"If you see me, weep"

The water levels in the rivers have substantially decreased as Europe's drought worsens, exposing ominous warning signs from centuries ago.

Aitor Hernández-Morales, a journalist for Politico, posted images of the hunger stones on his Twitter account. The stones bearing the inscription "Wenn du mich seehst, dann weine" are visible in the photograph due to the Elbe River's low water levels, which originate in the Czech Republic and flow through Germany to the North Sea. It means "If you see me, weep" when translated.

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A Horrifying Drought Is Causing Widespread Crop Failures Throughout The US And Europe

What's headed our way will not be good.

a reply to: loam

It does appear that very dire times are heading our way. I hope that something happens to change the course. We might not even have bugs to eat if the droughts go on for too much longer.

a reply to: tamusan

Where I live, we didn't have rain for over eight weeks. All the grass is burned up. There are often heavy rain clouds but it just does not rain. Yesterday I hoped it would finally rain. This morning, all I got was a dirt windshields from a few single drops mixed with pollen and dust.

It's frustrating, as nice as this summer is with the purple evenings and sunsets, we direly need rain. Even the deep rooting leaf trees now look very bad. Hopefully we get some this week. But the earth is so dry, it will just run off instead of sinking in. Hopefully not on Saturday though, because I want to go camping with my girlfriend.

Normally in my swamp the water table is a mere 3 feet down and it makes things like digging post holes a pain. Right now in August, we would be drying out, but we've gone through a hot dry period already. Like TDDAgain stated, the lawns around here, my own included, were turning brown early, like late August dog days starting in late June. Everywhere the lawns turned brown, what I call a California lawn.

We had a big rainstorm last Saturday, a gully wash as I like to say, but the swamp is so dry, it sucked it up in a couple of days. The small creek got flowing as it does given a inch or two of rain, but not for long. The hops I'm growing is stunted and sickly looking even though I watered it during the dried periods this season. It needs plenty of water, not usually a problem in my swamp, but it suffered terribly this season.

The large river nearby isn't really an indicator because of the dams that regulate the level, however, if it got dry enough I'm sure it could get low. But I'm certain based on the conditions in my swamp that is part of the water shed that it has to be getting less water than usual.

Draining a worldwide swamp will come with negative side effects...

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

The continental United States is surrounded on (almost) three sides by water.

Why are we not building desalination plants all over the place with infrastructure to deliver it where it is needed in the interior?

Environmental extremists.

Just one example is the one that was proposed near Costa Mesa, California which would have provided drinking water for approximately half a million people per day (or water that could be used for agriculture).

The environmentalists claim it would have harmed marine life but I haven’t found a clear description of exactly what that damage would be. They also said that this plant would be useless because soon “water recycling” would soon be here.

There is no shortage of water, despite lack of rain.

a reply to: eluryh22

I believe the problem is what to do with the salt and other byproducts. I say ship it north to salt road ways in the winter, or they could fill in the old salt mines with it. It seems that if they distill enough sea water, it will bring down the rising sea level and keep from draining the threatened aquifers. What doesn't flow back into the watershed and back into the aquifers will help create more rain and lessen the effects of drought.

a reply to: tamusan

I'm scared to death for my sweet baby Grand daughters.

If we just keep increasing taxes this will fix it.

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

There is always something useful that can be done with the byproducts.

I spent a few years working on a construction project at a wastewater treatment plant. One of the end results of the process of turning raw sewage into clean water was what they called “cake.” Although I don’t remember all the details of how it was extracted, I do remember being intrigued when I learned that it was all shipped down to Florida, where it was used as fertilizer at orange groves.

I’m thinking that the byproducts are actually a selling point for desalination. Creates jobs at the facility and adds peripheral jobs in shipping and creates a few products that can be used elsewhere….. all while solving the clean water problem.

Dont they plan to use salt in batterys ? That way the salt would find new use ?

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

There is always something useful that can be done with the byproducts.

I spent a few years working on a construction project at a wastewater treatment plant. One of the end results of the process of turning raw sewage into clean water was what they called “cake.” Although I don’t remember all the details of how it was extracted, I do remember being intrigued when I learned that it was all shipped down to Florida, where it was used as fertilizer at orange groves.

I’m thinking that the byproducts are actually a selling point for desalination. Creates jobs at the facility and adds peripheral jobs in shipping and creates a few products that can be used elsewhere….. all while solving the clean water problem.

originally posted by: eluryh22
a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

The continental United States is surrounded on (almost) three sides by water.

Why are we not building desalination plants all over the place with infrastructure to deliver it where it is needed in the interior?

Environmental extremists.

Just one example is the one that was proposed near Costa Mesa, California which would have provided drinking water for approximately half a million people per day (or water that could be used for agriculture).

The environmentalists claim it would have harmed marine life but I haven’t found a clear description of exactly what that damage would be. They also said that this plant would be useless because soon “water recycling” would soon be here.

There is no shortage of water, despite lack of rain.

I've heard that and that the swarf can't possibly be responsibly disposed of.

If you or any onlookers happen to have some fact to this supposition, I'd greatly appreciate it.

I'm thinking much less conspiracy and much more red tape as well.