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malaise

(269,157 posts)
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 11:27 AM Apr 2018

When nature says 'Enough!': the river that appeared overnight in Argentina

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/01/argentina-new-river-soya-beans
<snip>
After a night of heavy rainfall, Ana Risatti woke to an ominous roar outside her home. Mistaking the noise for a continuation of the night’s downpour, she stepped outside to look.

“I nearly fainted when I saw what it really was,” said Risatti, 71. Instead of falling from the sky, the water she heard was rushing down a deep gully it had carved overnight just beyond the wire fence around her home.

The sudden appearance of a network of new rivers in Argentina’s central province of San Luis has puzzled scientists, worried environmentalists and disheartened farmers. It has also raised urgent questions over the environmental cost of Argentina’s dependence on soya beans, its main export crop.

“The roar was terrifying,” said Risatti, remembering that morning three years ago. “The land had opened up like a canyon. Water was pushing through as far as I could see. Huge mounds of earth, grass and trees were being carried along the water surface.”
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More at link - read and weep
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When nature says 'Enough!': the river that appeared overnight in Argentina (Original Post) malaise Apr 2018 OP
Fascinating, thanks. Bizarre that this region's problem is Hortensis Apr 2018 #1
I do wonder if this is connected malaise Apr 2018 #3
Or just what relationships might there be? Hortensis Apr 2018 #4
Undoubtedly. Drought-stricken land is unprepared for downpours. California problem too. . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Apr 2018 #7
That's my thinking malaise Apr 2018 #8
I know that roar. Baitball Blogger Apr 2018 #2
Scary. Not the same thing, but I woke up to that roar Hortensis Apr 2018 #6
Warnings over the effects of deforestation have been shouted for decades DFW Apr 2018 #5
Well said malaise Apr 2018 #10
Looks like Argentina is creating a new Grand Canyon. Good luck growing soy beans in it. SunSeeker Apr 2018 #9
That simple malaise Apr 2018 #11

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
1. Fascinating, thanks. Bizarre that this region's problem is
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 11:36 AM
Apr 2018

newly appearing fresh water, not disappearing.

Obviously they need some regulations on big ag. That roaming locusts mode of business is practically the definition of disastrous.

malaise

(269,157 posts)
3. I do wonder if this is connected
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 11:50 AM
Apr 2018

Most Expensive Weather Disaster of 2018: a $3.9 Billion Drought in Argentina and Uruguay

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/most-expensive-weather-disaster-2018-39-billion-drought-argentina-and-uruguay
<snip>
A severe lack of rainfall during over southern South America during the summer of 2017 - 2018 has led to the worst drought in decades over portions of Argentina and Uruguay. According to insurance broker Aon Benfield, total losses are near $3.9 billion, making the drought the most expensive weather-related disaster on the planet so far in 2018--and the most expensive disaster in the history of both Argentina and Uruguay.

Hardest-hit was Argentina, where the Buenos Aires Grain Exchange predicted that the drought would likely cause an economic loss of $3.4 billion. Argentina’s 2018 soybean harvest is expected to be near the record-low harvest of the drought year of 2009; both severe droughts occurred during weak La Niña events. According to EM-DAT, the international disaster database, the $3.4 billion cost of this year’s drought exceeds a $3 billion flood (2018 dollars) from October 1985 as Argentina’s most expensive disaster on record.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
4. Or just what relationships might there be?
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 11:57 AM
Apr 2018

Droughts kill plants. Plant roots hold soil. One would think there must be some, or many.

Baitball Blogger

(46,757 posts)
2. I know that roar.
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 11:44 AM
Apr 2018

When they started to develop land miles up river from where my aunt had a farm, we would get massive flash floods when there was rain in the mountains. The flood would come down angry and clay red.

Hortensis

(58,785 posts)
6. Scary. Not the same thing, but I woke up to that roar
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 12:10 PM
Apr 2018

once, after falling asleep in wonderful desert wilderness silence, when visiting friends. The violence of the noise was alarming even after our hosts told us what was happening because we couldn't see it. That wasn't a man-made disaster, though, and didn't threaten anyone's farms. It was an especially large runoff suddenly sweeping down a sand wash from big storms in nearby mountains that no one knew was happening. Better weather info these days.

DFW

(54,436 posts)
5. Warnings over the effects of deforestation have been shouted for decades
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 12:05 PM
Apr 2018

But since the predicted disastrous effects didn't happen overnight, many preferred to claim the warnings were all speculative pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo--until they weren't. It's only a matter of time before Brazil has the same experience. The warning of the effects of de-foresting the Amazon Basin for agriculture's sake have been ignored for decades. When it's too late there, the scope of the calamity will make Argentina seem like a spilled glass of water in a restaurant. For now, of course, all the dire warnings are just so much pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo........

SunSeeker

(51,694 posts)
9. Looks like Argentina is creating a new Grand Canyon. Good luck growing soy beans in it.
Sun Apr 1, 2018, 01:32 PM
Apr 2018

You fuck with nature, nature fucks with you.

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