A year of heavy rains has devastated New Zealand’s potatoes, destroying one-third of the crop in some areas, The Guardian. reports. I blame the sunspot cycle.
The Guardian begins its story by making light of the crisis, calling it a ‘chipocalypse’, a ‘potatogeddon.’
But with rainfall having wiped out up to a third of New Zealand’s annual potato crop in some areas, this could be more serious than anyone realizes.
Last year’s crops either rotted in the ground due to the heavy rains or remained unharvested because of the torrential downpours caused by “climate change,” says The Guardian.
Now next year’s crop is also at risk, because the ground is too wet for planting.
“Potato farmers have been severely impacted,” said Chris Claridge, chief executive of Potatoes New Zealand. “If they can’t harvest and process, they are not getting their income so there is that monetary impact. It is also quite distressing to be digging up rotting potatoes.”
Was this crisis caused by “climate change” as The Guardian asserts?
Not if “climate change” means it was caused by humans.
Instead, I think we’re headed into a little ice age, triggered by the sunspot cycle.
Right now, we are going through a period of low sunspot activity similar to the Dalton Minimum.
The Dalton Minimum, a period of low solar activity named after English meteorologist John Dalton, lasted from about 1790 to 1830. It, too, was a time of devastating crop failures.
Remember the Irish Potato Famine? That’s when potato blight, which is most common in wet weather, destroyed at least one-third of the potato crop across Ireland. The potatoes turned into inedible soggy, foul-smelling masses.
During the ensuing famine, about one million people died of starvation and a million more emigrated from Ireland. (My great grandparents on my mother’s side were two of the lucky ones: They emigrated to Canada.)
The worst of the “Great Famine” took place from about 1845 to 1852. However, what is often not noted is that conditions for famine had been in the making for years and were exacerbated during the Dalton Minimum.
According to Wikipedia, the potato crop failed in two Irish counties in 1821 and 1822, then in three other counties in 1830 and 1831. Dry rot and curl caused serious losses in 1832, 1833, 1834, and 1836, and in 1835 the potato crop failed in Ulster. Widespread crop failures throughout Ireland occurred in 1836, 1837, 1839, 1841, and 1844.
Let’s hope upon hope that we never face such a crisis again. Let’s hope that my fears of fighting in the streets for food never come to pass.
Thanks to David Grissim for this link