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U.S. Drought Worsens
Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman recently reported on the U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest numbers, which reveal that “all categories of drought increased across the country between Nov. 20-27, with the largest increase occurring in an area from Alabama northeastward to Virginia.” Freedman also reports on a recent statement by Deutsche Bank Securities’ chief U.S. economist, Joseph LaVorgna, who predicted that “the drought will be responsible for a 0.5 to 1 percent drop in U.S. gross domestic product this year, a significant drop considering the relatively slow pace of growth throughout the year.”
Also, as we have written previously, the drought may have worrying security implications for other countries that are tied to the U.S. through the global food market. And given that a number of these countries have themselves experienced major droughts recently (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Spain, Argentina), this prolonged U.S. drought could have serious global consequences.
Climate Change in Russia Affecting U.S. Consumers (and vice-versa)
Russia Beyond the Headlines just ran a piece on Russia’s declining grain harvest (which resulted from drought in recent years), and how that might be affecting food prices in the United States, highlighting that in the U.S. this year “prices for No. 1 Hard Red Winter wheat soared from $270 per bushel in May to $340 in early September.”
But the relationship is reciprocal: (more…)
Russia’s Arctic Long Game
The CBC recently published a piece on Russia’s long interest in the Arctic, which is growing day by day as ice melts, and both land and sea energy resources are exposed. Unlike the more recent interest in the Arctic from other international powers, such as China, Russia has been at it for a while now, beginning under Joseph Stalin, who used the brutal gulag system to spur development of the country’s Arctic north. According to Wilson Rowe of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs in Oslo, “Russia’s policy goal is for the Arctic to become its primary resource base by 2020.”
Worth a read.
Russia, Kyrgyzstan and Climate Change
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a deal with Kyrgyzstan that would extend Russia’s military influence in the country, as well as its influence over Kyrgyzstan’s water and energy resources. According to OOSKA News: (more…)