• logmathr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In the Netherlands this is almost completely caused by farmers (that are overrepresented in the water boards) which keep the groundwater level low for better yields. This obviously backfires during the summer when the levels get too low.

    • klangcola@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Genuine question: Is that good or bad? What kind of farmers? Food or tulips? Humans gotta eat, and I thought Netherlands produces a lot of Europe’s agricultural output

      • MercuryUprising@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Farmers as being described here are not some podunk hillbillies living off the land. These are massive corporate entities who have cannibalized their competition over the last 60 years. They don’t toil in the fields, their hordes of underpaid Southeast Asian and African immigrants do that for them, while they drive around in Land Rovers.

        This is not something done out of necessity, this is done out of keeping their profit margins as high as possible.

        • PopcornChickn@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Im just going to step up and point out that I am not a podunk hillbilly living off the land. I am a well educated human being that left the city during the pandemic to keep all my food as local as possible (read: from my yard or my neighbors). I also sell at a farmstand on my own property, as well as donate to food pantries in my current area, the pantry for the neighborhood that raised me which is a food desert, and to my religiously affiliated (not a christian by any stretch, by the way) pantry.

          That said, I am not a European and maybe you have farmers/homesteaders out there that are like that-- but I kindly request you do not lump all of us into such a shit category.

          It’s not nice to make assumptions about a large group of people-- history has taught us that time and time again.

          On the massive corporate farms, however… no matter where-- you’re 100% correct.

          • Kaldo@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Unless you are “intentionally keeping the land dry for better yields and easier access with heavy machinery” or have “hordes of underpaid immigrants working for you” I don’t think you should feel called our or lumped together with them in this characterization 😋

          • MercuryUprising@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, but I specifically mentioned “farmers as being described here.” I’m obviously not referring to small farmers, but corporate entities. I was pretty explicit about that I’d say.

      • Zoutpeper@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not even for better yield, it’s for better access with heavy machinery And the Netherlands exports too much as this water issue is one of a few ways in which our agriculture intensity is harming the long term health of nature and the fertility of the land itself

            • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              So the farmers reduce the water table so the country isn’t muddy?

              How is that bad for everyone else, for the country to not be all muddy?

              I dunno. Where I’ve always lived, ground that’s too muddy to drive on is a rare event, not a continual state that can only be alleviated by lowering the water table. If I lived in a place where you couldn’t drive on the ground because it was too muddy, I’d be all for lowering the water table to get some firm ground.

              But I’m much more of a green than a red in that sense.

              • jaykstah@waveform.social
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                1 year ago

                So the farmers reduce the water table so the country isn’t muddy?

                No, it’s so the are they’re farming on isn’t too muddy for the heavy machinery. They’re not talking about the areas peope are normally driving on.

                But the water table being lower than the rainfall means there’s a drought and things are getting too dry. That’s not good for anybody. It harms the very ecosystem they’re trying to farm in.

                • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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                  1 year ago

                  Like they’re pumping it out to keep it down already, but now there’s a drought and it got too low anyway? Or like the farmers are optimizing the water table for themselves, but that’s lower than optimal for the cities’ water needs? Or do you mean like there’s a drought being manufactured not by low rainfall but by reducing the water table?

                  Can you recommend any good articles on this?

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Hey culture request for the new site: can we stop saying “genuine question” and just make a culture where that’s the assumed intention of questions?

        • NuPNuA@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That’s never going to work with my natural inclination for British sarcastic rhetoric is it?

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Do you mean they get some direct yield benefit from a low water table, or that they water their crops a lot for high yield, and that results in the low water table?

  • PopcornChickn@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Maaan, at this point I think we’d be lucky to get to 2030 without some globally catastrophic weather event.

      • Firipu@startrek.website
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        1 year ago

        I’m surrounded by middle aged blonde soccer moms and white dads that peaked in high school. They’re ideal targets for Bill Gates, being the prime human specimens they are. Ofcourse we get micro drones.

    • MercuryUprising@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hey now, we can still joke around about climate change being fake, but we shouldn’t start pretending that Bill Gates isn’t a total piece of shit.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      No no global warming is real.

      The ploy here is pretending that nuclear isn’t the obvious solution, so Bill Gates can inject us with 5g nanobots.

  • Kaldo@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Last summer was hellish and droughts were everywhere, it seems like this summer is gonna get just as rough if not worse >.>

    • scottlowe@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This summer in Missouri is terrible. We’ve had some light rain here and there, but only for a few minutes that a time and it’s been that way for months. Dry as a bone here. Chances of rain constantly and most of it never materializes.

  • WhatUpFlava@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well yea he far right and idiot farmers refuse to use modern or sane practices, leading to an 100% self inflicted crisis we all get to pay for.

  • Lantech@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    For the month of June, Portland Maine had two days without rain. And so far, in July it’s rained every day. We’re so sick of rain here.