I searched but didn't notice a good topic heading to put this news so I created a new one.
It looks like a critical issue with water is on the horizon in the very near future.
@Jeanne-mayell , Does the time frame of 2025 make sense to you with things you have gotten? I thought of you when I read this news.
I wish our local government would prioritize educating people about conserving water. Only the media seems to be discussing the water crisis here in AZ.
~ There's a chance water levels in the two largest man-made reservoirs in the United States could dip to critically low levels by 2025, jeopardizing the steady flow of Colorado River water that more than 40 million people rely on in the American West.
After a relatively dry summer, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released models on Tuesday suggesting looming shortages in Lake Powell and Lake Mead — the reservoirs where Colorado River water is stored — are more likely than previously projected.
Compared with an average year, only 55% of Colorado River water is flowing from the Rocky Mountains down to Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona line. Due to the below-average runoff, government scientists say the reservoirs are 12% more likely to fall to critically low levels by 2025 than they projected in the spring.
“This is a pretty significant increase over what was projected in April due to the declining runoff this year,” hydrologist Carly Jerla said.
https://news.yahoo.com/water-shortages-us-west-likelier-001226984.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=fb
@lovendures. Check out this post I wrote in 2014, predicting the future to 2100.The first vision I had was of an epic game changing drought in the heartland around 2026-2028.
During my meditation, when I got to 2026-28 I saw a map of the U.S. and a cactus appeared in the heartland. The cactus looked somber and epic. I was so shocked that I started the meditation over and again, the map of the U.S. appeared and the cactus appeared again. Usually when I re-do a meditation, I don't see the same thing twice.
In the post, I also reviewed the climate literature and found a key study in which scientists gave their gut estimates. Their most extreme estimates were 20 foot sea rise by 2100. I also knew 20 feet was the closest, but more like 20 feet by 2075 and much higher by 2100, perhaps 40 - 80 feet.
Experts' guesses are more accurate than detailed analyses. Because when experts are guessing, they are using both expertise and intuition. They drop the conflicting details and cut to the chase.
I read later that glaciologists who are the world experts on how glaciers melt, speak of unseen melting going on inside glaciers and then sudden unexpected collapse. Well that collapse is now starting to show in both polls and it is only 2020.
Disturbing! Wall Street is about to Trade water?
My husband and I just watched the series “Utopia,” and without giving anything away ... in case anyone is planning to watch it ... there is mention of the next world war being over water, the earth dying due to overpopulation, pandemics and climate change and all of these converging. Scary to think this could/will be the reality in which my children live and work and maybe raise families.
99 percent of Arizona is currently in a state of drought.
55 percent of Arizona is in Exceptional Drought (the worst kind), including parts of the Phoenix metro area.
The Phoenix metro area was down about 40% in rainfall last year.
Currently Phoenix is down about 60% for 2021.
This weekend Phoenix will likely tie or break record temps.
Nevada, Utah and Colorado look pretty bad on the drought scales too.
Not a surprise of course, just wanted to share where the southwest stands.
I'm curious, do you ever wonder about the long term viability of living in a place like Arizona? I know some journalists have dubbed Phoenix "the world's least sustainable city." If I lived in a highly populated desert region, I'd be extremely nervous about a "day zero" scenario where water stops coming out of the faucet.
Yes Coyote, I have for a number of years. The state is much father behind then they should be and the population keeps growing. Yes, they have take some good conservation steps but they are very far behind where they should be at this point of time. I believe we would be hearing more about how precarious things are if we have state leaders who would chose to lead.
I am amazed about the lack of public service announcements over the past several years tackling this subject. Water reserves will only go so far.
I feel I will likely move out of the state in about 5-8 years or at least only be here part of the year. The monsoons used to help break up the summer but there are fewer of them now and less rain over the entire year.
Our sunsets are something to behold though, and the big open blue sky.
5-8 years sounds like the timeframe a lot of us are operating on. In that period I will probably move to Vermont or another area of inland New England so that I have more protection from tropical storms and rising seas than what CT offers.
@Coyote I am not surprised you will head that way but the timeframe is interesting.
I am not sure where I will move to yet. It will be an adventure I guess. I will need to be open to what is best.
@coyote @lovendures - I’ll gladly toss Northern Michigan up as a great destination to move. There’s tons of space here and — well — we’ve got water! Right behind our farmhouse is an empty stretch of land that someone has wanted to build a subdivision on for 20 years with no takers! :-) We have just the right amount of winter!
I'm sorry, @dannyboy, there is no "right amount of winter", unless you mean none. ;-)
@tgraf66 I understand - though the last three winters we've had just the right amount - it's come in December, and melted in March. Usually in December I like it because of the Christmas lights, and am ready for it to be gone by February, but it doesn't normally overstay its welcome too badly.
That said, my friends an hour south of me have this wrong idea in their head that we're second only to Alaska for endless winter and snow from June to June each year. ? I'm like - dudes, you live 60 miles south of me. I'm not 20 latitude lines above you!
An interesting article about microplastics in the water,
In a recent article in Sustainability, scientists from Reykjavik University (RU), the University of Gothenburg and the Icelandic Meteorological Office describe finding microplastic in a remote and pristine area of Vatnajokull glacier in Iceland, Europe's largest ice cap. Microplastics may affect the melting and rheological behaviour of glaciers, thus influencing the future meltwater contribution to the oceans and rising sea levels.
The findings confirm that microplastic particles are distributed through the atmosphere.
https://phys.org/news/2021-05-microplastics-europe-largest-ice-cap.html
@lovendures Wow. That is stunningly awful, but I'm glad to learn about it. So thanks for posting. :-)
I have been doing a lot of reading about desalination plants. As with anything, there are problems that come along with the process, but great advancements are being made. Apparently Israel leads the pack with a surplus of freshwater. It is fascinating and interesting.
I wonder if this will be the answer to the world's freshwater problem.
@polarberry IMO reclaimed wastewater is a big part of the potential answer. It is possible (and indeed in practice in many places) to treat wastewater to the point where it is legally safe--- meaning if you took this stuff down to a testing facility and told them it was from your well, it would pass.
The problem is the "ick" factor. "EEEW!", people say. "I don't want to drink someone else's pee!", not understanding that every molecule of H2O you get from reservoirs or aquifers likely was at some time somebody's pee-- human, bear, dinosaur.... or all of the above plus more. Reclaimed water is often used for irrigation purposes but getting people to drink it is another matter. We've got to get over this illogical squeamishness.
Well, I'd be lying if I said I was 100% ok with the *ick* factor of that myself. ? But, you are correct, most of the freshwater we drink is ancient. There is a beer called Moose Drool so Bear Pee would probably be just as hot a seller. As long as that water was in alcohol form, tons of people would get over their squeamishness right quick.
Researchers in Australia have developed a low-cost and highly-efficient solar technique. Science Daily has an article about it-"Sunlight to solve the world's clean water crisis." It's very exciting.
Jeanne, you've made a lot of predictions about drought. What do you see happening with technological advances to solve the world's water crisis?
I was just reading on another thread, Jeanne, where you wrote you're not comfortable with the arrogant attitude of years back that technology will solve the climate crisis. I didn't see that before I asked you about technological advances with desalination.
Climate change is going to be more terrifying than anyone can imagine. I hope we can figure out some solutions, whatever they are. ?
@polarberry desalination is great. It works. I was referring to reliance On technology that doesn’t exist yet or hasn’t been shown to be safe or effective. For example spraying aerosols into the atmosphere to block the sun is a technology that is risky and could cause havoc because they have no idea how it could affect weather.
Clearly if our earth heats up to the point where it is necessary to take those kinds of risks, then they will have to do that to avoid worse. That is what I meant.
I am all for doing whatever we can that is safe like desalination, planting trees, getting to net zero carbon as quickly as possible, developing drought resistant plants, planting everywhere and anywhere. But only if people continue to take seriously that we must stop burning fossil fuels and we must change how we treat the planet. And not rely upon harebrained technological magical thinking as an excuse to keep burning fossil fuels and polluting the planet. Sorry that I wasn’t clear.