Death of the Shatt al Arab

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

BAGHDAD – Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has become one of the world’s top oil producers, and China is now its biggest customer. China buys nearly half the oil that Iraq produces, nearly 1.5 million barrels a day, and is angling for a bigger share, bidding for a stake now owned by Exxon Mobil in one of Iraq’s largest oil fields. The Chinese had nothing to do with the war, but from an economic standpoint they are benefiting from it

BEIJING — A Chinese businessman angry about a filthy river has come up with an equally dirty dare: He’ll give an environmental official about $32,000 just for swimming in the polluted waterway. Businessman Jin Zengmin posted on his microblog photos of a garbage-filled river in his hometown of Rui’an city in the eastern province of Zhejiang. He dared the local environmental protection chief, Bao Zhenming, to swim in it for a cash prize of 200,000 yuan.

Submitted by Doug Hornig and Alex Daley of Casey Research, Water is not scarce. It is made up of the first and third most common elements in the universe, and the two readily react to form a highly stable compound that maintains its integrity even at temperature extremes. Hydrologist Dr. Vincent Kotwicki, in his paper Water in the Universe, writes:

Thousands of dead pigs in a Shanghai river have cast a spotlight on China's poorly regulated farm production, with the country's favourite meat joining a long list of food scares. As of Friday, the number of carcasses recovered in recent days from the Huangpu river -- which cuts through the commercial hub and supplies over 20 percent of its drinking water -- had reached more than 7,500.

Last year's historic U.S. drought was devastating to America's farms.  It also brought down the water levels in America's river, which has created probably for river-based trade. Currently, the EIA is forecast levels to rise in the near-term, but then fall back to its lows.  And that could mean more trouble for trade. From the EIA:

Guest blog post by Matt Erskine, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic DevelopmentA look at the recent national weather map underlines the reason for the Obama administration’s comprehensive response and action plan: large sections of the country are experiencing one of the worst droughts in decades—with levels ranging from “severe” to “extreme” and “exceptional.”The consequences of drought don’t just affect farmers and their crops and livestock, but have ripple effects throughout the regional economies that depend on them. It is with this in mind that President Obama convened a recent meeting of the White House Rural Council to coordinate an administration-wide response to the drought and focus agency activities to partner and support Americans impacted by it. The U.S. Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), with its decades of experience helping communities stricken by natural disasters, will play an important role to help rural communities with economic recovery. Along with the Small Business Administration (SBA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and other federal partners, it will leverage its resources, economic tool box, and expertise to help implement initiatives to alert drought-stricken communities to the federal resources that are already available to them.