sunspots | Barataria - The work of Erik Hare

It was a glorious Independence Day in Minnesota. A high of 84F and a decent breeze to take the edge off the sun made the perfect backdrop to pick up the aroma of grilling meat. It’s all any of us could ever hope for. But it was in blinding contrast to the soggy wet June that made a mud puddle out of huge swatches of southern Minnesota and brought nasty storms that at one point had over a million people without power. What is up with this weather?

The same strange patterns that brought us a drought last year have been equally unkind in the opposite way this year, meaning we are in a kind of long-term trend towards more extreme weather in every and all direction. Exactly why is unclear, but we can expect this to continue. At least when everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything we can call it a reasonable response, yes?

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It’s not just that it’s hot. It’s the stifling stillness that has settled in over the center of the continent that slowly suffocates, like a python wrapping around its prey. A year that started out promising, with plenty of warmth and rain early on, has turned deadly for crops throughout the grain belt of the US.

The price of corn has shot up 40% in the last month as a terrible harvest falls ahead of brown, dead stalks grimly standing in the fields. As much as a third of the grain belt states is in “severe drought” conditions, and it’s likely to only worsen. This is the kind of shock our economic system simply cannot handle right now, already weakened by bumbling in financial centers far from where people do actual work.

What has caused such awful weather? It’s always hard to say exactly, but we can be sure this will last a while longer – and it is too late for most of the crops.

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