Sputnik – May 12, 2022

A new study has found that the 22-year-long water shortage plaguing the American Southwest and western Mexico is the region’s worst in more than a millennium – a phenomenon dubbed a “megadrought.”

The study, published in Nature Climate Change, found that soil moisture deprivation has exceeded that of a megadrought in the 16th century that was previously the region’s worst known drought.

It’s so bad that University of California Los Angeles geographer Park Williams, the study’s lead author, has warned it would take a prolonged shift in weather patterns to remedy things.

The researchers looked at tree rings to compare the present drought’s intensity with those of years past, since trees generally produce wider rings in wet years and narrower rings in drier years. They found that since 2000, the average soil moisture deficit was twice that of any drought of the past century, with nothing comparable being found until 1,200 years back.

The region has always been quite dry, of course, with four large deserts dominating the terrain and the rest being fairly arid. Indigenous civilization was well-adapted to the precarious conditions, but modern cities have been built without respect to climate – and may soon suffer the consequences.

Reservoirs created by hydroelectric dams, like the famous Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas, Nevada, that holds back Lake Mead, are reaching historic lows. The lake provides the City That Never Sleeps with its freshwater, but has suffered steady water loss since 1983, which has accelerated in recent years, requiring modifications to Hoover Dam’s turbines to allow it to continue producing electricity despite the low water level.

https://sputniknews.com

Peter Caddle – May 5, 2022

Millions are at risk of starvation thanks to COVID and the ongoing war in Ukraine, both of which have helped create a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

Experts have warned that millions of people across the world are on the brink of starvation thanks to a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises — a multinational organisation founded by the European Union as well as various United Nations bodies — found that 2021 represented the worst year for world hunger, but that things could soon get a whole lot worse thanks to a wide variety of ongoing geopolitical problems.

According to the organisation’s annual Global Report on Food Crises, 193 million people face acute food insecurity in 2021, which they define as being in a state where a person’s food intake is so low as to put their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.

By far the single largest cause of this food insecurity last year was conflict, while the issue of economic shocks and climate change came in as very distant second and third place causes respectively.

However, despite how bad things got last year, experts who participated in the creation and publication of the report now fear that things could get a whole lot worse in 2022 as a result of a wide number of ongoing crises.

“Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” said David Beasley, a former Republican Party governor who now serves as the executive director of the World Food Programme.

“Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm — and now we’ve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe,” he continued. “Millions of people in dozens of countries are being driven to the edge of starvation.”

https://www.breitbart.com

David Sidman – March 24, 2022

Citing fears of possible food shortages amid the Ukraine crisis, Israel’s transportation minister instructed that cargo ships importing grain and animal feed be given priority for unloading at the port docks over the next month.

This solution of stocking up on grains before a predicted famine mirrors the Bible’s Joseph. Joseph, son of Jacob, was promoted to be the prince of Egypt after he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of withering grain stocks devouring healthy ones as an imminent famine in Egypt. Joseph then advised Pharaoh to stock up on wheat to have enough reserves once the famine strikes.

Let that food be a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will come upon the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish in the famine.”(Genesis 41:36)

Israel appears to be heeding Joseph’s ancient advice in prioritizing wheat over other imported goods. “We face challenges to our food security at the time being because of the worrying developments in Ukraine,” noted Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli in a statement on Thursday.

“The State of Israel must safeguard its food security by strengthening our domestic agriculture. Taking steps to get the grain and fodder that Israeli agriculture relies on, the nation will quickly ensure that we maintain Israeli food security despite changes worldwide.”

According to the statement, shipping and Ports head Yigal Maor already took “several steps” to implement the decision.

https://www.israel365news.com

The Watchers – April 21, 2022

A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.7 hit near the coast of Panama at 07:24 UTC on April 21, 2022. The agency is reporting a depth of 25.3 km (15.7 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.7 at a depth of 40 km (24.8 miles).

The epicenter was located about 58.2 km (36.2 miles) WSW of Masachapa (population 5 000), 68.7 km (42.7 miles) WSW of San Rafael del Sur (population 29 836), and 88.8 km (55.2 miles) WSW El Crucero (population 16 469), Managua, Nicaragua.

There are 910 000 people living within 100 km (62 miles).

1 000 people are estimated to have felt strong shaking and 807 000 moderate.

Based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat from this earthquake, PTWC said.

The USGS issued a Green alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. There is a low likelihood of casualties and damage.

Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are highly vulnerable to earthquake shaking, though some resistant structures exist. The predominant vulnerable building types are mud wall and adobe block construction.

Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards such as landslides that might have contributed to losses.

https://watchers.news

Ricky Scaparo – April 14, 2022

(OPINION) – Since we live near the New Madrid Fault, it’s normal to have earthquakes in our region. However, there was an earthquake that was felt by many that just happened in a weird part of Illinois.

According to the USGS, there was a 2.6 earthquake, but it wasn’t in the normal area near New Madrid. It was in the southeastern part of the state. This relatively tiny shaker occurred at 1:40 am early Wednesday morning, but was felt by 18 as of this writing.

Along with the non-typical location, it’s odd to me that a quake of only 2.6 magnitude would actually be felt in the middle of the night. A quake that small would be hard to detect even in the middle of the day if you were wide awake.

It’s close enough to what the USGS considers the New Madrid Fault Zone that it’s likely related to activity there. However, it’s just strange enough to pass along in case it’s the forerunner of something more major.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Strange Sounds – April 5, 2022

You can’t feel it, but the ground far beneath our feet on south-central Vancouver Island has been moving.

Seismologists have been recording thousands of “episodic tremor and slip events” occurring at a rapid rate since March 20 moving in a southeasterly direction down the Island.

More than 4,200 tiny tremors have been recorded so far between 25 and 40 kilometres below the surface, said John Cassidy, an earthquake seismologist with Natural Resources Canada and a professor at the University of Victoria.

“They’re not earthquakes. … On the instruments they look like series of a trains rolling by,” Cassidy said.

He said these bursts of small tremors and slips occur about every 15 months along faults that form the boundaries of tectonic plates — in our case, the Cascadia subduction zone from Brooks Peninsula on the Island to Northern California, where the Juan de Fuca plate system curves west beneath the North American plate.

The repeated episodes of slow fault slips — measuring about the size of five stacked dimes — usually occur over a period of several weeks, accompanied by tremors that appear on seismic records as prolonged, intermittent ground vibrations, Cassidy said.

The ETS activity has been going on for centuries, but has only recently been recorded using sophisticated GPS technology at more than 40 sites up and down the Island. They differ from earthquakes, which generate large, sharp shock waves that subside very quickly, but ETS can help in improving estimates on where and when the next earthquake might occur, Cassidy said.

By mapping out the areas on the subduction fault where stress is not accumulating over the long term, tremor events define the landward limit of the zone that could rupture during the next great earthquake.

That provides a more accurate estimate of how close the rupture could be to major West Coast cities such as Victoria, Vancouver and Seattle, and what shaking could occur, he said.

https://strangesounds.org

Arsenio Toledo – April 4th, 2022

Countries all over the world, especially in Europe, have started implementing policies that ration food and fuel.

Europe’s struggles with its food and fuel supplies began after most nations on the continent imposed economic sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. This threatened the flow of already-critical commodities in Europe and threatened to collapse already-struggling global supply chains.

As a result, the prices of everything from oil to wheat have soared, leading to multi-decade high inflation rates. Supplies of these essential products have also dwindled after exports from Russia were completely strangled.

In Spain, the country started experiencing sporadic shortages of different products like eggs, milk, and other dairy products almost immediately following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. In early March, major supermarkets like Mercadona and Makro began rationing sunflower oil.

Spain’s left-wing government even went further and gave stores the option to temporarily impose limits on the number of certain products customers purchase.

In Greece, at least four national supermarket chains have started rationing food products like flour and sunflower oil due to critically low supplies caused by the crippled supply chains coming out of Russia and Ukraine.

The supermarkets claim the current rationing is only a preventive measure that will be rolled back once Greece’s supplies of flour and sunflower oil stabilize. Around 30 percent of Greece’s wheat imports come from Russia and Ukraine.

“The reason for the cap on these products is only precautionary, as our customers are concerned about the war in Ukraine,” said one official from supermarket chain Alfa-Beta Vassilopoulos. “We want to ensure we will be able to serve our customers’ needs in the future too.”

https://www.shtfplan.com

Ricky Scaparo – March 31, 2022

A very strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M7.0 struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia according to a report from the Watchers, at 05:44 UTC on March 31, 2022. The agency is reporting a depth of 10 km (6.2 miles).

EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth. The quake was preceded by M6.9 (USGS) / M6.7 (EMSC) at 20:56 UTC on March 30, and a series of moderate to strong aftershocks. The epicenter was located about 280 km (174 miles) ESE of Tadine, New Caledonia, and 368 km (229 miles) SSE of Isangel, Vanuatu.

There are no people living within 100 km (62 miles). Based on all available data, hazardous tsunami waves are forecast for some coasts, NWS PTWC said. Tsunami waves are forecast to be less than 0.3 m (0.98 feet) above tide level for the coasts of Fiji, New Caledonia, and Vanuatu.

Actual amplitudes at the coast may vary from forecast amplitudes due to uncertainties in the forecast and local features. In particular maximum tsunami amplitudes on atolls and at locations with fringing or barrier reefs will likely be much smaller than the forecast indicates.

https://endtimeheadlines.org

Socialist takeovers always progress to the food shortage stage sooner or later. Remember reading in horror about how Venezuelans were gobbling up their zoo animals in an effort to remain alive? Seems like it was only yesterday. But since horsemen Pestilence and War have already galloped through, I guess Famine can’t be far behind.

Last fall, I wrote about a conversation I had with an escapee from a late-stage socialist country south of our border:

“Are you ready for the [something in Spanish]?” another socialism escapee asked me the other day.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“The great hunger,” he replied.

I asked him how he knew that was coming, and he said he had seen the same process unfurl decades earlier in his homeland.

Earlier today, the hapless president of the United States emerged from one of his NATO huddles to answer questions from the reporters he had been instructed to call upon, as per his SOP. One of them brought up the potential for food shortages, and Biden’s answer was serious bad-feeling-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach material:

“With regard to food shortages, yes, we did [random sounds] talk about food shortages. And, uh, and it’s gonna be real. The price of these sanctions is not just imposed upon Russia, it’s imposed upon an awful lot of countries as well, including European countries and our country as well.”

Last I heard, sanctions were supposed to be a weapon one wields against one’s enemies. If you’re imposing sanctions and hurting yourself and your allies, you’re doing it wrong.

https://pjmedia.com

Teo Blašković – March 16, 2022

A major earthquake registered by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) as M7.4 hit near the coast of Fukushima Prefecture at 14:36 UTC (23:36 JTC) on March 16, 2022. The agency is reporting a depth of 60 km (37 miles). USGS is reporting M7.3 at a depth of 33 km (20 miles), EMSC M7.2 at a depth of 80 km (49 miles). The quake was preceded by M6.4 at 14:34 UTC at a depth of 56 km (35 miles).

The epicenter was located about 66 km (41 miles) ENE of Namie (population 21 866), Fukushima and 96 km (59 miles) SE of Sendai (population 1 063 103), Miyagi, Japan.

There are about 1.8 million people living within 100 km (62 miles).

JMA has issued a Tsunami Advisory for the Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures, with waves up to 1 m (3.3 feet) expected. A Tsunami Forecast is in effect for most of Japan’s eastern coastal areas.

2 046 000 people are estimated to have felt very strong shaking, 3 200 000 strong and 7 379 000 moderate.

The USGS issued a Green alert for shaking-related fatalities. There is a low likelihood of casualties.

A Yellow alert was issued for economic losses. Some damage is possible and the impact should be relatively localized. Estimated economic losses are less than 1% of GDP of Japan. Past events with this alert level have required a local or regional level response.

Overall, the population in this region resides in structures that are resistant to earthquake shaking, though vulnerable structures exist. The predominant vulnerable building types are heavy wood frame and reinforced/confined masonry construction.

Recent earthquakes in this area have caused secondary hazards such as tsunamis, landslides and fires that might have contributed to losses.

Updates

The earthquake has left 4 people dead and more than 160 injured. (Mainichi)

The quake caused power outages in northeastern and eastern Japan, affecting a total of more than 2.2 million households, including some 700 000 in Tokyo. Power was later restored to most of the affected citizens.

The country’s nuclear regulator said data show no abnormalities with reactors and facilities at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, although the cooling system for the spent fuel pools at the No. 2 and No. 5 reactors temporarily stopped. Cooling systems for spent fuel pools at the Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant and the Onagawa nuclear plant in Miyagi were also affected before recovering.

A Tohoku Shinkansen bullet train derailed between Fukushima Station and Shiroishizao Station, but all 78 passengers and crew members aboard were unharmed, according to East Japan Railway Co.

Relatively small tsunami waves were observed at Ishinomaki port in Miyagi and other locations.

https://watchers.news