The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was
one of the worst ecological disasters in the world for ever. The scene was set
when irresponsible farming practices across the Great Plains in the early 20th
Century stripped away the grasses and plants that held the topsoil and the
moisture in place.
After there was a big draught season
and came high winds that whipped all that dry soil into the air, literally
entire homes, choking humans and other animals.
Few people back east took much
notice … until the billowing clouds of dust from thousands of miles away blew
into New York and Washington DC. A congressional hearing had to be stopped when
a dust storm blew into the House of Representatives.
By the end of the 1930s, two
million people had evacuated the Great Plains states, multiplying the effects
of the Great Depression. The dust didn’t settle for 10 years.
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