Even after all that has happened and is happening globally regarding environmental factors and climate change, Americans are still under the impression that we are not vulnerable to that which now effects the developing world. I think this ignorance is what fuels much of the inaction regarding water issues and climate change in America. It needs to change. Now.
All reservoirs along the Colorado River might dry up by mid-century as the West warms, a new study finds. The probability of such a severe shortage by then runs as high as one-in-two, unless current water-management practices change, the researchers report.
The study's coauthors looked at the effects of a range of reductions in Colorado River stream flow on future reservoir levels and at the implications of different management strategies.
Even under the harshest drying caused by climate change, the large storage capacity of reservoirs on the Colorado might help sustain water supply for a few decades. However, new water management approaches are critical to minimize the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage by mid-century.
"This study, along with others that predict future flow reductions in the Colorado River Basin, suggests that water managers should begin to re-think current water management practices during the next few years, before the more serious effects of climate change appear," says lead study author Balaji Rajagopalan of the University of Colorado in Boulder (CU-Boulder).
The findings by Rajagopalan and his colleagues have been accepted by the journal Water Resources Research, published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
The Colorado River system is enduring its 10th year of a drought. Fortunately, the river system entered the drought in 2000, with the reservoirs at approximately 95 percent of capacity. The reservoir system is currently at 59 percent of capacity, about the same as this time last year, says Rajagopalan. Roughly 30 million people depend on the Colorado River for drinking and irrigation water.
The research team examined the future vulnerability of the system to water supply variability coupled with projected changes in water demand. They found that through 2026, the risk of fully depleting reservoir storage in any given year remains below 10 percent under any scenario of climate fluctuation or management alternative. During this period, the reservoir storage could even recover from its current low level, according to the researchers.
But if climate change results in a 10 percent reduction in the Colorado River's average stream flow as some recent studies predict, the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage will exceed 25 percent by 2057, according to the study. If climate change results in a 20 percent flow reduction, the chances of fully depleting reservoir storage will exceed one in two by 2057, Rajagopalan says.
"On average, drying caused by climate change would increase the risk of fully depleting reservoir storage by nearly ten times more than the risk we expect from population pressures alone," Rajagopalan says.
"By mid-century this risk translates into a 50 percent chance in any given year of empty reservoirs, an enormous risk and huge water management challenge," he says.
The river hosts more than a dozen dams along its 2,330-kilometer (1,450-mile) journey from Colorado's Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California.
end of excerpt.
St. Thomas which was a city covered by Lake Mead due to Hoover Dam construction is now exposed due to recession of water levels. To some that may seem like justice because of what was done to St. Thomas originally because of the dam construction, but now this lake which is one of the largest has millions of people dependent on it for water. So now, those in this area who once lost all due to the water coming in may well see that again because of the opposite effect. This is a stark example of what population increases and climate change combined with waste can lead to. It should be a lesson to us all.
The defining moment of the 21st Century will not be securing another planet for us to live on. It will be how we meet this challenge on Earth. Can we get beyond the backbiting to keeping our eye on the prize? Or will our continued political, social, and religious differences keep us from the moral imperative? This is no joke. Water is becoming a scarcer resource for many people around the globe through waste, pollution, climate change, and privitization. By our hand.
Humans cannot live without water. So it should follow logically that if humans cannot live without water and potable freshwater is becoming scarcer that this would certainly be a crisis that is a matter of life and death. And yet, this issue hardly gets the attention it deserves.
Please look at these pictures at the link provided and realize that this is not about what is causing global warming/climate change and the petty political grudges that keep that debate from taking us to the necessary solutions to save this planet for ourselves and future generations. This is about seeing that future and visualizing what you know in your heart it should look like... and then making it happen.
Yes! Let's keep that going! Bottled water is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the planet! And then we need to start working on plastic bottles in general that waste fuel, create carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, and cause massive plastic garbage swirls as can be found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
It is time to assess just what we are doing to this planet and realize our potential to change it!
Excerpt:
An Australian town was set to ban bottled water on Wednesday over concerns about its environmental impact, in what is believed to be a world first. Bundanoon, a picturesque rural town with a population of just 2,000, was expected to vote heavily in favour of the move with a show of hands at a public meeting later. "At the moment we've got a lot of community support behind it. We're confident the town is going to back it," said activist John Dee.
"We believe Bundanoon is the world's first town that has got its retailers to ban bottled water. We haven't found it anywhere else." Local opinion was incensed when beverage company Norlex Holdings announced plans to tap an underground reservoir in the town, truck the water up to Sydney and then send it back in bottled form.
"The company has been looking to extract water locally, bottle it in Sydney and bring it back here to sell it again," said Dee. "It made people look at the environmental impact of bottled water and the community has been quite vocal about it."
Dee, whose Do Something group was instrumental in a plastic bags ban in Coles Bay, Tasmania, said he hoped the ban would make people think twice about buying bottled water. "It's possible it will extend to other places. The main idea is to get people thinking about their usage of bottled water -- we're spending about half a billion dollars on it here in Australia," he said.
