Lake Mead could not be described as my favorite place on earth, but it is the take-out for many of us who consider the Colorado River run through the Grand Canyon our favorite place. Most runners will avoid Lake Mead and take-out up river a bit, but those who have seen it will testify, it is one, big body of water. Winds will whip over it raising white-caps and overturning small boats. It is the pleasure capital of the South West for those who love big boats, big motors and smoky air. Well, folks, it’s about to disappear. This is one more hurry-up among many that have been popping up like the unseasonable tornadoes in the South.
Lake Mead, the vast reservoir for the Colorado River water that sustains the fast-growing cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas, could lose water faster than previously thought and run dry within 13 years, according to a new study by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“We were really sort of stunned,” Professor Barnett said in an interview. “We didn’t expect such a big problem basically right on our front doorstep. We thought there’d be more time.”
He added, “You think of what the implications are, and it’s pretty scary.”
Or, to put it another way, a-fuckin-mazing!
And just in case you think that McCain is green enough, that allowing him in wouldn’t be all that bad:
…while McCain claims that climate change is one of his top three issues, his agenda the subject is pretty much non-existant. McCain won’t stand up for mandatory caps (despite the fact that his own bill on the matter amounts to a mandate), and supports emissions reductions that are significantly lower than those that Obama and Clinton support. His idea of good climate legislation is more in line with the Lieberman-Warner bill, which calls for less than a 70 percent reduction of emissions by 2050. The Democrats, meanwhile, have stood up in favor of emissions reductions to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050 — the kinds of reductions current science says we need.
And both Clinton and Obama have outlined cap and trade plans that would auction off 100 percent of pollution permits and invest the proceeds in clean energy technologies that will reduce carbon emissions. But the Lieberman-Warner bill currently on the table, which is closer to McCain’s preferred approach to cap-and-trade, only auctions a small percentage of credits, giving most of them away to the very industries responsible for global warming. The Democrats also support subsidies and tax incentives to help develop a green economy, which McCain doesn’t support.