What Happens When The Colorado River Runs Dry?

The water system supplies water to 40 million people. What happens if it dries up?

Subscribe to Science Friday Subscribe on Apple Podcasts Subscribe on Overcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on Youtube Music Subscribe on Pocket Casts Lake Mead is currently projected to be at its lowest level since filling within the next year, possibly triggering the first federal shortage declaration on the river that supplies water to 40 million across seven U.S. states. Credit: National Park Service This segment is part of The State of Science , a series featuring science stories from public radio stations across the United States. This story was reported by Luke Runyon on KUNC . Dry con

related reading

• We can Terraform the American West – Casey Handmer's blogcaseyhandmer.wordpress.com
• Drought parches America's breadbasket - E&E News by POLITICOeenews.net
• How Corpus Christi’s water emergency exposed flaws in Texas’ water planningtexastribune.org
• Seaflooding - by Tomas Pueyo - Uncharted Territoriesunchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com
• Water War: Is Big Agriculture Killing Brazil’s Traditional Farms? - Yale E360e360.yale.edu
• Climate change | 80,000 Hours80000hours.org
• The U.S. drought vulnerability rankings are in: How does your state compare? | NOAA Climate.govclimate.gov
• Colorado is Burning. For Many Scientists, It’s Personal. - Union of Concerned Scientistsblog.ucsusa.org
• Data centers consume massive amounts of water – companies rarely tell the public exactly how muchtheconversation.com
• Ways to think about water – Alex Danco's Newsletteralexdanco.com
• Drought and extreme heat burn through farmers' margin for error — and it's only Julynbcnews.com
• The Great Climate Migration Has Begun - The New York Timesnytimes.com