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February 12, 2008
Global Warming Could Dry up Lake Mead Key Water Resource by 2021
According to marine physicist Tim Barnett and climate scientist David Pierce, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, there is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwest, will go dry by 2021, if expected climate changes and future water usage is not curtailed.
This warning was issued in the report "When will Lake Mead go dry?," which has been accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Water Resources Research, published by the American Geophysical Union (AGU),
"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said Barnett. "Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest."
"It's likely to mean real changes to how we live and do business in this region," Pierce added.
"When expected changes due to global warming are included as well, currently scheduled depletions are simply not sustainable," wrote Barnett and Pierce in the paper.
"Today, we are at or beyond the sustainable limit of the Colorado system. The alternative to reasoned solutions to this coming water crisis is a major societal and economic disruption in the desert southwest; something that will affect each of us living in the region" the report concluded, as reported by Science Daily.
Posted by Stephen Betheil at February 12, 2008 02:38 PM
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