A River used to run through it?

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

 Grand Canyon Sunrise, Frederic Barbier, Flickr

Is what people will ask in the future when they view the Grand Canyon? The Colorado river, supplying much of Nevada, Arizona and Southern California (about 28 million people) with water, is drying up. In fact it no longer runs to the ocean and is a mere trickle through a Mexican Village that used to rely on it’s fish. And the demand continues: Arizona added over 1 million people between 2000 and 2006

I just saw Grand Canyon Adventure: River At Risk, an Omnimax film that follows an expedition down the Colorado River, showing the excitement of white water rapids while showing why it’s in trouble. The film points out:

Lake Powell has lost 50% of it’s water in the last eight years.
Lake Mead has lost nearly 50% of it’s water during the same time.

Lake Powell, Airzona - Wolfgang Staudt, Flickr

Will these lakes be gone in another 8 years? Imagine what would happen to these areas should they run out of water - 28 million people displaced. While we have a surplus of water in the Northwest, the Southwest has very little.

In the 12th century, the Anasazi were displaced from the Southwest due likely to drought, overpopulation and depleted resources. Let’s not let that happen again.

Check out the movie - and join the Million Faces Project: our effort to help fight global warming.

 

 Subscribe in a reader