Full article published and available West Hollywood Patch Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 1:29 pm PT|Updated Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 1:33 pm PT
In our digital interconnected world news travels fast—when we bother to listen. Which makes our shared indifference to a looming environmental catastrophe incomprehensible.
As of early July, 97 percent of California was in severe or extreme drought despite the fact that some parts of the state—particularly Southern California—are using more water than they did a year ago, ignoring repeated warnings. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s two largest reservoirs, are at critically low levels, and the flow of the Colorado River, the main artery for the Southwest, has declined about 20 percent since 2000.
While these trends are frightening back in April, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 2010 and that we are nearing the tipping point for global catastrophe. The bleak highlights include floods, droughts, wildfires, and war caused by water scarcity.