Lake Mead in 2005. The white "bathtub ring" is how far it had dropped at that time. It has only gotten worse since then.According to an article in Yahoo Lake Mead, the source of water for much of the dry Southwestern states is drying up. Reasons are global warming and the thirsty, and growing population in this part of America. Lake Powell is also losing water. Both are at 50% capacity after many years of drought. The water of the Colorado River system is also responsible for hydroelectric power throughout the area. Chances are 50/50 that by 2017 there will not be enough water to produce electricity.
A former student who remembered my predictions of problems sent the article to me, and asks do you think they will still try to take the Great Lakes water now? We are tlaking less than 10 years, and radical cutbacks during this time. Phoenix issing water as they have in the past, though Las Vegas has a water czar who has een working to cut back on water usage. For example green lawns are no longer allowed to be planted in Vegas, and they will pay you to take your lawn out.
What are your thoughts?
18 comments:
Declining water availability is a global problem. Tapping deeper aquifers, ice caps, and freshwater lakes are "solutions" that are short term, short sighted, and will only create additional problems. They will only delay the inevitable a little longer. I like the idea of somehow harvesting water from outerspace, or installing atmospheric control centers around the world... but those ideas are centuries away at best. All of these environmental issues share a similar solution - We need to somehow kick a couple billion people off the planet.
The problem that Lake Mead is facing is a world wide problem and the funny thing about it is that people in the region are causing more harm by moving to the region in mass numbers...I do understand that people are forced to move because of the bad economy in many regions of the United States, but why move to a desert. Equally imporrtant, us as Michiganders have to be aware of all the shortages, because we better believe that they are looking right at us to take what is ours...
I agree with cdew2. We Michiganders need to watch out because not only do the people in our country want our water, people around the world would love to tap into our Great Lakes. People need to stop trying to find temporary solutions, and start looking for longer-term solutions such as dealing with global warming. If we take action now to reduce global warming, we will most likely not have these same problems in the future.
I can not believe the incredible measures that Americans are having to go through for such an essential commodity. With the threat of global warming it is alarming, but important that we all make drastic measures to improve the environment to prevent the decline in water. Especially for those of us living in Michigan, it is true that when the water declines to far elsewhere, they will be looking to us to help them out. I think that the mass move to places like the southwest are one of the most harmful things to the freshwater in certain regions. People should see that life will be more restricting when it comes to water usage and not move to such populated areas. This is just one of the ways that people can curb the loss. Every individual needs to make a consious effort to stop global warming as well. I just know that as someone living in Michigan, i dont want to have to lose the beautiful surroundings because the damage and loss of water could have been prevented elsewhere.
After reading up on the Lake Mead issue a little more I think we're in trouble. The dry up estimates for Mead appear to be in the 2010-2021 range unless a miracle happens and the climate drasticly changes direction. But it seems numerous water reserves around the world have similar projections of "going dry" around 2020-2025. If 2/3-3/4 of the world's population is without water in 20 years, I'm not really sure how humanity could cope. I think the best option out there right now is to start pumping tons of money into the desalinization science. That might buy us some more time, but if water continues to be taken out faster than it's put in, bad times are inevitable.
As many other people have already said, the declining availability of fresh drinking water is a global problem. The natural wealth shared by the great lakes citizens should be cherished and hopefully will not be pilfered by greedy politicians and businessman. I think there should be a more concerted effort to improve water desalinization techniques to help quell fresh water shortages as well as more vigorous conservation. If these things do not happen the people of the southwest U.S. could be in serious trouble.
Upon reading the article on Lake Mead all I could think of is carrying capacity, carrying capacity, carrying capacity. The Southwestern states are mainly arid climates that are not ment to support so much life and limited water resources are being used at a greater rate than they can be replenished.
Sure global warming is a problem, one enhanced by the growing populations, but it seems many people are less worried about the environment consequence of what will be lost when the lake dries up than they are about how it will effect them and the communities they live in. In response they have turned to short term and dangerous solutions. Among them are tapping fossil waters and fresh water lakes.
Sadly this problem of what to do when the water dries up is not unique to this region of the world. It is a global issue effecting every continent. We need to start investing in ways to purify other water sources and reducing our use and water waste inorder to prevent an inpending global disaster and the destruction of deep aquifers and fossil waters.
The water drought around Lake Mead is a problem that is facing more than a few parts of our country. I think Las Vegas has the right idea when it comes to their landscape. Hell, they are even paying people to remove their "green lawns". Thats a good idea to a certain extent. At what point is having no grass or vegetation going to have reprocussions? Possibly these areas that suffer from drought should consider limiting their populations, something such as keeping some sort of balance, as one family leave another could move in. No new or additional people. There would have to be regulations of some sort. I know it might seem silly but cutting down on the population is one way to control it in those areas. Think of a doctors office and how the operate. They have a maximum number of patients they will see, one cannot see that doctor until that doctor is "accepting new patients". Think if the regions that suffer from desparities such as a drought worked like this. No new citizens in this area until some move out. Again, i know it seems silly or maybe even far fetched to say we should limit the areas that people move to, but i think we should.
The major problem that is evolving from that area is the fact that Las Vegas has the highest growing population in the United States. People need water to live. Its clear and simple there that the problem is going to keep getting worse. Along with global warming becoming an evergrowing issue that people need to pay more attention to and be more conscious of the decisions that they are making. The world is what we make of it and if we continue to choose to abuse it from the big companies polluting to the small pollutants we put in the air and careless use of water; we are going to continue to drain our natural resources and negatively impact the environment.
We cannot change the fact that people need water to live. However, we could save water by not using for worthless stuff. For example, during the summer, some sprinklers are running forever and I think this is wasting water.
As an article mentioned, global warming is another reasons that we are lossing water.
We should consider more about saving water and reduce global warming.
I think this article serves as an example of what not to do. You see in this situation that environmental issues were ignored until the last minute and now no solution seems worthwhile. Another problem with this situation is the role of government. It is weird that there are tax incentives to those who remove their lawns, when measures of incentives for “green” practices could have been in place a long time before. I am not a scientist or geographer, so I wonder although it might raise a chain reaction of other issues; wouldn’t the addition of lawns and trees setup an ecosystem that might in turn support a self sufficient system? I thought the addition of lawns would help the soil in the area maybe contribute to ground water supplies and etc. Anyway I would guess that in this area you would are going to see what a determined government can do when the problems of global warming are staring them right in the face. The boost in population and money in the area will show you how you dollars could matter when they are put to good use. Because if nothing is done now it will serve to be one of the earliest and largest examples of a failed government who took the environment for granted.
It sounds like water restrictions should have been put on users of this water years ago, before the big boom to vegas and arizona. Maybe this would have deterred some people from moving out there. There will be many consequences if the lake can no longer produce electric power. Small restrictions put on the entire region could go a long way to helping the lake return to normal levels.
With lake mead drying up soon alternative water sources will be needed. Hopefully Michigan can get its act together and protect one of our greatest natural resources. As a society we need to look at the way we use the resources God has given us. If we continue to waste resources like water we are going to devistate our enviroment and enter a situation that is very diffrent to recover from. Conservation is the key in preservation.
This problem is something that because I live in Michigan is a major issue. The lack of water around the world is directing more attention at the Great Lakes. Do I think that soon everyone will want our water... YES!!! The Great Lakes provide so many opportunities, and the need for water is so high that it is not a surprise that other areas would like our water. The question really should be what are we going to do about it. In class we have discussed how it is going to take each individual helping to make a difference. People will have to think before acting and realizing what they do might be affecting our state and other people. We are wasteful people, and we do not realize what we have and how we need to protect it. In almost every blog I've posted I've commented on how people just need to realize the direction we are headed in is pointed to the negative. With this knowledge we need to change things and move in a different direction.
The people posting on this blog are spot-on about the causes for the troubling situation that we find ourselves in today. Over population, lack of conservation, population shifts to arid areas of our country, and not totally committing ourselves to finding new methods and technology to solve our problems are to name a few. Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam are engineering marvel that were built to fix problems faced decades ago and now we need to find a new solution. I agree with others that we need to look at making desalination more of a viable option. I also feel that maybe it's the government's responsibility to find ways of controlling our growing population from moving to very difficult regions like the desert, where the technology and resources are clearly not available yet to sustain human "American" life.
I visited Lake Powell in 2003 and then again less than two years later and was SHOCKED by how low it had gotten. I hadn't heard anything about it or about Lake Mead prior to that, so I asked a local about it and she told me that it was drying up. I love the southwest and I see the appeal of wanting to live there, but the people also need to get real at some point. If they take advantage of everything they have access to, pretty soon it will be all gone. My grandma used to live outside of Phoenix and everyone had rock lawns. Every few blocks you would see a house with actual grass. It just seemed not right, nor did it even fit in. People in Arizona, Nevada, etc. should have limits on the amount of water they have to use. They are the ones choosing to live/move there. If they are not happy with that kind of restriction, they can always move to Michigan.
If Lake Mead is the source of water for much of the Southwestern United States, and this is drying up, then we need to find a way to conserve this energy or find a new source of water for them!
I think that they may try to use some of the Great Lakes water, and while I don't think they should have unlimited access, I do think that it's okay for Michigan to "share" it's water. We do have a lot of water, while other states have not as much (or none at all). We are all part of one country, and essentially one world, so why shouldn't we share our water?
The ongoing effects of global warming and population to areas such as Lake Mead are going to be the death of it. Reading up on the topic, we see that by the year 2017 there is not going to be enough water in it to produce any electricity. Then it is too late. We can't go backwards and fix our mistakes. We have to act now. Someone once told me that you should not do something today that you would not want in the newspaper tomorrow. Well, if things don't change, this is going to be a headline, and everyone in the area is going to have fingers pointing at them. There needs to be promotion of conservation and efficiency. Some minor steps in the right direction would be such things as avoiding wasteful water utilization. Turn to renewable resources. Begin harvesting storm water and making more use of gray water for domestic and irrigation purposes. If they do not begin to manage the housing population in the Lake Mead area, these minor steps are not going to be sufficient though. The population is draining the lake and will not stop until it is gone.
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