Mississippi on the Brink of Total Shut Down - But GOP Denies Climate Change

One only need look around at the weather this summer to realize that something is happening: record heat and record drought, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns.  Yet the far right and its political whores in the Republican Party continue to deny that global warming is happening.  Calling such folk as ignorant cretins is perhaps being kind since their denial goes beyond merely being inherently ignorant.  They are choosing ignorance.  Some due to religious based insanity and others - especially in the GOP - due to shameless pandering with no concern for the consequences.  What's happening to the Mississippi River - which is in some places 20 feet below normal - is but another example of objective reality being rejected in favor of ideology and partisanship.  Here are some highlights:

America’s record-breaking drought is drying up the Mississippi River, which is vital for commercial travel. If the country’s largest river system continues to rapidly shrink, all river traffic could get shut down and cost the US $300 million a day.

The Mississippi, which has become thin and narrow, is used for cargo vessels to transport goods. In the US, 60 percent of grain, 22 percent of oil and natural gas and 20 percent of coal travels down the river.  But its reduced size and now-shallow waters are forcing barges to either stop running or reduce the weight of the goods they carry – leading to longer waits for those products in grocery stores. Some areas of the river have dropped 20 feet below normal – and the drop is expected to continue.

“A lot of those barges have had to lighten their loads, and even doing that, they are still running aground. There is a real fear that there could be a possibility of closing the Mississippi River,” said CNN correspondent Martin Savidge. “If that happens, well, all that product that used to be carried cheaply by barge is now going to be carried more expensively by truck or train. And guess who is going to pay for all that.”

If the Mississippi River is closed to all water traffic, goods like grain, oil, natural gas and coal will need to be transported by truck or train – costing the US an additional $300 million a day.

[M]illions of fish are dying as the bottom of the river transforms into an exposed desert. The river flows into lakes and streams across the US, carrying the devastation to all corners of the Midwest. About 40,000 shovelnose sturgeon fish were killed in Iowa in one week as water temperatures reached 97 degrees. In Illinois, fish carcasses clogged an intake screen near a power plant, causing it to shut down one of its generators.

Frankly, I am waiting for Pat Robertson and the other lunatics of the Christofascist crowd to blame all of this on gays and gay marriage - oh, and abortion and a rejection of Jesus, even though they themselves make a mockery of the Gospel message.