[Sca-cooks] black pepper wars

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius commented:
> Also sprach Susan Fox-Davis:
> > It occurs to me to wonder, are we going to face new spice wars or
> > shortages?  What are the spice exports of Sumatra, Indonesia and the
> > other Tsunami-torn regions?  Salt water in the water table is said
> > to be killing palm trees but it occured to me that it won't do much
> > good for other plants either.
>
> In theory, you're probably right. It remains to be seen, though, how
> many of our spices now come from places like the Caribbean. For
> example, I know they're growing nutmeg [and mace -- obviously] in
> Greneda, ginger in places like Haiti and Jamaica, etc.
As well, as horrendous as the damage in the Tsunami-torn areas is, the 
actual area damaged is confined to the coastal areas. I've not looked 
at where the spices are grown, but I suspect most of them are grown, 
and probably mostly processed, away from the coastal areas. Even the 
high death and injury tolls are only a fraction of the population in 
those areas. Some port facilities may be damaged, but the exporters 
will figure out how to get around that.

Part of the problem in understanding this is that when the media maps 
out the damaged areas they tend to color in whole countries. India, 
even Sri Lanka, are being entirely colored in, although the damage is 
confined to just their coastal areas. If you colored in just the 
actually damaged areas, it probably would not even show up on those 
southeast Asia maps.

Unfortunately, as the sea level continues to rise in the next century 
due to global warming, the low lying areas which were affected by the 
Tsunami, as well as other low lying areas like Florida, will experience 
increasing damage, similar in many ways to this disaster, from ordinary 
storms, Typhoons and hurricanes. And as mankind increasingly crowds 
into these coastal areas, as they have done in southeast Asia, the toll 
will continue to be high. Remember the concern about what would happen 
if that recent hurricane had hit New Orleans head-on instead of some 
distance away?

Stefan
(But no, it is more important to drill and find more oil than to cut 
back its use and harmful effects. At least according to our current US 
government)
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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