The Dust Bowl: A Man-Made Disaster

In order to prevent crops from dying out or failing the Aeolian processes was to be used for the benefit during a drought spell. The Aeolian processes help transport water during droughts. By being educated on the landscape and wind pattern farmers would have known that tilling and plotting was destroying the soil. By using these processes, the transport of liquid from moist climates at high altitudes leads to runoff and the flow of liquid heads toward low elevation areas (Belnap, Field, Munson 2). Although higher elevations are few and far in-between leveling the land at a higher ground at one end would have drained water into more starved crops during and after the dust storms occurred and possibly managing to support vegetation for a longer period during one of the worst man-made environmental disasters ever recorded. Data has also shown that over the Atlantic Ocean the temperature was much warmer than usual for the season, and climate change was drastically affecting all of North America. However, the Great Plains were so terribly unprepared in their cropping techniques that after the drought took the vegetation, wind erosion destroyed what land was left and subsequently created the Dust Bowl.

This is why scientists concluded that in fact, the Dust Bowl was a man-made disaster that was caused by the inability to adapt to climate change and ill-informed farming techniques that led to a massive shortage of food supply, water, and livestock. As for El Niño and La Nina and how they played a role, scientists concluded over North America, La Nina’s opposite pattern was connected with the drought over the Great Plains (Cook, Seager, Miller 2343). In Summary, the Dust Bowl was a massive drought that impacted thousands of people and food sources. Without being aware of weather patterns and modern southern farming techniques, coupled with severe wind storms folks were blindsided, as was the government.