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Lakes Mead and Powell could run dry by 2021

16 02 08 - 14:18

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Lakes Mead and Powell could run dry by 2021




By Peter N. Spotts






Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which supply water and power to millions in the American Southwest, stand a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water, according to a new study.

Causes include growing population, rising demand for Colorado River water, which feeds both lakes, and global warming, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who conducted the study.

Lakes Mead and Powell could run dry by 2021






Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which supply water and power to millions in the American Southwest, stand a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water, according to a new study.

Causes include growing population, rising demand for Colorado River water, which feeds both lakes, and global warming, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who conducted the study.

The results underscore the importance of water-conservation measures that many communities throughout the region are putting into place. Other studies, some dating back nearly 20 years, have projected that Lake Mead could fall to virtually useless levels as climate warmed, but they lacked a sense of the timing. The new results, the Scripps scientists say, represent a first attempt to answer when lakes Mead and Powell would run dry, squeezing water supplies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it is coming at us," notes Tim Barnett, a research physicist at Scripps who led the effort. By "dry," the team means that water levels fall so low behind the Hoover and Glenn Canyon Dams that the water fails to reach the gravity-fed intakes that guide it through turbines or out through spillways. In addition, the report estimates that the lakes stand a 50 percent chance of falling to the lowest levels required to generate electricity by 2017.

Last week, Dr. Barnett published additional work in the journal Science attributing 60 percent of the reduction in snowpack, rising temperatures, and reduced river flows over the past 50 years to global warming.

The latest work "not only shows that climate change is a real problem. It also shows it has direct implications for humans - and not just in the third world," says Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif. The institute focuses on links between sustainable development and global security issues. "Even without climate change, we're taking too much water from the Colorado. So it's no surprise that if we continue to take too much, the reservoirs will go dry."

The message is not lost on water planners, adds Sharon Megdal, director of the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After years when discussions of climate change and water sat on the back burner, regional water managers are "beginning to get on the same page" regarding adaptation to global warming, she says. "At least they're asking the questions that need to be asked."

To Barnett, whose results have been accepted for publication in the journal Water Resources Research, time is of the essence. It takes so long for the planning process - and what some see as the inevitable legal challenges - to play out that he dubs the water-supply issue an "immediate" problem.

Given the effects of projected population growth on water resources, it might seem that the best solution would be to post "Keep Out" signs at state borders. But Dr. Gleick points out that changes in water use could go a long way toward easing the crunch. Such changes could include boosting the price of water to more closely reflect its value, requiring xeriscaping for homes and commercial centers, and on the farm, growing less water-intensive crops and using more miserly irrigation techniques. "Grow alfalfa in Minnesota or Iowa, not here," he says. "These are all plausible; they are not difficult decisions."

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Used tags: climate_change, lake_mead

Liposuction doctor uses human fat to fuel car - loses license as a result

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:27 pm Los Angeles - A California liposuction doctor has lost his license to practice after being busted for using human fat he sucked out of patients bodies to fuel his car. As it turns out, using human medical waste in California is illegal.

Doctor Craig Bittner, who operated a fat clinic in Beverly Hills, California up until November when he was shut down for his morbid use of human body fat, was creating what he called "lipodiesel" out of the human waste collected from his clinic's liposuction practice. more

Defatted soy flour eyed as filler for rubber tires

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:08 pm Washington - In 1941, Henry Ford unveiled a plastic-bodied car whose panels included soybean meal as component. The feat made headlines--and history--but the idea never took off commercially. However, researchers continue to toy with the idea, including (ARS) scientists Lei Jong and Jeffrey Byars, who are testing soy flour as a "green" filler for tires and other natural rubber products.

Today's fillers are typically petroleum-based particles called "carbon black." Tire manufacturers use them in rubber to improve tensile strength and wear resistance. But petroleum's many competing uses, rising costs and ties to pollution have rekindled interest in biobased alternatives, especially those derived from homegrown crops like soybeans.

Soy flour is primarily used in cooking and baking. But Jong and Byars' studies at the ARS Cereal Products and Food Science Research Unit in Peoria, Ill., indicate the flour also could serve as an inexpensive alternative to today's carbon-black tire fillers.

The researchers use defatted soy flour that's been dispersed in water to form aggregates 10 microns in diameter (about 1/1000th of an inch). Then they add the aggregates to rubber latex and freeze-dry the mixture. This causes the aggregates to form a tight interconnecting network through the rubber.

For lab tests, the researchers mold the soy-based rubber into samples and subject them to shearing and other forces. Of particular interest is the "storage modulus," which measures the elasticity of a material. On average, the storage modulus scores of composites containing 30 percent soy flour are 20 times higher than filler-free rubber, but somewhat lower than those reinforced with carbon black.

In addition to testing other biobased filler materials, the researchers are collaborating with rubber manufacturers to further explore the technology.

A report on the research was recently published online in the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. more

Arctic ice melt accelerating, scientists say

Sunday 28 December 2008 at 6:01 pm Reno - Scientists say the Arctic ice is melting at a faster pace than previously thought and now believe the Arctic Ocean could be completely ice-free by 2015. more

Toward a greener economy

Friday 17 October 2008 at 2:55 pm Toward a greener economy




By Moises Velasquez-Manoff





New York - Market bubbles occur when goods are traded at prices that greatly exceed real value. They burst when they grow so bloated that they become unstable. The current economic turmoil, widely viewed as the worst since 1929, is one example of what can happen when the difference between market value and actual value becomes too great.

Environmentally minded economists have long warned that equally burstable ecological bubbles can occur if humanity lives beyond earth's capacity to regenerate. The problem, they say, is that we're addicted to economic growth. Mainstream economics assumes that the economy, the engine of modern civilization, can grow perpetually. more

Renewable Electricity Surges by 32 percent-Provides 11 percent of U.S. Net Generation

Sunday 12 October 2008 at 06:23 am Renewable Electricity Surges by 32 percent-Provides 11 percent of U.S. Net Generation




Washington - According to the latest "Monthly Electricity Review" issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (October 3, 2008), net U.S. generation of electricity from renewable energy sources surged by 32 percent in June 2008 compared to June 2007.

Renewable energy (biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, wind) totaled 41,160,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) in June 2008 up from 31,242,000 MWh in June 2007. Renewables accounted for 11.0 percent of net U.S. electricity generation in June 2008 compared to 8.6 percent in June 2007. more

City Trash Plus Farm Leftovers May Yield Clean Energy

Sunday 12 October 2008 at 06:15 am City Trash Plus Farm Leftovers May Yield Clean Energy




Washington - Tomorrow's household garbage might be blended with after-harvest leftovers from fields, orchards, and vineyards to make ethanol and other kinds of bioenergy. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are investigating this straightforward, eco-friendly strategy in their laboratories at the agency's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif. more

Big Help in Biofuels Research

Monday 29 September 2008 at 02:52 am Big Help in Biofuels Research


Washington - A short little grass known as purple false brome may speed discoveries about switchgrass, its famous cousin and energy-crop hopeful.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists like John Vogel and Yong Gu at the agency's Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., are probing the genetic makeup of purple false brome, or Brachypodium distachyon, as a faster way to learn more about the genes inside switchgrass. more

Precedent-setting carbon auction Thursday

Monday 29 September 2008 at 02:43 am By Mark Clayton


For almost as long as people have worried about global warming, economists have called for taxing carbon emissions. As long as sending CO2 skyward was cost-free, they argued, the practice would continue.

Starting Sept. 25, for the first time in US history, a price tag will begin to be placed on millions of tons of carbon dioxide spewing from every major power plant from Maine to Maryland.

Just what that price will be won't be known until after Thursday's computerized auction of about 12.5 million tons of "carbon allowances," essentially permission slips to pollute.

Utility companies will bid on the allowances. They may be used, saved, or traded so that any company with a need to send more CO2 up the stack can buy more - at the market price. The amount of CO2 to be cut over the next decade is modest - about 18 million tons annually (US power plants collectively emit about 2.8 billion tons of CO2 yearly). But the auction and process of setting a price for carbon are critical first steps, many say. more

Dispelling The “Twisted Truths” Of Energy-Saving Light Bulbs

Saturday 13 September 2008 at 5:18 pm Dispelling The “Twisted Truths” Of Energy-Saving Light Bulbs







For more than 129 years, people have used the incandescent light bulb as the primary light source for the home. With more consumers searching for products that are good for the environment, a new light bulb is revolutionizing lighting around the world. Energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) have become the symbol of the “green” movement. They use 75 percent less energy and last as much as 10 times longer than traditional incandescent light bulbs. Plus, they help reduce carbon dioxide emissions linked to global warming. more

Campaign Plants Trees At Schools Across The U.S.

Saturday 13 September 2008 at 5:08 pm Campaign Plants Trees At Schools Across The U.S.






Schools are generally seen as the place to plant the seeds of knowledge. Yet thanks to a one-day environmental campaign, schools and parks across the country became places to plant something a little greener.

Sixteen schools across the country, from Long Island to Hawaii, participated in the initial “Trees for Success” campaign, with more than 800 trees planted in schools and neighboring parks in a single day. The schools were selected by the Arbor Day Foundation out of more than 200 applications based on need, civic and local support, student involvement, a plan for upkeep, and location. more