Climate change is real, and the current status of the Mississippi River is proving it every day. Farmers have always been dependent on the Mississippi River for exporting 60 percent of the country’s grain exports. However, the low water levels are frightening not only the farmers who will not experience rain until January but also the climate change advocates.
Butler Miller the company Robert B. Muller and Associates stated, “It’s never been this bad in my career,” “The last time the river levels were this low was in the 1980s. Rain is really the only thing that will fix it.”
The concern regarding the drastic change is impacting the entire nation. But why is the Mississippi river drying up? The real reason behind this historic change is right here.
Why is the Mississippi River Drying Up?
The biggest change that indicates that climate change is happening at a faster speed is the recent incident on the Mississippi River. Droughts are common but are really normal to such an extent. To be honest, the historically low water levels reveal something else. When the water level of the Mississippi River reached minus-10.75 feet in Memphis, Tennessee, the climate change activists had a lot to worry about. The nation’s ongoing drought is still continuing that mainly resulted in the Mississippi River drying up. The entire region did not experience rain for weeks now and the forecast of rain isn’t showing any possibility until January 2023.
This has added pressure on the United States because the Mississippi River dried up and Ukraine’s grain supply is also paused amidst the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war.
The United States has never struggled with such a huge shortage because such a critical situation never happened before this year. As a matter of fact, the Mississippi River is considered to be a vital waterway. The last critical drought that resulted in the drop of water levels to “their previous record low” was back in 1988. It continued for almost two years and led to $2 billion in damages. Until now, the 1988 event was the longest-lasting flood but the U.S. Geological Survey has something else to say about the recent occurrence of drought in the Mississippi River. It states that climate change is leading to extreme weather events which are further leading to droughts and floods.
As per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ongoing drought will be continuing till January and the farmers are highly affected due to this.
Adam Thomas a farmer from southern Illinois said, “I’ve never been in a harvest where I was hoping for a hurricane. But this year, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings”.
So, matters have worsened to this level and the farmers are hoping for a hurricane to fix the drought issues. Moreover, over 50 cities are dependent on the water of the Mississippi River for drinking purposes. Thus, the issue of the Mississippi River drying up is going to massively impact the citizens.
Objects are Being Uncovered After Mississippi River Dries Up
When a 270-mile-long river contracts, you can expect to discover eerie and uncanny things. Hundreds of ships and vessels are already stranded hoping to find a way to reach their destination. But there were even numerous findings from the past that the people were not ready to see. Due to the low water level, a resident of Patrick Ford found the remains of Brookhill which was a trading vessel wrecked back in the 20th Century. The residents said, “I immediately texted friends and was like, ‘holy moly, I think I found a ship, a sunken ship!’”
On further investigating, Louisiana state archaeologist Chip McGimsey claimed, “We believe this is a ship that was manufactured in 1896 in Indiana for trade here”.
Crystal Foster went on looking for rocks and found human remains in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The remains consisted of rib bones, lower jawbone, and even several bone pieces that couldn’t be identified. People are constantly finding new things as the level of Mississippi water is dropping.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has decided to release water from two more dams since the status is slowly proceeding to become the “lowest river level since 1901”. On the Facebook page, it updated, “To help stabilize commercial navigation conditions on the lower Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, we are scheduling special water releases from Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee River and Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River to help low river level impacts”.
Almost 134 million are drastically affected due to the unexpected severe drought conditions. But the only solution is heavy rain and hopefully, everything will be fine. We pray that the affected areas recover from the drought soon enough.
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