Dust Bowl Research Paper

Not only was the “Dust Bowl” one of the most devastating climatic events in American history, we cannot even comfortably call it a natural disaster. Rather, it was us, humanity, who played a major role in bringing this calamity upon on ourselves. Indeed, one does not need to look further than the 20th century to see that human activity may in fact have immediate consequences on climate. In particular, situations can be exacerbated when in unison with the forces of natures. What would otherwise have been a drought, the Dust of Bowl of the 1930’s intensified due to increasing human agitation. Nonetheless, it is still disputed today that the causal relationship between humans and the environment is exaggerated. Many skeptics even assert that
Studies report that soil temperatures were as high as 93°C at 10 cm depth in the Dust Bowl region. 13Indeed, this incredible heat sterilized the little remaining soil by neutralizing nitrogen-fixing bacteria. In 1936, the Dust Bowl’s temperature reached a peak exceeding 40°C and spread to the East Coast as well as parts of Canada. Interestingly, this heat wave was followed by the coldest winter on record. 14Needless to say, this only worsened the drought. Furthermore, due to the friction between airborne and ground dust, static electricity could be seen as blue lightning bolts from metal fences and could even knock people down.15 During dust storms, drivers would drag chains on their cars in order to ground static electricity from interfering with their engines and
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