New images of Lake Mead offer 'a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. west in 12 centuries.'
"This is not a drought, this is aridification," said one water law expert."This is the new world we live in."Newly released images from NASA show how drastically decades of drought in the American West have caused water levels in crucial Lake Mead to decline, threatening water access for tens of millions of people and millions of acres of farmland.satellite images of the reservoir, part of the Colorado River watershed, taken in early July 2000, 2021, and 2022.
The images are"a stark illustration of climate change and a long-term drought that may be the worst in the U.S. west in 12 centuries," Michael Carlowicz, managing editor of NASA Earth Observatory,The lake supplies water to about 25 million people in the West, across seven states, tribal lands, and northern Mexico.
Precipitation and groundwater levels—which provide about 10% of Lake Mead's water—have also been chronically low.that Americans should change their understanding of the persistently dry climate in the West over the last 20 years. At maximum capacity, the reservoir would reach an elevation of 1,220 feet and would hold 9.3 trillion gallons of water.
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