As a political party, what would be a solution to the droughts in the prairies especially in Canada during the dirty 1930's

There are two sources of precipitation on the prairies. First, the prevailing winds carry moisture from the Pacific Ocean eastward over the prairies. Secondly, evaporation and transpiration from the land add moisture to the atmosphere.

The Canadian prairies are dotted with alkaline sloughs that retain (foul smelling) water. While the concentration of alkaline minerals is too high for some plants in a slough, the minerals (potash) are an excellent fertilizer that are mined and sold to less well endowed regions of the world. Many sloughs have been drained. For agriculture, the winter melt is drained quickly by ditches and the water flows to rivers and streams causing spring flooding. Later in the summer, there is less water on the land because it has run to the sea. A better policy would be to divert spring run-off into local holding ponds/sloughs. The ponds/sloughs could provide a source of water for irrigation and the evaporation from the ponds would increase rainfall locally.

I attended a convention of agricultural scientists in March 2013. One of the speakers studied stream flows from the Canadian prairies over the last century and concluded that the prairies are generally getting wetter. Droughts still occur, but are becoming less frequent. The agricultural potential of the land is increasing. The increased moisture is also increasing the incidence of crop diseases, which is the topic for two of my current research grants.

The 'prairies' as you call them are not deserts or experience drought throughout our lifetimes. They are quite productive ecosystems. They have to be protected by soil distrubance and over grazing and at times, the judicious use of fire management to regenerate the grass cover. Don't be fooled, the prairies are far from what you think they are if you have never been to the prairies.

Why do you think humans can control the climate?

I'm borrowing this from Maxx :

"Here's a very interesting Post on this same topic: The BEST ANSWER for this post states as follows:

"water vapor has a MUCH greater potential for absorbing infrared than does CO2. Not only does it have a broader absorption spectra and exist in tremendously higher concentrations as you pointed out, it has a higher specific heat than does CO2. Combine this with the scientific principle that the IR emissions are more or less at the same wavelengths as absorption AND 75% of the Earth's surface is thus emitting at the optimal absorption spectrum of water, then you may become even more suspicious of some of the claims pointing to CO2 as THE culprit." http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/ind...

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This answer by 3DM is exactly correct and the spectra of CO2 and H2O linked by the asker at the top of the page is the proof it is correct."

I know he doesn't mind. :-)

Additionally :

I lived in Carson City, Nevada and drove a propane truck for a couple of years there. East of Carson City was mostly desert, but what most people didn't know is that there was a 300 mile wide aquifer (underground river) underneath all of that sand. Deserts have a purpose too. That's all I have to say about that. "Life's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you'll get!" - Thanks Forrest! :-)

Man can't control the weather or climate.

That said we can minimize the damage by using what nature has provided us intelligently.

Planting trees on the prairies was a big start. That was one of the smartest things our government did. Isn't it refreshing to see our government to cooperate with nature?

Building dams. Again this is living with nature and emulating beavers.

Using fossil fuels to pump water. When dry weather come about there are companies which make huge irrigation systems that pump water from the ground and spray it on crops. You can see these many times from airplanes. They are green circles.

Getting environmentalists out of the way. The San Joaquin Valley has become a desert thanks to the greenies. This used to be the bread basket of the world until the greenies started meddling.

We will never be able to control weather but we can use what we have to alleviate the situation.

The best solution would be encouraging a global warming initiative to lower pollutants that cause climate change and therefore alter rain patters.

Irrigation would be a temporary solution as keep in mind that to irrigate an area means to draw water from somewhere else and cause other problems there.

Hope this helps

Try sending all your money to Al Gore and see if that helps.

Top climate scientists say there is no man-made Global Warming.

The Great Global Warming Swindle