Re: Planet X: Magnitude (Revisited)

In Article <3B8D1E1D.91CF44A@company.com> The Small Kahuna wrote:
> As far as crop shortages, this is well known and the presence
> of a world-wide drought has been the subject of news reports
> for months now, even appearing on US network TV.

We have a TOPIC among the hundred in Troubled Times, started to keep
track of these shortages.  Prior to the millennium, all we had in there
was about a dozen links, mostly about NiCAD battery shortages and the
like caused by folks worried about the supposed Y2K crisis. In mid-2000,
during the quarterly web wrapping (I act as web mistress for Troubled
Times, I posted 86 pages, news article quotes, to that TOPIC from
contributions made by members of the tt-watch mailing list.  The linking
TOPIC at page http://www.zetatalk.com/theword/tword202.htm reads as
follows:

    Starting in 1999, food shortages caused by drought or deluge began
    appearing, and by 2000 were in evidence worldwide in Afghanistan,
    Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Bolivia,
    Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba,
    Cyprus, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Ghana, Greece, Guyana,
    Hondurus, India, Iran, Iraq, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan,
    Kazakstan, Kenya, Korea, Laos, Liberia, Madagascar, Mexico,
    Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, Pakistan,
    Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia,
    Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan,
    Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay,
    Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yugoslavia. By 2000, it was clear that floods
    were devastating crops in Asia, while a World Drought was
    devastating crops in Africa, Europe, and the Balkans, resulting in
    Civil Unrest and Violence while shortages in Wheat loomed. By
    1999 in the US, Fish in Maryland and the East Coast were affected,
    and by 2000 the Cornbelt, Hawaii, Texas, the West, North Dakota,
    the Midwest, New England, Fisheries, the Southeast, and the Apple
    Harvest suffered weather related shortages, with Ag Disasters
    declared. In 2000, plagues and blights had affected crops in the US
    with the Citrus Canker, Grape Sharpshooter, Banana Virus, Red Tide,
    Soybean Aphid and Sudden Death, Grasshopper, Cutworm, Pine Beetle,
    and Fire Blight among them. In 2000 a worldwide Fuel Crisis emerged,
    and in the US Gasoline, Oil, Natural Gas, Firewood, and Electricity
    prices rose. For Year 2000, NiCAD batteries and Distillers were in
    short supply. As Maine demonstrated, Monitoring may ensue. The
    government is stockpiling Meals Ready-to-Eat, a Hot Item. Blood
    continues in short supply.