Filed under: agriculture, blizzard, Britain, climate change, climategate, Credit Crisis, Economic Collapse, economic depression, Economy, Europe, european union, food crisis, food market, food shortage, global cooling, global economy, Global Warming, gordon brown, Great Depression, ice age, ireland, london, malthusian, malthusian catastrophe, Oil, Petrol, uk crops, United Kingdom
Food costs to soar as big freeze deepens
London Guardian
January 9, 2010
 Satellite image of the UK covered in white |
Britons have been warned to brace themselves for an increase in food prices as plunging temperatures leave farmers unable to harvest vegetables and hauliers struggle to distribute fresh produce.
Gordon Brown, who will chair a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee early this week to discuss the freeze, was today forced to reassure the country that it would not run out of gas or grit for its roads during the coldest weather in 30 years.
Police confirmed today that the weather-related death toll had risen to 26. A 90-year-old woman froze to death in her garden near Barnsley after falling in the snow. Widow Mary Priestland was discovered when her neighbour called round to make her tea. A 42-year-old Newcastle woman died after being found lying in the snow this morning. She had told her family she was going for a walk at 7pm on Friday.
Concerns have now switched to food supply. Sub-zero temperatures have made it impossible to extract some vegetables from the ground. Producers of brussels sprouts and cabbages are all reporting problems with harvesting. Cauliflowers are said to have turned to “mush” in the sustained frost, with the result that only imported ones are available – at more than £2 each.
“Food is selling fast and there is a problem with replenishing it,” said Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses. “One business I spoke to said it was like Christmas Eve, with people rushing to buy up food. This will inevitably have an impact on food prices.”
Food prices had already started to edge up after a sustained period of low inflation. Food inflation increased by 3.7% in December, up from 2.8% in November, said the British Retail Consortium.
In Ireland, 6,000 acres of potatoes remains unharvested and there are claims that up to three-quarters of the crop may be ruined. Potato growers in Northern Ireland say they are facing some of the biggest losses in recent history because of frost damage.
Meanwhile, greengrocers in some of the worst-hit areas are reporting shortages, with the price of carrots and parsnips reportedly rising by 30% in some small shops. A spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union said: “There are isolated examples of farms struggling to get milk supplies out, but so far the majority of farmers, although finding it difficult, are getting on with the job.” Milk suppliers in Somerset said they feared they may have to dump 100,000 litres of organic milk because tankers could not get through.
In a move that underscores the severity of the situation, on Monday the government will permit an emergency relaxation of European laws regulating the driving hours for hauliers involved in the distribution of animal feed. Under the temporary rules, the hauliers will be allowed to drive for 10 hours rather than the EU maximum of nine. There will also be a reduction in their mandatory daily rest requirements, from 11 to nine hours.
Today, the prime minister insisted gas supplies were not running out, despite record levels of demand. In a podcast from Downing Street, Brown said: “I can assure you: supplies are not running out. We’ve got plenty of gas in our own backyard – the North Sea – and we also have access to the large reserves in Norway and Netherlands.”
Last week, nearly 100 large businesses were forced to stop using gas in an attempt to conserve supplies.
Filed under: AGW, Al Gore, blizzard, Britain, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate science, climategate, climatology, Co2, Europe, european union, global cooling, Global Warming, global warming hoax, Hoax, ice age, london, solar activity, solar science, sun, sunspots, Uncategorized, United Kingdom | Tags: Anthropogenic Global Warming, snow analysis
Britain facing one of the coldest winters in 100 years, experts predict
Britain is bracing itself for one of the coldest winters for a century with temperatures hitting minus 16 degrees Celsius, forecasters have warned.
UK Telegraph
January 5, 2010
They predicted no let up in the freezing snap until at least mid-January, with snow, ice and severe frosts dominating.
And the likelihood is that the second half of the month will be even colder.
Weather patterns were more like those in the late 1970s, experts said, while Met Office figures released on Monday are expected to show that the country is experiencing the coldest winter for up to 25 years.
On New Year’s Day 10 extreme weather warnings were in place, with heavy snow expected in northern England and Scotland.
Despite New Year celebrations passing off mostly unaffected by the weather, drivers in parts of the country, particularly areas of Northumberland, Cumbria and the Scottish Highlands, were warned not to travel unless absolutely necessary.
The continued freezing temperatures did not signal bad news for everyone however. CairnGorm Mountain said it has had its best Christmas holiday season in 14 years.
With heavy snow in the area, the resort said that over a four-day period following Christmas Day it has had more than 8,000 skiers and snowboarders using its runs – including 800 on New Year’s Eve.
Over 15,000 skiers have used the resort since the start of December, compared to 2,000 last year.
A spokesman for the Met Office said: “It is certainly a while since we had cold weather like this and there isn’t any sign of any milder weather on the way.”
Considerable amounts of “showery snow” is expected over Scotland and eastern England over the coming days, he said, whilst the rest of the United Kingdom would remains dry but very cold.
He added that temperatures in the Scottish highlands could dip to minus 16 degrees while even southern areas of England could see lows of minus 7.
The cold weather comes despite the Met Office’s long range forecast, published, in October, of a mild winter. That followed its earlier inaccurate prediction of a “barbecue summer”, which then saw heavy rainfall and the wettest July for almost 100 years.
Paul Michaelwaite, forecaster for NetWeather.tv, said: “It is looking like this winter could be in the top 20 cold winters in the last 100 years.
“It’s going to be very cold the for the next 10 days and although there could be a milder spell at some stage the indications are that the second half of the month will be even colder.”
Filed under: Al Gore, blizzard, carbon dioxide, climate science, climategate, climatology, Co2, copenhagen, Copenhagen treaty, global cooling, Global Warming, global warming hoax, Hoax, ice age, noaa, Science and technology, solar activity, solar science, sun, sunspots, wisconsin | Tags: midwest, NOHSRC, north america, nothern midwest, snow analysis, upper midwest
50% of the U.S. is covered in snow already
NoWorldSystem.com
December 11, 2009
It didn’t take long for half of the United States to get slammed with snow (December 11, 2009), last year on December 11, 2008 the U.S. was only covered in 29% of snow. Next week will be even more snow-packed and temperatures even more miserable then last year.
A blizzard has blanketed pretty much all of the Upper Midwest, expecting 16 inches of snow in some areas of the country. The cold this year is so serious that the governor of Wisconsin declared a state of emergency.
Go to NOAA’s NOHSRC National Snow Analysis page to keep track of the white stuff.
As World Considers Treaty to Fight “Global Warming,” Much of U.S. Buried by Blizzard
Russian Scientist: We Should Fear Deep Global Cooling, Not Global Warming
noworldsystem.com 