The Great Salt Lake, the United state’s biggest salty lake and the eighth-largest in the world (by area), has seen its water levels decline and its surface area shrink. Newly exposed portions of the lakebed appear as white fringes along the edge of the lake.
Water levels in the southern part of the lake usually stand a bit higher than in the northern half because more tributaries flow into the southern section. Though water levels in the Great Salt Lake can fluctuate by year, they have generally been declining for decades.
The Colorado River is parched; Lake Mead and Lake Powell dry up. Water cuts are coming
The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in the West. And on Tuesday, the federal government announced fresh cuts.
Starting in January, the river will operate in what’s known as a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time, since Lake Mead’s water level is projected to be below 1,050 feet above sea level at that point.
The Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency responsible for many super-sized water projects, has asked states to cut their use of water from the Colorado River by 2 to 4 million acre-feet, an amount close to all the water that California receives from Colorado in a single year.
Throughout the West, anxiety about drought is as palpable as the dryness of the air; talk of water fills newspapers and conversations alike. “Acidification kills civilizations. Is California next?” read one Los Angeles Times headline in June.
In February, scientists confirmed that the current, decades-long “mega drought” is the worst in 1,200 years. They also confirmed that rising temperatures — driven by human consumption of fossil fuels — were partly to blame.
In one sense, the climate change link seems obvious. Since 1850, global temperatures have climbed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit); in areas of the US hit hardest by drought, the increase is even higher. Temperatures in California have risen about 3 degrees F since 1896; in Arizona, they have gone up by 2.5 degrees.
Scientists welcome landmark US climate bill
Several US government agencies will see a significant influx of cash from a massive climate and tax bill that President Joe Biden has signed. The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act, pledges US$369 billion in climate investments over the next decade and could cut US greenhouse-gas emissions by about 30–40% below 2005 levels by 2030. Scientists worldwide have welcomed the bill, but warn that more work is needed to counter global warming.
Climate scientists’ study
The group Climate Action Tracker measures government climate action against the Paris climate agreement. It says the United States still is not doing enough to help the world stay within another few tenths of a degree of warming. It rates the new spending as “insufficient.”
Bill Hare is the director of Climate Analytics which puts out the tracker. “This is the biggest thing to happen to the U.S. on climate policy,” he said. “When you think back over the last decades, you know, not wanting to be impolite, there’s a lot of talks, but not much action.”
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