Living Western History:
Periodic musings on Western history and its contemporary Implications
Continuing the discussion from last week about the West’s ongoing water crisis, I just happened upon this post on The Weather Channel. The article references a new Bureau of Reclamation report which projects that upcoming water releases from Lake Powell will be reduced – having potential impacts on downstream agriculture and hydroelectric projects. Again, no matter you stand on climate change, you can’t deny a drought.
Click through the 1999-present images, all taken in March/April at the top of the post to see Lake Powell dry up before your eyes. Striking visuals as the water recedes, comes back, recedes again.
Articles and Photographs here:
http://www.weather.com/news/science/environment/drought-lake-powell-lake-mead-climate-change-20130818
Another side of this issues is annual summer reports of fatal boating accidents on Lake Powell due to low-water levels creating more subsurface water hazards.
Jason Heppler (http://jasonheppler.org/) pointed us to this great Google Earth engine and its rendition of Lake Powell – 1980s to the present. Check out the site for some other great ones. And, check out Jason’s page for all things digital humanities.
Hi Brenden,
Great series! You might also be interested in Google’s Timelapse maps, too, to visualize environmental change. You can search anywhere in the world and view satellite imagery between 1984 and 2012. Here, for example, is Lake Powell:
http://earthengine.google.org/#intro/v=36.9388464,-111.48471670000004,13.165117192458268
There are some mindblowing examples included as well (the Wyoming coal fields are crazy).
Thanks Jason! I’ll expect you to comment regularly with your digital humanities wizardry. I’m going to embed that google map.