BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label farmers. Show all posts
02 January 2026
13 June 2025
MOTHER JONES DAILY: Who’s the Businessman Who Set Up the New Private Trump Club in DC?, Sen. Padilla pushed to ground, handcuffed for demanding DHS not lie, Did Trump just reverse his core policy in a half-assed post?, SCOTUS's conservative majority delivers a pro–disability rights ruling, How voting groups are preparing for all eyes on Virginia, The Supreme Court is making an all-powerful president—but the one we have isn't all that interested in the job 12JUN25
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23 January 2013
The Deadliest Jobs In America, In One Graphic 23JAN13
INTERESTING....
For more from Planet Money, see What America Does For Work
Here's a look at the rate of work-related, on-the-job deaths in 2011 for U.S. workers. We included the three deadliest occupations, along with a handful of other jobs. (Here's thecomplete list, which comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
The number of fishermen who die on the job has gone down by nearly half since 2009. But fishing is still the deadliest job in the U.S. Most fisherman who die on the job die from drowning, typically after their boat capsizes, according to Jill Janocha of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.(Related: Trying To Tame The (Real) Deadliest Fishing Jobs.)
Loggers who die on the job are most often hit by a falling tree or are killed by an out of control machine.
Farmers and ranchers are most often killed on the job in accidents in tractors and other vehicles.
Most pilots who die on the job are flying propeller-driven planes, according to Stephen Pegula of the BLS. So the typical pilot killed in the line of duty is someone flying a crop duster, not a commercial jet.
Firefighters are less likely to die on the job than the average U.S. worker. That may be because we're seeing fewer structure fires and more firefighters are wearing their seat belts, according to the National Fire Protection Agency. Over a third of firefighter deaths from 2011 were due to fires or explosions, but another quarter were because of transportation accidents.
Cashiers rarely die from job-related causes. But when they do, it's almost always due to homicide.
Business and finance staff are among the least likely to die on the job. Nearly half of those who did died from transportation accidents.
28 July 2012
Drought, Blistering Temperatures and Raging Fires: Are We Screwed? 5 Facts You Should Know 27JUL12
A really good article on the drought we, the nation, is experiencing from AlterNet.....
In
2007, as a drought-stricken Georgia watched its drinking water reserves
dwindle, then-governor Sonny Purdue took action -- he organized a prayer service for rain.
In similar fashion in 2011 as fires raged across Texas in one of the
state's worst droughts, Governor Rick Perry designated Easter weekend "official days of prayer for rain," according to the Texas Tribune.
And
now as the country endures fires, drought and record-high temperatures,
our leaders are on bended knee yet again. Earlier this month
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters he was saying an extra prayer
for rain. But the latest science shows that the country's leaders are
going to need a whole lot more than prayer. Vilsack for one, may be
feeling the pressure. A backlash
is growing against the Agriculture Secretary for comments he made in a
recent press conference when asked about whether or not climate change
may be playing a role in this summer's torturous weather.
Vilsack responded:
I'm not a scientist so I'm not going to opine as to the cause of this. All we know is that right now there are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling. And it's important and necessary for them to know, rather than trying to focus on what's causing this, what can we do to help them.
Farmers don't want to know if
there is a potential link between droughts affecting their livelihood
and climate change? I'm pretty sure farmers like to plan ahead and
knowing what may be coming down the road is extremely helpful. And
Vilsack doesn't have to worry about "opining" on climate change, as Brad Johnson points out, the USDA -- the department Vilsack heads -- has a Climate Change Program Office that's staffed with top scientists.
In
case you were worried that our government is not thinking long-term
enough about our problems, Vilsack can reassure you. As he said:
Long term, we obviously are engaged in research projects; we're obviously working with seed companies. Don't discount the capacity of the seed companies. These technologies do make a difference.
On
the off-chance that in fact Monsanto isn't able to save us from the
effects of climate change, we are going to need another strategy because
the news lately has not been good. Bad news is never fun to read, but
putting our heads in the sand on this issue only makes the potential
impacts that much worse. So, here are five facts about the state of our
planet that you should know. If we combine our knowledge with action we
may have a fighting chance.
1. This is a record year for heat. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported
that, "June temperatures contributed to a record-warm first half of the
year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since
recordkeeping began in 1895." As a heatwave scorched the country in
June, thousands of temperature records
were broken in various places. The NCDC said highs of 113 degrees in
South Carolina and 112 degrees in Georgia are under review for all-time
state temperature records.
It wasn't just hot in the U.S., it was the hottest June on record for the Northern Hemisphere
(the third month in a row that has broken the all-time high) and
globally averaged land temperatures were the highest as well. The record
highs are becoming more frequent; so far, NASA has reported that nine of the 10 warmest years on record have all been since 2000.
2. Over half the country is in drought. It's not just severe, it's expansive, and it's being called the worst drought in 50 years. The government's Drought Monitor
map on July 24 had over 53 percent of the country experiencing moderate
or worse drought and 38 percent in severe or worse drought.
"This drought is two-pronged," said climatologist Brian Fuchs,
a U.S. Drought Monitor author. "Not only the dryness but the heat is
playing a big and important role. Even areas that have picked up rain
are still suffering because of the heat."
3. It's a disaster. The
drought has hit Plains states and the Midwest particularly hard,
affecting a large number of the country's farmers. The USDA has declared
1,369 counties in 31 states as disaster areas. Of those, 1,234 were the
result of drought.
Food prices are expected to rise next year as a result. As James West writes for Climate Desk:
One estimate says that the US, the biggest player in the world corn market, could slash world corn supply by 60 billion tons as a result of the drought. Looking further afield, food prices in the US have a big impact not only on prices around the world, but also on the potential for social unrest in developing countries.
4. Greenland has experienced unprecedented melting.
You may not be planning on vacationing in Greenland anytime soon -- but
what happens in the icy country has world-wide implications. NASA reported,
"On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice
sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water
quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is
retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this
year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped
dramatically."
Scientists were stunned to learn that nearly the entirety (97 percent)
of Greenland's ice sheet has shown signs of melting. To be clear, the
whole icesheet has not completely melted into the ocean, but what's been
observed is enough to raise a lot of concern. Seth Borenstein wrote for the AP:
About the same time, a giant iceberg broke off from the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland. And the National Snow and Ice Data Center on Tuesday announced that the area filled with Arctic sea ice continues near a record low.
Wagner and other scientists said because this Greenland-wide melting has happened before they can't yet determine if this is a natural rare event or one triggered by man-made global warming. But they do know that the edges of Greenland's ice sheets have already been thinning because of climate change.
5. Get used to fires -- bigger, hotter, longer fires. As William DeBuys recently wrote for
TomDispatch, "A lethal combination of drought, insect plagues,
windstorms, and legions of dead, dying, or stressed-out trees constitute
what some pundits are calling wildfire's 'perfect storm.'" But DeBuys
cautions that it's not really a "storm" in the sense that it's not
"sudden, violent, and temporary." No, the conditions that are feeding
fire seasons are really what many scientists think will be the "new
normal."
In June alone, the NCDC reported that over 1.3 million acres were burned by wildfires:
By the end of June, wildfire activity exploded across much of the country, with 57 large wildfires burning. Six large fires were burning across the Virginias, North Carolina, and Tennessee, where dry conditions contributed to low 100-hour fuel moistures. Forty five large fires were active in the Intermountain West, from Arizona to Montana.
And it seems fires are on track to get even worse. As DeBuys writes:
Big fires are four times more common than they used to be; the biggest fires are six-and-a-half times larger than the monster fires of yesteryear; and owing to a warmer climate, fires are erupting earlier in the spring and subsiding later in the fall. Nowadays, the fire season is two and a half months longer than it was 30 years ago.
As economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman recently wrote, "large-scale damage from climate change is no longer a disaster waiting to happen. It's happening now."
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