All Dried Up?

by WiredBerries Editors — February 19, 2008

Still looking for a place to spend Spring Break? You might want to visit Lake Mead while it's still there. Changes in climate and strong demand for Colorado River water could drain Lake Mead by 2021, triggering severe shortages across the region, scientists warn. Researchers at San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography report that America's largest artificial reservoir faces increasing threats from human-induced climate change, growing populations, and natural forces, like drought and evaporation. There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead will run dry by 2021 and a 10 percent chance it will run out of usable water by 2014, if the region's drought deepens and water use climbs, the researchers said.