h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/collection/great-mississippi-river-flood-1927

it isn't every day that climate and popular culture come together as they did with the song in the video.

The Dust Bowl was commemorated by Woody Guthrie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqiblXFlZuk

I was reminded of Guthrie by the guide entry on his friend, Will Geer. I got a big kick out of John Steinbeck's comment about Guthrie's "Ballad of Tom Joad," which summarized in a few lines what took Steinbeck years to write a book .

Yes, and which was described better in the original book by Sanora Babb, 'Whose Names Are Unknown'. Babb's on-the-spot notes were shown to Steinbeck, who got his book published first. Bennett Cerf wouldn't publish Babb's book after that, because, allegedly, the market was now saturated with Dust Bowl books.

Babb's book wasn't published until 2004.

Glad you liked the video.

I'm a water person. I've been known to put on a bathing suit and play in the rain during a hurricane.

"Prairie fire" describes the dust-bowl conditions that followed the breaking of the plains in Laura Ingalls Wilder's life story. The perennial grasses that grew on the Great Plains were better able to stay alive through rain and drought than the perennial grains that were planted in their stead.

The wheat that so many of us eat is a distant descendant of grasses that were originally perennials. The Land Institute in Kansas is trying, by laborious, non-GMO means, to evolve Intermediate Wheat-grass into a grain crop that could be productive enough for human needs. They are also working on perennial rice and sorghum.

The Mississippi flood of 1927? I recall reading that they were made worse than necessary by large-scale cutting of trees in Wisconsin. Th rain no longer had branches to break its fall, and roots to absorb the moisture, so it ran off and aggravated the floods.

Sorry, I meant that he grain grown on the Plains were *annuals.* Their lifespans began and ended in one growing season. Perennial grasses would have live for maybe five to en years. Their roots would go down 8 or 9 feet, and would store a lot of carbon that they got from the air.

Yeah, I think perennials would be good for the soil.