(NaturalNews) While it may seem impossible and unthinkable, the fact is if current drought trends continue the “city of lights” may soon turn into a former metropolis of entertainment.
If you’ve never heard of Lake Mead, it is the water reservoir that feeds Las Vegas, gambling capital of the nation. And its quickly being drained after years of punishing drought that have nothing to do with “global warming” or “man-caused climate change” and everything to do with normal changing patterns of weather.
Lake Mead is America’s largest reservoir, and a month ago Zero Hedge reported that at the time officials were already considering emergency conservation measures that would have to be imposed on both Nevada and parts of Arizona. The lake had fallen to record low levels since it was filled in the 1930s, which is putting its 2 million residents at risk and threatening a 40-million-visitor-per-year entertainment trade that is the city’s life blood.
As noted further by The Desert Sun:
The downward march of the reservoir near Las Vegas reflects enormous strains on the over-allocated Colorado River. Its flows have decreased during 16 years of drought, and climate change is adding to the stresses on the river.
As the levels of Lake Mead continue to fall, the odds are increasing for the federal government to declare a shortage in 2018, a step that would trigger cutbacks in the amounts flowing from the reservoir to Arizona and Nevada. With that threshold looming, political pressures are building for California, Arizona and Nevada to reach an agreement to share in the cutbacks in order to avert an even more severe shortage.