How Have Humans Changed the Soil?
By Aria The Dust Bowl era affected almost everyone in America in the nineteen twenty’s and thirties. Simple necessities such as cooking, eating, bathing, and even walking to a neighborhood store became difficult. In the eight years of the dusty drought, the soils that farmers valued most were depleted and damaged. Here’s why. The Dust Bowl occurred in the Great Plains of America, specifically harming Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico. There were four waves of droughts, but often times the people did not have healing time to recover for their losses. This made the scarcity of resources seem never-ending and constantly brutal. The Dust Bowl was abundantly less ruthless in the coastal states of America. The Dust Bowl happened because the mid-western area that it affected most was a zone with high winds and in some cases dustier weather in general. Tall grasses that grew natively and naturally in the soil held the roots in place for the dirt, and the farmers soon plowed up that dirt to plant crops for themselves and the market. These grasslands were more important than they thought because they were the only plant keeping the soil from eroding.
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The Dust Bowl made many people migrate to places like California, where the air was fresher and the food was more plentiful. They all believed that maybe one day it would be over, and that kept them going even when they maybe shouldn’t have. Kids and adults developed Dust Pneumonia, some suffocated, and others even committed suicide. Crops were almost gone, and wheat was the only reliable source of food. Families hung wet sheets from their windows in hopes of catching the dirt before it came into their houses, and people swept and wiped dust off from almost