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Tuesday, July 1st, 2014

The Race to Stop Las Vegas From Running dry

Author:     NICK ALLEN
Source:     The Telegraph (U.K.)
Publication Date:     4:11PM BST 28 Jun 2014
 Link: The Race to Stop Las Vegas From Running dry
Stephan:   Here is another report of a city now being threatened by climate change. This trend is gaining momentum. The truth is cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Tucson will not survive in their present form. The water needed to sustain them as they are simply isn't there, and the temperatures will become so high that it will be difficult to be outdoors, let alone work outdoors. I think Las Vegas, for instance, has about a 15 year timeline, maybe as little as 10 before water stress begins to really disrupt the city. This is the antipode to sea level rise, and will be just as disruptive. There will be a migration out of the drought areas, as there will be a migration away from the coasts. Both reversals of the present situation where each area is growing.

Outside Las Vegas’s Bellagio hotel tourists gasp in amazement as fountains shoot 500ft into the air, performing a spectacular dance in time to the music of Frank Sinatra.

Gondolas ferry honeymooners around canals modelled on those of Venice, Roman-themed swimming pools stretch for acres, and thousands of sprinklers keep golf courses lush in the middle of the desert.

But, as with many things in Sin City, the apparently endless supply of water is an illusion. America’s most decadent destination has been engaged in a potentially catastrophic gamble with nature and now, 14 years into a devastating drought, it is on the verge of losing it all.

‘The situation is as bad as you can imagine,” said Tim Barnett, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. ‘It’s just going to be screwed. And relatively quickly. Unless it can find a way to get more water from somewhere Las Vegas is out of business. Yet they’re still building, which is stupid.”

The crisis stems from the Las Vegas’s complete reliance on Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir, which was created by the Hoover Dam in 1936 – after which it took six years to fill completely.

It is located 25 miles outside the city and supplies […]

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