‘Britain Running Out of Wheat’

Unseasonably cold spring severely affecting Britain’s wheat and vegetable crops

“The last 12 months have been unreal for farmers. Last April we had a drought and talk of a hosepipe ban, then we had to contend with heavy rains and flooding and then the wintery weather, frozen land and snow,” the National Farmers Union (NFU) said.

UK temperatures over the past week fell to among the coldest experienced in April for nearly 100 years, with maximum temperatures barely above the freezing in many parts of the southeast, according to local reports.

At -11.2ºC (11.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the village of Braemar in Scotland, about 90 km west of Aberdeen, on Tuesday, held the joint coldest April weather anywhere in the UK for nearly a century.

The unseasonably cold spring is severely affecting Britain’s wheat and vegetable crops.

“A disastrous 12-month cycle of poor weather has ruined harvests across the UK, costing farmers an estimated £500m, the chief economist of the National Farmers Union (NFU) warned,” said a report.

“The crop damage deals a further blow to Britain’s beleaguered farming industry, which is already reeling from a spate of recent livestock deaths due to the cold weather. To make matters worse, the weather has made planting new crops more difficult and damaged many of the seeds that have been sown in recent weeks.” The report said.

UK is expected to import about 1.5m tons more wheat than it exports this “crop year,” from July 2012 to June 2013, which compares to net exports of 1.6m tons last crop year and 2.2m tons 4 years ago, the report quoted the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) as saying.

Potato plantings are also down from  30,000 hectare this time last year to just 4,000 hectares, as of March end 2013.

The cold weather has also led to a heightened demand for gas, pushing the wholesale price much higher and forcing the government to source emergency deliveries of liquified gas from Qatar.

Related News Links

• Exclusive:  Britain running out of wheat as cold weather crisis hits farmers

FIRE-EARTH Links to Related Entries

• ‘Catastrophic Losses’ of Animals Feared due to UK Spring Snow March 26, 2013
• Britain: Blizzards, 100 Flood Warnings and a Deadly Landslide March 23, 2013
• United Kingdom: Britain could run out of gas in 36 hours March 22, 2013

• How Homo Ignarus Killed Spring

Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines – 6 April 2013

Fukushima Nuke Plant Leaking Large Quantities of Radioactive Water

Up to 120 tons of radioactive water may have leaked from one of the seven underground storage tanks at Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, contaminating the surrounding ground, Tokyo Electric Power Co was reported as saying.

The storage tanks hold about 13,000 cubic meters of contaminated water, which  TEPCO is transferring to other tanks nearby, Kyodo news wire quoted the utility as saying.

Third large oil spill in 7 days: Shell Pipeline ruptures in Texas

Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from Shell Pipeline in West Columbia, Texas, the third incident of the kind in a week, said a report.

Manatee death toll rising in Florida despite Red Tide ebbing

Red Tide, a deadly algae bloom, has killed at least 241 manatees in Florida so far this year, surpassing the previous record of 151 deaths set in 1996.

The recent Red Tide bloom in the Gulf of Mexico began in September 2012  covering a 70-mile (113-km) stretch of southwest Florida’s coast from Sarasota County to Lee County, which is  home to a large population of the state’s estimated 5,000 manatees, said a report.

Karenia brevis. Photo:  FFWCC

Meanwhile, deaths of 85 manatees since July on Florida’s Atlantic coast remain a mystery. The mass die-off occurred  in the Indian River Lagoon, Brevard County.

• Red Tide Kills Millions of Fish Along Texas Coast

Mount Karangetang: A Mountain of Fire

Lava spewes from the top of Mount Karangetang. Photo: AFP. Image may be subject to copyright.

• One of the most active volcanoes in Indonesia, Karangetang, aka, Api Siau, is a located on the northern part of Siau Island.
• Karangetang was one of the three volcanoes that erupted after the The Great East Japan Earthquake struck on March 11, 2011.

Frozen Britain

UK temperatures over the past week fell to among the coldest experienced in April for nearly 100 years, with maximum temperatures barely above the freezing in many parts of the southeast, reports said.

At -11.2ºC (11.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the village of Braemar in Scotland, about 90 km west of Aberdeen, held the joint coldest weather anywhere in the UK in April for nearly a century.

US Weather: Snow Impacting the Upper Midwest and Northern Great Lakes

‘A storm system moving through the Upper Midwest will bring a round of late-season winter weather to parts of the northern Great Lakes region on Saturday. The heaviest snow will fall from northeastern Minnesota through northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These areas could see up to 6 inches of snow.’ NOAA reported.

• How Homo Ignarus Killed Spring

Previous Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines

• Global Disasters/ Significant Events Headlines – 2 April 2013

Tens of Thousands Flee Homes amid Fighting in Myanmar

At least 1.7 million people in Myanmar are stateless or internally displaced

At least 83,000 people, mostly women and children, have recently fled their homes as fighting intensifies in Kachin state, Myanmar.

The Burmese military forces have launched a new offensive against ethnic Kachin troops, Kachin Independence Army, (KIA) near the border town of Laiza, said a UN report.

Clashes between Myanmar troops and ethnic Kachin and Shan armed groups resumed in June 2011 and have since forced more than 83,000 people, mostly women and children, to flee their homes, funneling into some 45 camps and settlements.

Lack of access to clean water in cramp unsanitary camping conditions has resulted in deaths.

About 3 percent of Myanmar’s 60 million population of are stateless, including at least 800,000 residents in Rakhine State.

“Rakhine State has seen two convulsions of large-scale inter-communal violence, in June and October of 2012, which have resulted in the displacement of mo

re than 110,000 persons, including large numbers of stateless persons.” UNHCR said.

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DISASTER CALENDAR – April 6, 2013 — 
SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,071 Days Left 

Mass die-offs resulting from human impact and the planetary response to the anthropogenic assault could occur by early 2016.

• SYMBOLIC COUNTDOWN: 1,071 Days Left to ‘Worst Day’ in the brief Human  History
• The countdown began on May 15, 2011 …

GLOBAL WARNINGS

• WARNING: Human impact 2.85 x Earth’s diminishing carrying capacity
• WARNING: RAPID PLANETARY DECLINE IN PROGRESS!
• Europe: The First Phase of Collapse Has Started 
• United States: The First Phase of Collapse Has Begun

Global Disasters: Links, Forecasts and Background

• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Back to the Primordial Future
• The Fate of Energy Dinosaurs
• Mass Die-offs