What was the major environmental disaster of the 1930’s?
The Dust Bowl, also known as “the Dirty Thirties,” started in 1930 and lasted for about a decade, but its long-term economic impacts on the region lingered much longer. Severe drought hit the Midwest and Southern Great Plains in 1930. Massive dust storms began in 1931.
What was the largest man made environmental disaster in the 1930s?
The Dust Bowl was the greatest man-made ecological disaster in the history of the United States. It encompassed a region 150,000 square miles long, across Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandles, and parts of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico.
What damage did the Dust Bowl do?
The strong winds that accompanied the drought of the 1930s blew away 480 tons of topsoil per acre, removing an average of five inches of topsoil from more than 10 million acres. The dust and sand storms degraded soil productivity, harmed human health, and damaged air quality.
Who was most affected by the Dust Bowl?
The areas most affected were the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, northeastern New Mexico, southeastern Colorado, and southwestern Kansas. The Dust Bowl was to last for nearly a decade [1]. After WWl, a recession led to a drop in the price of crops.
What were the reasons for the terrible dust storms that plagued America in the 1930s?
Alas, while natural prairie grasses can survive a drought the wheat that was planted could not and, when the precipitation fell, it shriveled and died exposing bare earth to the winds. This was the ultimate cause of the wind erosion and terrible dust storms that hit the Plains in the 1930s.