Water Resources are Declining
Lakes and Rivers are drying up
Climate change is a significant contributing factor to the alarming decline of water levels at important lakes and reservoirs in the western part of the United States, such as Lake Mead (the nation’s largest reservoir) and Lake Powell. “…NASA confirmed that water levels in Lake Mead, which spans Nevada and Arizona, are at their lowest since April 1937, when the reservoir was being filled for the first time…”*
And water levels in the Great Salt Lake reached their lowest point on record in the summer of 2021.
“If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds, continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store: The lake’s flies and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City, a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could stop. Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would occasionally turn poisonous. The lake bed contains high levels of arsenic and as more of it becomes exposed, wind storms carry that arsenic into the lungs of nearby residents, who make up three-quarters of Utah’s population….”
“Now two changes are throwing that system out of balance. One is explosive population growth, diverting more water from those rivers before they reach the lake. The other shift is climate change, according to Robert Gillies, a professor at Utah State University and Utah’s state climatologist. Higher temperatures cause more snowpack to transform to water vapor, which then escapes into the atmosphere, rather than turning to liquid and running into rivers. More heat also means greater demand for water for lawns or crops, further reducing the amount that reaches the lake…”**
“Chinese planes are firing rods into the sky to bring more rainfall to its crucial Yangtze River, which has dried up in parts, as swaths of the nation fall into drought and grapple with the worst heat wave on record….…
The Yangtze is just one of many rivers and lakes across the northern hemisphere that are drying up and shrinking amid relentless heat and low rainfall, including Lake Mead in the US and the Rhine River in Germany. These extreme weather conditions have been supercharged by the human-induced climate crisis, driven by burning fossil fuels…”***
“…The Colorado, which supplies water to 40 million people in the United States and Mexico and supports billions of dollars of agricultural production across the region, is in the throes of two decades of drought made worse by climate change. At the river’s two immense reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, water levels are at just 28 percent of total capacity because of the river’s diminished flow and increased demand….”****
“Italy’s longest river, the Po, was once called the “king of rivers” by Virgil (“fluviorum rex”). …The poet Guido Ceronetti once wrote: “You need to understand the Po to understand Italy,” but now – as northern Italy faces its worth drought in 70 years - the river is also a prism through which to glimpse the country’s ecological emergency… At Cremona – roughly halfway along the Po – the water is currently more than 8 metres (26ft) below “hydrographic zero”… The Adriatic Sea has come about 12 miles inland from the Po estuary, burning crops and salinating drinking water. The vast maize plantations used for cattle forage are yellowing. Hundreds of thousands of hectares along the Po basin are fallow this summer because of doubts about the reliability of irrigation for the “second planting”.
The river is normally fairly full in June because of snowmelt - but the Italian Society of Environmental Geology recorded only a third of the average snowfall last winter (2.5 metres instead of 7.5 metres). The Gran Paradiso peak (in Piedmont/Aosta) had a snowfall of only 127cm (50in) this winter, compared with this century’s average of 331cm. Even the glaciers are going: last Sunday seven people were killed when a part of the Marmolada glacier broke free, causing a hailstorm of rocks and debris. Another 13, at time of writing, are missing. …”*****
*NASA satellite images show Lake Mead water levels plummeting to lowest point since 1937. Marina Pitofsky and Wyatte Grantham-Phillips, USA TODAY, July 22,2022, updated July 25, 2022
**“As the Great Salt Lake Dries Up, Utah Faces An ‘Environmental Nuclear Bomb’”, The New York Times, By Christopher Flavelle, Published June 7, 2022/updated June 9, 2022
***China is seeding clouds to replenish its shrinking Yangtze River
Wayne Chang, Simone McCarthy and Shawn Deng, CNN and Reuters, Updated 10:38 AM ET, Wed August 17, 2022
Updated 10:38 AM ET, Wed August 17, 2022
****A New Round of Colorado River Cuts Is Announced, Henry Fountain, New York Times, Aug 16, 2022
*****The Observer – Drought, Tobias Jones, July 10, 2022, “Quiet flows the Po: the life and slow death of Italy’s longest river”
