Rivers Drying Up Leaving Farmers And Coal Producers Without Transportation

BARGE-POCALYPSE unfolding as rivers DRY UP, leaving farmers and coal producers with no transportation

Mike Adams 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, now there’s a “barge-pocalypse” unfolding that you might find rather disturbing. This is a problem with massive global implications that very few people saw coming because barges don’t exactly attract a lot of attention. But they are critical for efficient transportation of crops and coal, and when the barges stop running, the world is in serious trouble.

As FreightWaves.com explains, barges are far more important to the world economy than you might imagine:

• About 60% of the grain and 54% of the soybeans for U.S. export are moved via barges.
• Barges touch more than a third of America’s exported coal.
• 92% of the nation’s agricultural output comes from the Mississippi River Basin.
• One 15-barge tow can carry the same amount of freight as two 108-car freight trains or a whopping 1,050 semi-trucks, according to the American Waterways Operators.
• With just 1 gallon of fuel, a barge can chug along for 616 ton-miles, compared to 478 ton-miles for rail and 150 ton-miles for trucks.

In other words, barges are by far the most fuel-efficient and cost effective way to move goods. This is why, of course, many of the world’s largest cities are located on rivers. It’s all about trade and transportation.

But when geoengineering is being actively pursued (see White House geoengineering programs, below) to weaponize the weather and cause droughts, the rivers run dry and barges run aground. This turns the river into a giant logjam of stuck barges, and that’s exactly what’s beginning to happen with the Mississippi River.

As FreightWaves.com explains:

Low water levels and dredging shuttered barge traffic heading north and south on the Mississippi last week. At one point, more than 100 towboats and 2,000 barges were stuck waiting… Traffic is limited to one way, according to Petty Officer Jose Hernandez of the U.S. Coast Guard. 

That’s like turning a major interstate into a single lane construction zone where vehicles have to take turns using the only available lane. Naturally, traffic backs up for miles.

Because the barges can barely function along the Mississippi, coal isn’t getting transported in the volumes necessary to meet coal export demand and supply coal to European countries that are facing a freezing winter without energy.

As a result, Poland has just waived air quality restrictions, allowing all Poland residents to literally burn trash in their home stoves to stay warm through the coming winter. (Which gives a whole new meaning to the derogatory term “Eurotrash.”) As Great Game India reports:

Poland has temporarily waived air quality regulations so that residents can burn coal for home heating till next April… some people are also burning trash to remain warm.

Paulina Mroczkowska, a Polish citizen, told Bloomberg that as the NatGas scarcity intensifies and the cost of life skyrockets, she has already seen people using garbage to warm their homes.

“It’s so bad this season that you can smell trash burning every day, which is completely new. Rarely can you smell a regular fuel. It’s scary to think what happens when it really gets cold,” Mroczkowska said, a resident of Warsaw, the capital city.

“In Poland, some households are hoarding garbage to replace their coal,” adds Bloomberg News.