Disaster Planning

[mik3cap]

If Yellowstone park does actually erupt and cover half the country in a bunch of hot ash, it'll most likely end up doing that to the portion of the country that makes food (specifically the part that grows corn). I don't know what kind of remediation would be needed to recover soil that's been volcanically affected for purposes of growing crops, but if a big eruption does occur, it's going to be a world of hurt - a real global food crisis, and then a whole bunch of global cooling that might make growing crops more difficult.

Comments

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

Is that actually true in the case of "modern" corn production though? There's a lot of crazy stuff that needs to happen with nitrogen injection into the soil and junk.

This is of course also not considering that if an eruption happens during the growing season, all the current crop could be lost (burned away, or rendered inedible). And also that the growing season could be stunted climate wise.