost destroy an entire sea with that one.
The Virgin Lands campaign wasn't actually the Soviet economic policy responsible for the destruction of the Aral Sea, if that is what you refer to. It was a different, largely successful plan to irrigate the Uzbek desert for cotton production.
Saige Dragon
10-10-2008, 20:11
The magnetic field isn't going to shut down. It is going to flip. North (which is technically South) will be South (which will then be technically North) and South (which is technically North) will be North (which will then be technically South) and then our maps will all be upside down causing mass hysteria in geography classes world wide and really screw the pooch on Santa.
The Virgin Lands campaign wasn't actually the Soviet economic policy responsible for the destruction of the Aral Sea, if that is what you refer to. It was a different, largely successful plan to irrigate the Uzbek desert for cotton production.
True. However, the Virgin Lands Campaign did coincide with the ramping up of intensive cotton cultivation in those regions (esp. the Uzbek SSR), so that entire mindset could be grouped together in regard to the economic and environmental devastation of Central Asia.
It did work for a little while, though; had they been a little smarter with their agrimanagement processes, chances are those territories would have succeeded in their goals quite spectacularly.
Sdaeriji
10-10-2008, 20:20
The magnetic field isn't going to shut down. It is going to flip. North (which is technically South) will be South (which will then be technically North) and South (which is technically North) will be North (which will then be technically South) and then our maps will all be upside down causing mass hysteria in geography classes world wide and really screw the pooch on Santa.
Ahhh!
http://www.wall-maps.com/World/UpsideDownWorld.gif
I've been waiting so long for an opportunity to post this map.
Ahhh!
http://www.wall-maps.com/World/UpsideDownWorld.gif
I've been waiting so long for an opportunity to post this map.
The world looks cooler that way.
Saige Dragon
10-10-2008, 20:22
The world looks cooler that way.
Canada looks warmer, it's now in the South Arctic. Palm trees and polar bears.
My memory was recently jarred when I flipped on the history channel and saw an ad for their new special 'Black Blizzard',
Hopefully its not one of those vague "suspense" trailers. Klansfolk are easily dissapointed souls....
Vampire Knight Zero
10-10-2008, 20:44
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=s_iMS31mqmU
Australians already use maps like this
South Lorenya
10-10-2008, 22:38
Water naturally evaporates from seas. Water also flows into it through rivers. The Soviet Union diverted the rivers feeding the Aral sea for irrigation and did nothing to prevent it from shrinking. That's why it went down from the world's 4th largest lake to three pieces of lake totally only enough to be 14th largest. Claiming that the Uzbek cotton production is unrelated to the Aral sea dying is as silly as claiming that Hiroshima getting nuked was unrelated to WWII.
Sdaeriji
10-10-2008, 22:42
Claiming that the Uzbek cotton production is unrelated to the Aral sea dying is as silly as claiming that Hiroshima getting nuked was unrelated to WWII.
I didn't claim that. I claimed that the Aral Sea disaster was due to the Soviet project for cotton production in the Uzbek desert rather than the Virgin Lands Campaign for wheat production in Kazakhstan.
H N Fiddlebottoms VIII
10-10-2008, 22:42
That's not ironic; it's just coincidental!
South Lorenya
10-10-2008, 22:48
I didn't claim that. I claimed that the Aral Sea disaster was due to the Soviet project for cotton production in the Uzbek desert rather than the Virgin Lands Campaign for wheat production in Kazakhstan.
Ah, my apologies. Aral Sea is Uzbek cotton, Lake Balkhash is virgin lands wheat. Note to self: stop confusing shrinking lakes.
Sdaeriji
10-10-2008, 22:51
Ah, my apologies. Aral Sea is Uzbek cotton, Lake Balkhash is virgin lands wheat. Note to self: stop confusing shrinking lakes.
This is true. The problems with the Aral Sea absolutely dwarf those of Lake Balkhash. And Balkhash isn't so much being destroyed as it is being polluted beyond use.
Australians already use maps like this
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v119/loveislikearson/australiaupsidedowncountry301.jpg
Poor Al Gore, he's now being called things like "the shaman of global goofiness and gloom and doom."
And there was a report about climate change creating another dust bowl in the southwest: http://fora.tv/2008/08/30/Wes_Jackson_-_Climate_Change_May_Trigger_Dust_Bowl