View source for Drought—Lethal Accelerant

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Among the causes of famine is drought.  Perhaps none is larger. Without water, crops languish and food production  grinds to a halt.<br>
While the nations of the West have not  experienced the plague of drought in life-threatening levels in recent years,  this longstanding accelerant to famine will re-emerge.  Extreme—devastating!—drought is long overdue. More than just a fact of science,  God actually&nbsp;<em>promises</em>&nbsp;such drought among His many forms of  punishment. Let&rsquo;s read: &ldquo;I will break the pride of your power; and I will make  your heaven as&nbsp;<em>iron</em>, and your earth as&nbsp;<em>brass</em>&rdquo; (Lev.  26:19).<br>
Understand. &ldquo;Iron&rdquo; heavens produce no  rain, and &ldquo;brass&rdquo; earth is the result. I know. I have dug many postholes in  severely drought-hardened ground where even a power auger would not penetrate  the earth with my full weight on it—and I am a big man.<br>
Amos 4:9&nbsp;adds this: &ldquo;I [God] have smitten  you with&nbsp;<em>blasting</em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>mildew</em>: [and also] when your  gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased,  the palmerworm<em> devoured them</em>: yet have you not returned unto Me, says  the&nbsp;Lord.&rdquo; Notice that  blasting (hot, dry winds) and mildew (too much rain) are both mentioned. These  opposite extremes produce the same thing—low crop yield and famine. So do worms  eating plants.<br>
The impact of drought in just the  twentieth century—only part of the run-up to&nbsp;<em>awful</em>&nbsp;droughts  soon to canvas the earth—is important to contemplate. 1930s America saw a near 10-year drought with effects  reaching across a staggering 65 percent of the United States. During this same  time, drought in China  claimed 5 million people—just in 1936! Consider a single day during this  decade-long period: On April 14, 1935, referred to as &ldquo;Black Sunday,&rdquo; a massive  dust storm more than 8,000   feet high engulfed the entire lower Midwestern United  States—from Kansas to Texas—with winds exceeding 70 mph.<br>
Such storms accompanying drought can  produce mile-high &ldquo;black blizzards,&rdquo; which are truly terrifying to behold. The  debris and silica particles in the air stirred up by these storms—invariably inhaled  by human beings—can cause several serious lung diseases.<br>
Pollution, overwatering, misuse of the  land and&nbsp;sin&nbsp;will give  rise to catastrophe of epic proportion. Drought—paling America&rsquo;s &ldquo;Dust  Bowl&rdquo; years into near insignificance—lies just over the horizon!<br>
God says this, not I.<br>
  
<strong>Global Water Shortage</strong><br>
Everything in this chapter so far has  spoken to lack of food. But water shortages of colossal proportion are also on  the way. Crumbling water systems in Western nations, coupled with global  pollution and increasing drought, will lead to widespread&nbsp;<em>thirst</em>&nbsp;alongside  hunger.<br>
Understand that just&nbsp;<em>2.5  percent</em>&nbsp;of the earth&rsquo;s water is fresh. Only 20 percent of&nbsp;<em>this</em>&nbsp;(or  0.5 percent!) is accessible ground or surface water. Current population needs  consume over half of this available water. By 2025, water use is expected to  rise by 50 percent in developing countries, and 18 percent in other areas. As  the earth grows by 77 million people per year, an additional amount of water  equivalent to the mighty Rhine   River is required&nbsp;<em>each  year</em>.<br>
Also, developing countries dump up to  90-95 percent of their sewage, untreated, and 70 percent of all industrial  waste into surface waters. Population growth guarantees this problem will&nbsp;<em>only  grow worse</em>. In addition, chemical runoff from fertilizers, pesticides, and  acid rain sufficiently ruin water quality to make it unusable. Some experts  predict the world will also&nbsp;<em>completely</em>&nbsp;run out of usable  drinking water by 2050.<br>
Trends indicate that most of the world  will soon be thirsty. Water wars have already long been the subject of various  legal fights between states and countries. This will grow&nbsp;<em>much</em>&nbsp;worse!<br>
<strong>First World</strong><strong> Food Supplies</strong><br>
To increase profit margins,  industrialized nations have made food delivery into a science. Grocery stores  and many restaurants rely on &ldquo;just in time&rdquo; delivery, meaning they keep a low  stock on hand and rely on regular shipments of products. If these shipments are  delayed—even by just a few days—the shelves empty out. In turn, the customer  must go without.<br>
This principle was seen in living color  when ash from an Icelandic volcano hung over Europe,  causing a continent-wide flight ban in April 2010. On top of air travelers  being stranded, there was another troubling problem.<br>
During that time, the&nbsp;<em>Guardian</em>&nbsp;reported,  &ldquo;Britain&rsquo;s supermarkets  could soon run short of perishable goods including exotic fruits and Kenyan  roses as the ongoing ban on UK  air travel brought Britain&rsquo;s  largest perishable air freight handling centre to a standstill…&rdquo;<br>
Realize that this airline disruption  lasted just under a week. What if it continued?<br>
Many First World  nations are consistently producing and exporting less grains and vegetables,  while they are increasing imports of such products. This leaves them wide open  to massive food shortage if their suppliers fail to deliver.<br>
For example, the United Kingdom  imports about&nbsp;<em>90</em>&nbsp;percent of its fruit and&nbsp;<em>60</em>percent  of its vegetables. Their fresh produce comes from all across the globe:  broccoli and strawberries from Spain,  apples from the United States,  grapes from Egypt, carrots  from South Africa, tomatoes  from Saudi Arabia, asparagus  from Peru, bananas from India, but also meat such as lamb from New Zealand.<br>
For potatoes, England mostly looks to Israel. The  British Potato Council reports that the UK imports over 385,000 tons of  potatoes per year (<em>Guardian</em>).<br>
Where would Britain be without regular  shipments of fresh food? And this is just<em> one</em>&nbsp;wealthy nation—there  are many others in the same position, some much larger.<br>
Famine in just one part of the world, whether the  Middle East, Africa, South America or elsewhere, can automatically mean  shortages in many First World nations. The  increasingly interconnected global economy means an increasingly<em> fragile</em>&nbsp;food  supply. This fragility will become more obvious with each passing &ldquo;incident.&rdquo;<br>

<strong>Growing Global Crisis</strong><br>
Famine has been steadily spreading and  worsening for years. Recently, the worst contributing factor has been the  continued international financial downturn. Wealthy nations are no longer able  to support impoverished peoples financially.<br>
After the 2008 Cyclone Nargis disaster  in Myanmar,  the Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator at the time, Henrietta Holsman Fore,  said, &ldquo;We are in the midst of a global food crisis unlike other food crises we  have faced, one not caused simply by natural disasters, conflict or any single  event such as drought. It is not localized—but pervasive and widespread,  affecting the poor in developing nations around the world.&rdquo;<br>
Understand. The&nbsp;<em>financial</em>&nbsp;crisis  has brought us to the brink of pervasive, widespread<em>famine</em>!<br>
The World Food Programme, also in 2008,  said global increases in food prices were creating &ldquo;the biggest challenge&rdquo; it  has faced in the organization&rsquo;s 45-year history—what the organization termed &ldquo;a  silent tsunami threatening to plunge more than 100 million people on every  continent into hunger.&rdquo;<br>
Ms. Fore pointed out that the international food price  index rose 43 percent in 2007, immediately affecting the world&rsquo;s poor. &ldquo;For the  poorest one billion, living on just a dollar per day, very high food prices  mean stark choices between taking a sick child to the clinic, paying school  fees, or putting food on the table.&rdquo;<br>
USAID estimates that of the world  population one billion people subsist on less than a dollar per day. Of these,  162 million live on less than a tiny 50 cents per day. These households are  generally spending 50 to 60 percent of their income on food, compared to less  than one-fifth in nations such as the United States.<br>
Remember what is coming: &ldquo;A measure of  wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny&rdquo; (Rev.  6:6).<br>
Meeting with the British government in  April 2008, WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran  described the millions now priced out of the food market as &ldquo;the new face of  hunger.&rdquo; Price increases from the global economic collapse have left millions  in urban areas around the world hungry, unable to afford the rising cost of  groceries.<br>
As the economic crisis worsened, the  World Food Programme announced a $500 million deficit in its budget in February  2008, and urged wealthy nations to increase contributions. Two months later, Ms. Sheeran  announced that the gap had risen to $755 million. At that time, she said the  WFP was &ldquo;putting out an urgent appeal for the world to help us meet not only  our base budget to meet the accessed needs of people from Darfur to Uganda to Haiti and beyond, but also to meet  this gap.&rdquo;<br>
In July of 2009, the situation grew  even more dire. Ms. Sheeran said that the WFP&rsquo;s &ldquo;assessed  approved needs&rdquo; were $6.7 billion for the year. After discussions with  governments, the agency received only $3.7 billion in donations—a $3 billion  budget deficit!<br>
Clearly, this&nbsp;<em>is</em>&nbsp;a  &ldquo;crisis unlike other food crises.&rdquo; Something on this scale&nbsp;<em>has</em>&nbsp;never  been seen before. This is the makings of&nbsp;<em>global</em>&nbsp;famine!<br>
For now, though, it seems there is only  one solution—throw money at the problem. Yet this is money that  governments—ever more frequently—<em>no longer have</em>.<br>
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