How bad is climate change?
Well, it's historic.
It's coming to Nevada.
Lake Mead in Nevada, the nation's
largest reservoir by volume,
reached its lowest capacity since
the 1930s.
The human-made lake is currently
at roughly 36% of its capacity.
So we've been really
focused nationally on the pandemic,
on public health concerns.
That is definitely understandable.
That said, kind of around starting
this time, a lot of the country
starts to experience wildfires,
starts to experience droughts.
And the pandemic has
not done anything that makes those
things less severe or
less likely to occur.
So we're to
get into some of the consequences
of Lake Mead being so low.
But Bridget, this is a reminder,
all of those problems that we put
a lot more attention into before
the pandemic, before that took so
much of our public consciousness,
that is still there.
>> Yeah, it is still there and
it's so important.
I think that for a long time we
talked about climate issues like
some sort of abstract thing, or
talked about it like save
the whales or something like that.
But this is urgent.
We're talking about people,
as we know,
climate change disproportionately
impacts low income people, people
of color, indigenous communities.
And so it is a racial justice
issue, it intersects with so
many issues, and it's very urgent.
So I'm so glad to see you
representing it on the show.
And hopefully, if we talk about it
with the seriousness
that it deserves, we'll actually
get get somewhere with it.
>> Well, thank you,
I appreciate that.
And it is very serious.
But it's also serious for
a reason that I don't think about
very often when talking about this.
So first the obvious one,
then we'll get to the less obvious.
First of all,
roughly one in ten Americans depend
on the Colorado River for some of
their water, and the basin also
provides irrigation for more than
5.5 million acres in the Southwest.
So right off the bat, actual access
to water for individuals, water for
agriculture, this is significant.
They're focusing on this particular
river because they're focusing on
this particular reservoir.
But the drought is real and
we're going to show you how wide
it spreads.
There are very serious concerns
going forward about access to water
for millions and
millions and millions of Americans.
So that's something that we don't
necessarily talk about every day.
But bear in mind that when we talk
about climate change,
we sometimes focus on the extreme
weather events like hurricanes and
things like that.
This is the sort of less sexy,
less immediately in your face
consequence that is going to have
an effect on lots of communities,
lots of individuals.
Now, that said,
there is another consequence,
which is access to power.
In normal years, the dam that that
reservoir is attached to provides
enough electricity for
8 million people.
And according to one of the Bureau
of Reclamation spokespersons,
every foot of lake level decline
means about six megawatts of lost
capacity.
The Hoover Dam's energy capacity
has already dropped 25% by Tuesday.
So it isn't just that we don't
necessarily have access to
the water, and that theoretically,
it being down to 36% now, project
out 10, 20 years, and imagine,
what if it actually runs dry?
But that is actually a very
necessary source of electricity for
a lot of people.
And it's happening at a time where
we're having this conversation
about what our infrastructure
priority should be for
energy production.
I don't know, I kind of think this
should be major news to help drive
that conversation in a productive
direction, Bridget.
>> Absolutely, I mean, as we said
earlier in the top of the show,
any infrastructure plan that does
not center climate change is just
not enough.
And as you've just laid out
talking about this water reservoir,
this is people's actual lives,
it's how we get our water,
how we get our energy.
We need to be talking about it
urgently instead of pretending that
it's not a real problem,
pretending that this is not really
infrastructure.
Or not talking about it because
it's not a sexy as things like
wildfire is a real mistake.
>> Yeah, exactly, exactly, and
just like with the wildfires, could
result in destruction of farms and
things like that and loss of life.
So let's give you a little bit
more information,
what you might have coming up
if you live in the Southwest.
The record low reading as well as
expected subsequent drops in
the lake are almost certain to
trigger a federal water shortage
declaration later this summer,
which would set off cuts in water
allocations to several states.
So that's going to be fun for
individuals.
Also, it's going to result in
an incredible amount of political
strife between different states.
But it does let us act out if
you've ever had fantasies of living
in Mad Max Fury Road,
we're getting closer to it.
And by the way, let's just jump
ahead to this map of the drought to
show you how bad it is.
This is as of yesterday.
So exceptional drought is that
darkest red color,
that is stretching across most of
a couple states.
And I'm trying to see,
it looks like it doesn't quite hit
us here in LA, but
we do have extreme drought.
So that's fun,
not as good as exceptional.
I always want to be exceptional.
But that is a huge portion of
the country, cities with millions
and millions of people in them, and
agriculture, and
rivers that feed to get our water.
So I don't know, it's so
significant.
And again, there's the sort of,
I guess, the side effect or
the silver lining that this
is going on when we're having a
conversation about how much of our
focus on legislation, the budget,
and infrastructure spending should
be on climate change.
But it's also, by the way,
happening today.
We have this bipartisan group
coming out and
they appear to have massively
de-emphasized climate change as
a part of the infrastructure bill.
I don't know. And even this story,
we have an intern, Josh,
who brought it to our attention.
Great reporting on places like
Axios and the Guardian, but
is this national news?
Is this to the same level as
something like the DOJ
investigation?
Which is serious,
don't get me wrong,
we talked about it, too.
But going forward, the
implications, I don't know, I feel
like this deserves more attention.
>> I completely agree.
I mean, it's so urgent and
we're barely talking about it.
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