Huffington Post: When officials confirmed this week that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous U.S., it came as no surprise to anyone who walked through the cauterized corn fields of America's breadbasket last summer, talking to farmer's traumatized by the searing 100-degree heat that seemed to have no end.
But last year's record heat continues to have repercussions. I witnessed that on a family trip last month to St. Louis, where the mighty Mississippi River is shrinking to record levels from...