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Lake Mead could be dry by 2021
physorg.com — There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, will be dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water usage is not curtailed, according to a pair of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego.
jaybol- 641 diggs
- digg it
- jaybol, on 02/13/2008, -1/+8the great news is that you won't have to pay as much for the slip fees
- NickyBatts, on 02/13/2008, -1/+4YOU LIVE IN A DESERT!!
- DavidBGie, on 02/13/2008, -2/+4Lakes form and dry up all the time. Just more global warming scaremongering.
If your tired of being scared by global warming and want to be scared of something new try Global Cooling!
http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=287279 ...- annenk38, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1Scientists do not make climate predictions based on statistical tools alone. Stock brokers, at least good ones, use the inside information, not just prior performance to make stock predictions. Scientists also have "inside information" based on geological data and computer simulations. But it's a little hard to convince the crowd who believe the Earth is 4000 years old. Oh, and if you want to talk scaremongering, consider the Bible.
- t3soro, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1lake dries up due to increased evaporation from heat.
more water is in the air because of more evaporation because of more heat.
more water in air = more rain (the sky holds a finite amount of water vapor)
o hay guise look its rainin!
oh hay guise where did this lake come from? i thought global warming destroyed all the waters!11
- t3soro, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1lake dries up due to increased evaporation from heat.
- annenk38, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1Scientists do not make climate predictions based on statistical tools alone. Stock brokers, at least good ones, use the inside information, not just prior performance to make stock predictions. Scientists also have "inside information" based on geological data and computer simulations. But it's a little hard to convince the crowd who believe the Earth is 4000 years old. Oh, and if you want to talk scaremongering, consider the Bible.
- PaulOwen, on 02/13/2008, -0/+3Disclaimer: 99% of digg readers won't be affected by this.
- lmhoward, on 02/13/2008, -14/+4blah...call me when we are talking about oceans.
- Kauzman01, on 02/13/2008, -19/+3But... but... the real tragedy is that this is caused by waterboarding!!!
WATERBOARDING!!!1!!1!ELEVEN! - inajeep, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2Ignorance is truly bliss then?
- Kauzman01, on 02/13/2008, -19/+3But... but... the real tragedy is that this is caused by waterboarding!!!
- PMG2007, on 02/13/2008, -8/+4where is the water going to go?
- bosssmiley, on 02/13/2008, -1/+7It'll either be sucked up to supply farming, industry and urban areas, or it will simply evaporate (how else did you think perfectly flat dry lake beds formed?)
- KMye, on 02/13/2008, -2/+2oops
- pauleric, on 02/13/2008, -1/+7Growing rice in the desert, obviously, like bosssmiley said. It's a good thing the federal government sees fit to subsidize water costs for farming in the desert (sarcasm, for those with faulty sarcasm detectors). Ok, that's a little misleading, it's not just rice, it's a variety of crops. But any amount of rice grown in the desert is absolutely insane. Also, that everyone wants to live in an area with fantastic weather, and the California seacoast doesn't help. Living in Nevada, et al, is also more viable than it used to be with home air conditioning (yes, that's a relatively recent thing). If they had to suffer through hot summers, most people would move.
- Haohmaru, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2Other places will be inundated with torrential rain and snow.
- greeneyedmama, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Watering the million golf courses around Las Vegas.
- bosssmiley, on 02/13/2008, -1/+7It'll either be sucked up to supply farming, industry and urban areas, or it will simply evaporate (how else did you think perfectly flat dry lake beds formed?)
- DarkerMaster, on 02/13/2008, -3/+25So whats the other 50% chance of?
- badqat, on 02/13/2008, -15/+10That Lake Meade will have more water...but that doesn't fit into the algore religion.
- KMye, on 02/13/2008, -1/+3Not a fan of Al Gore, but when there's a 50% that Lake Mead will be DRY, the other 50% is not reserved for more water than now. Even without global warming, increasing demand from LV and SoCal is a very serious issue.
- skiddles, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Yes. But downsizing your carbon footprint will not do anything if the warming we have experienced is caused by solar activity. That is why the cause of the warming needs to be identified dispassionately. In all the RESEARCH I have read, there is a much higher correlation - correlation is not causation - with the solar cycles.
But, if we want to start reducing carbon footprints, lets start at the top. Lets get rid of private jets for activists, politicians, actors, musicians, along with holiday mansions, and for that matter mansions over 5000 sqr feet and work our way down.
- skiddles, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Yes. But downsizing your carbon footprint will not do anything if the warming we have experienced is caused by solar activity. That is why the cause of the warming needs to be identified dispassionately. In all the RESEARCH I have read, there is a much higher correlation - correlation is not causation - with the solar cycles.
- KMye, on 02/13/2008, -1/+3Not a fan of Al Gore, but when there's a 50% that Lake Mead will be DRY, the other 50% is not reserved for more water than now. Even without global warming, increasing demand from LV and SoCal is a very serious issue.
- meridian300, on 02/13/2008, -2/+4That Raptors become friendly to me and we take over stores and stuff.
- tmn4, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2The article seems to imply a 50% chance that running out of water will take longer than 13 years, but not that there is a chance of lake levels rising...
- badqat, on 02/13/2008, -15/+10That Lake Meade will have more water...but that doesn't fit into the algore religion.
- tringtring, on 02/13/2008, -1/+14There are so many important things in our life that we take for granted...water perhaps occupies the number one spot in this list!
- alexkehr, on 02/13/2008, -10/+6Isn't there always almost a 50% chance something COULD happen?
- Arcesius, on 02/13/2008, -1/+5*whips out the double head coin* I'll be you fifty bucks this won't land on tails. According to your theory, you've got a 50% chance of making fifty bucks!!
- pauleric, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2I already flipped the coin, you owe me $50. Trust me, I wouldn't lie.
- sindex, on 02/13/2008, -3/+2There's always a 100% chance that something *could* happen, however unlikely it seems. The question is, "Is there a 50% chance Lake Mead *will* be dry by 2021?" But perhaps that's too pedantic. Then again, I'm sort of an ass.
- KMye, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2This is not a situation with only two equally likely, discrete outcomes...
- wendelgee2, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1No. Some things are more likely than other things. Now get to class.
- alexkehr, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1I meant to write, "Isn't there always almost a chance something COULD happen." I was editing the comment and forgot to remove the 50% from what I wrote previously.
- Tomchei, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2I really don't know what they'r talking about for this year.
The lake depends on the winter snows melting and this year has been a rather healthy year for snow in the region. - LogicBomB, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2No, there is not always a 50% chance of something happening. Where the hell did you get that idea?
- alexkehr, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1I meant to write, "Isn't there always almost a chance something COULD happen." I was editing the comment and forgot to remove the 50% from what I wrote previously.
- Arcesius, on 02/13/2008, -1/+5*whips out the double head coin* I'll be you fifty bucks this won't land on tails. According to your theory, you've got a 50% chance of making fifty bucks!!
- Ihatehillary, on 02/13/2008, -5/+3In other news, potato experts say that the Atlantic Ocean will dry up by 1995...
- didiman, on 02/13/2008, -15/+1550% chance that these researchers are morons
- MadScientist68, on 02/13/2008, -2/+4They were WAYy off on predicting the amount of Hurricanes allegedly due to global warming two years in a rowl So, now we are supposed to believe this doom and gloom? Is this just an effort to sell periodicals and get published? What else could this constant hype and doom and gloom before? Is it just that Baby Boomers still feel this sense of impending doom due to the Cold War and the whole duck-n-cover, we-might-be-nuked-at-any-time mentality?
- ItsMyWii, on 02/13/2008, -7/+2Doubt it highly.
- cmearns, on 02/13/2008, -1/+9A month ago I had a meal at a 'resort' town that was built on the shore of lake mead. Only it wasn't on the shore. The shore was about 2 miles away. And the waterline was visibly about 1000 feet short. I asked the waitress about it, and she commented that the massive recession of the waterline was only about 3 years old.
Don't doubt. This is real, and devastating. - KMye, on 02/13/2008, -1/+5I guess the drawbacks from overzealous global warming alarmism work in both directions. Not only does it distract many environmentally active people from spending their efforts on important issues with real possible solutions, apparently when people throw global warming on the top of the pile of causes for some real, important problems such as here, many skeptics disregard the problem completely.
This is a very real problem that will have to be addressed, whether or not any potential future climate change makes it worse...
- cmearns, on 02/13/2008, -1/+9A month ago I had a meal at a 'resort' town that was built on the shore of lake mead. Only it wasn't on the shore. The shore was about 2 miles away. And the waterline was visibly about 1000 feet short. I asked the waitress about it, and she commented that the massive recession of the waterline was only about 3 years old.
- mal1964, on 02/13/2008, -2/+7And, it could not.
- lenninct, on 02/13/2008, -6/+1SW, not my problem am in the SE. ...
- Wornstrom, on 02/13/2008, -0/+4It becomes your problem when people are forced to migrate to areas with water, which would eventually happen. Even if they piped water from elsewhere, it will cause strain on the surrounding contributors' water supply. And if a lake that supplies water for millions of people dries up, it's not like someone is holding a giant magnifying glass over just this lake. It wil probably have some effect on most temperate climate water supplies...
- ValVedRaY, on 02/13/2008, -5/+2...Remember Sammy Jankis
- mal1964, on 02/13/2008, -4/+3Whats said in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
- Petrarch1603, on 02/13/2008, -0/+12tap water is cheaper in Phoenix, AZ than it is in Portland, OR. Maybe that has something to do with it.
- erato, on 02/13/2008, -2/+5Not to worry though. With the expected rising ocean levels no one will be living in SoCal so they won't be needing the water from Lake Mead anyway.
- MeMongo, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2They should start building desalination plants next to Hoover Dam. That way when the oceans rise, they can just filter sea water.
- CedEx, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.
- PacketScan, on 02/13/2008, -3/+12CALM down.. it's a man made / man filled lake..
- johnpaul191, on 02/13/2008, -1/+6but that lake was created by the Hoover Dam to control the Colorado River.... and the reason to control the river was to provide consistent water to all the farmers downstream. pre dam the river could effectively dry up in terms of irrigation, or could randomly surge and wash away farms.
Anyway, Lake Mead was not built to give Las Vegas peeps a place to powerboat, and the power generation was almost an afterthought (1), it was made to feed countless farms and towns down river all the way to California. Say what you want about dams in general, but that lake drying up would have a devastating impact on existing farms and towns.
(1) the dam was planned to control the river for farming. when trying to figure out how to pay for the project, somebody came up with the power generation well after the project already had a green light.- MindTrigger, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1You do realize people don't just powerboat on Mead. Las Vegas and their 2+ million people use it for drinking and everything else you need water for.
- norcalscan, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Man filled? After evaporation cue up Hallelujah It's Rainin' Men
- johnpaul191, on 02/13/2008, -1/+6but that lake was created by the Hoover Dam to control the Colorado River.... and the reason to control the river was to provide consistent water to all the farmers downstream. pre dam the river could effectively dry up in terms of irrigation, or could randomly surge and wash away farms.
- Dralite, on 02/13/2008, -1/+12Did they account for the world ending in 2012?
- chorenic, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2Gotta love those Mayans!
- Paranoidmarvin, on 02/13/2008, -1/+15Oh no!
How will we water these expensive country clubs in the middle of the desert that have gallons upon gallons of water wasted on them!? - majehire, on 02/13/2008, -2/+9People would care more if Lake Mead was actually a Lake OF Mead!
- banido, on 02/13/2008, -1/+8Good thing the world ends in 2012, so you really don't have to worry about that.
- animalfreak, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2thats what i was going to say. according to the mayans and a whole other load of "fortune tellers" the world is going to end on December 21, 2012.
- mal1964, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2I know drinking it will not be any part of the problem, because no one does that.
- blueskydiver76, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1Water...you mean like in the toilet?
- mal1964, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2If you live in Vegas. which i did you do not drink the water from the faucet.
- mal1964, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1I will add that the water you get from culligan and others for your house cooler, might come from the lake. Then they do what they do to filter and clean it,I don't the answer to that.
- blueskydiver76, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1Water...you mean like in the toilet?
- LetFreedomReign, on 02/13/2008, -3/+7You can't irrigate the desert without some sort of repurcussions. You can't move that many people to the desert, let them manicure their lawns any way they like, and expect the water will just magically be there. Did you know that houses sold in some areas around Las Vegas have stated in their contract that they cannot guarantee that water will be available to that house within 100 years?
- StaticThunder, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1There's no guarantee that you'll have *a house* in 100 years. Thats just a legalese CYA so you don't get sued.
- mutagenesis, on 02/13/2008, -0/+4Yarg Hrothgar... the MEAD BE RUNNING LOW!!!!
- tman84, on 02/13/2008, -2/+7If they just said "People use too much fresh water and it could run out, we need to do something" then I would agree. But they always have to throw in the Global War/Fear mongering into it.
Niagara Falls is going to be gone in 10,000 years. The Grand Canyon was once a small river. The west coast was once under the ocean. Maybe Lake Mead's time on Earth is up.- RichStradler, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1Survival of the fittest
- john214, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2Oh noes! I'm gonna die! =*(
- asskicker32, on 02/13/2008, -6/+4Lake Mead is fed by the Mighty Colorado. The Colorado will run dry? unlikely...
- Petrarch1603, on 02/13/2008, -1/+3obviously you havent been to mexico where the colorado is pretty much dry.
- SteelChicken, on 02/13/2008, -1/+3youre stupid and have no concept of scale.
did you even read the article?
- sandman979, on 02/13/2008, -4/+3But the part I don't get about this global warming thing is that supposedly all these lakes are going to get dry, of course due evaporation, but all that water vapor is not going to disappear at all. That water sooner or later is going to condense and become rain accordingly. Lakes get filled with rain, so what's the problem? What we're facing here is just a weather cycle acceleration / adjustment. What about over consumption and over population? What about the fact we already possess the necessary technology to use the trillions of water gallons in the ocean? Are we blaming global warming to just hide our ineptitude?
- slvrbullet87, on 02/13/2008, -2/+9Wow when you build a man made lake in the middle of the desert it goes dry?
I figured out this principle in a sandbox at age 6.- CedEx, on 02/13/2008, -1/+1Wow, only 6 years old? So you're a slow learner?
- StaticThunder, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2Did your sandbox have a river fed by snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains?
Yes, you're very clever and I'm sure you should be in charge of the Lower Colorado River Authority.
- Shaman760, on 02/13/2008, -0/+5So let's plant more rice crops in Imperial county, Ca. (FYI Imperial county is in the MIDDLE OF THE ***** DESERT.......)
/sarc - DrDash, on 02/13/2008, -1/+4We are also in the middle of a drought, a natural cycle in the desert. Once the rain comes again, wonder what will happen?
- Opiate, on 02/13/2008, -2/+4Rationalism has no place on Digg
- StaticThunder, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2The drought in the desert has nothing to do with Lake Mead, its fed by snowfall in the Rockies, and thats where the drought is occurring. Last I checked, climatologists think the wet years were the aberration, that the SouthWest is returning to historic precipitation norms (ie., the drought is just the way it is, expect it to continue).
- scrignutz, on 02/13/2008, -7/+0who cares that hole place is gay RON PAUL WON NEVEDA. u cant blame liberals "globel warning" for this, too?
- rtcrooks, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2buried for poor spelling.
- stutimandal, on 02/13/2008, -1/+3DarkerMaster ..
The researchers must have estimated the probability of lake drying up against time. 50% point was 2021 and has been reported. It may take more (or less). Lake will dry up eventually if nothing will be done. - jsavage58, on 02/13/2008, -1/+4O, you move 20 million people to the dessert and wonder where all the water goes. duh.
- MeMongo, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2Wow, 20 million people moved to the dessert? Was the dessert cake, cinnamon buns, tiara misu, brownies? Whatever it was, it must have been HUGE!
Despite your typo, I agree with your message. Move people where the resources are instead of moving the resources where the people aren't hoping that they will move toward the resources like moths to a campfire (or in the case of Las Vegas, a neon sign)- jsavage58, on 02/14/2008, -0/+0thanks for the typo catch..actually, its tiramisu, butif you want to wear a small crown, thats cool.
20 million people in the desert is still idiotic
- jsavage58, on 02/14/2008, -0/+0thanks for the typo catch..actually, its tiramisu, butif you want to wear a small crown, thats cool.
- MeMongo, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2Wow, 20 million people moved to the dessert? Was the dessert cake, cinnamon buns, tiara misu, brownies? Whatever it was, it must have been HUGE!
- maxlightz, on 02/13/2008, -1/+4If grandma had balls she'd be grandpa
- brianallen, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2I once had an aunt, with balls: We called her Uncle Harry.
- Lunarbunny, on 02/13/2008, -0/+3I've been by Lake Powell a few times in the last decade, and I can say that the water level there has dropped significantly. Same is true with Navajo Lake in New Mexico, but that's not as important as Lake Powell or Lake Mead.
- underdugg, on 02/13/2008, -2/+1President BJ Clinton could have listened more closely to Al Gore, and taken measures that would have put us in a better position today, to address these issues, or even forestall them.
Instead, Algore was completely sidelined, and Bill listened to his other Vice President. - EEdesigner, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2The lake could also be frozen over - if the sunspot activity doesn't reoccur soon. Ah, global warming......er...cooling....er..warming....whatever. The climate "science" folks appear to - perhaps - be a bit wanting in their computer modelling techniques.
- brianallen, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2Lake Mead could be empty by 2021, pigs could fly by 2041 and Rich/Soros-Socialist-International-run, sleazy, slippery and slimy former North Vietnam Military adviser and life-time RINO, John McCRainman could EVER be elected to public office!
(Pigs arse, they could) - smoger, on 02/13/2008, -1/+2it's a shame it's not the south*east*'s water drying up. we'd never have to worry about another bush in office again...
- OriginalLucid1, on 02/13/2008, -2/+1I guess it is a severe case of BDS when you work hatred of the President into a story about water.
- Midtowner, on 02/13/2008, -1/+4I took a course on water law last year (law school). In the western states in which the Colorado river runs, the water from that river (and others) is divied up by state water agencies which use a prior appropriator/permit system to do so. These agencies base those systems upon the total acre/foot flow of the river. If the flow changes, the junior appropriators on the stream aren't allowed to appropriate water.
I'm not sure where lake Meade's appropriation on the river is, but I'm guessing they're right up there at the top. That said, there are bigger problems than global warming affecting Lake Meade.
The biggest problem with the Colorado River water system is that it runs over a lot of high-alkali soil. The erosion of that soil over recent years has led to an ever-increasing salinity in Lake Meade and the rest of the Colorado River. We aren't sure when exactly, but within the next 100 years, we're either going to have to start to use some sort of desalinization process before delivering water for municipal uses or we're going to have to find some other way to get water to the millions of people depending on the Colorado River.
This global warming stuff is an absolute joke though. The worry is that there'll be decreased precipitation and increased evaporation. Well, that's all well and good, but none of these "theories" is based on anything remotely resembling a proven model. For all we know, global warming will increase evaporation in the Pacific Ocean which will result in an annual monsoon season in the Western U.S.
Yes, overpopulation and overconsumption of a limited resource in the West is also a problem, but in terms of water supply, we're nowhere close to tapping out that resource, at least at the Lake Meade area. The Colorado River is already a dry river at the point where it used to flow into the Pacific Ocean, but that happens a ways downstream.
At any rate, salinization is the real threat to the Lake Meade Reservoir, not decreased water flow. - Chahrlie5, on 02/13/2008, -3/+4This just in, 50% chance global warming is *****.
What the ***** point of these useless ***** statistics other than to work up the global warming movement then turn around and say it may not happen.
It's all speculative ***** that's being taken as the gospel truth. You suckers make me sick.- StaticThunder, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Yeah, they are even worse than the Christians, because, like, they don't even have any evidence. I mean, scientists totally proved Jesus came back from the dead and that there's an afterlife, but it has no basis to like, say the earth is in an unprecedented warming trend. They are totally in the dark, and just, believing stuff for the hell of it. I mean, who takes ice cores and tree rings and satellites seriously.
- Chahrlie5, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1Or the fact that climate has been cyclic since the beginning of time prior to human existence.
daft prick- StaticThunder, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Never like this, ad-hom using ***** moron.
- Chahrlie5, on 02/19/2008, -0/+1***** right ad-hom. It's ad-hom environmentalist ***** pulling at your heart strings that gets you rived up, so I'll use it too.
- StaticThunder, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Never like this, ad-hom using ***** moron.
- Chahrlie5, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1Or the fact that climate has been cyclic since the beginning of time prior to human existence.
- StaticThunder, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Yeah, they are even worse than the Christians, because, like, they don't even have any evidence. I mean, scientists totally proved Jesus came back from the dead and that there's an afterlife, but it has no basis to like, say the earth is in an unprecedented warming trend. They are totally in the dark, and just, believing stuff for the hell of it. I mean, who takes ice cores and tree rings and satellites seriously.
- caponumen, on 02/13/2008, -0/+2But yet this there is a 100% chance this article is BS, buried.........
- nydwarf, on 02/13/2008, -0/+1Is this one of those Lake half empty, Lake half full analogies??
- MindTrigger, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2The projected growth for Vegas is something like 4.3 million by the year 2030. I watched Vegas grow from 750,000 to 1.5 million in the 6 years I lived there and it was a ***** disaster of traffic, construction and long as lines everywhere you went. I watched Mead drop every year I was there, and it's still doing so. I also happened to work in the Real Estate industry at the time, and was hearing all the talk coming from City Hall about the "Manhattanization of Las Vegas". Vegas is surrounded by BLM land, and it takes an act of congress to free up that land. In other words, Vegas is planning to go vertical with construction. They have already been hard at work building plush high-rise condo buildings that no one wants to buy into.
I don't see how Mead will ever keep up with the growth in that desert. Vegas is a wasteland waiting to happen. They are already on some serious water restrictions, including shutting down all water features, no residential grass planted, desert landscaping only, limits on length of waterings and days of watering, etc and it's not helping much. - jakenapp, on 02/14/2008, -0/+0I think somebody better get off their ass and get real about this problem. With all the baby-boomers soon retirements, they will be looking to retire in places that are nice, and warm. Looming issue, as more are on the way.... .
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