There's no bigger news right now. And it's interesting (as in "may you live in interesting times") to watch skeptics who have been in denial for years admit that the situation is very serious.
No, not Iraq, though that rates as serious too, god knows. Nope. I'm talking about the effects of global warming which are finally getting noticed by communities in the "heartland" which voted for Bush and which used to think global warming was a liberal invention to assault the intellects of decent people.
For months our area has had weekly promises of rain, albeit "showers," for say, Thursday, only to find out by Tuesday that the forecast of rain has been eliminated. Although the cattle on this patch of land have good enough grass and are fat and sleek, the cows up by the dairy are looking emaciated and their calves worse. There's not much supplemental baled grass available. What you can get you pay for with your Christmas shopping money, your anticipated tax refund, and a badly needed new transmission.
So it's real. We're in trouble. The New York Times reports today that an agricultural research group is advising that "the steady march of global warming [is] driving the need to develop new crop strains that can withstand rising temperatures, drier climates and increased soil salt content, as well as 'boosting agriculture’s role in removing greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere.'”
Check out that map. Look at where our agriculture will disappear to in 40 years. Quite apart from what we need in the US, remember that most of the wheat produced in that yellow area travels down the Mississippi and gets shipped out to just about everywhere else. If we have much less of it and, say, Darfur is at the bottom of the food chain, they will have less than nothing.
So it won't be how sorry I feel for those sad looking calves looking for anything edible on a barren hillside, it'll be world-wide drought, world-wide hunger with the strongest nations preventing the rest from eating.