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Hope, Human and Wild
Blog post
The Disappearing Lake
Posted Aug 13, 2008 by Asher Miller
As the subtitle of Richard Heinberg's book Peak Everything says, the world is waking up to "the century of declines." And we're not just talking about peak oil. We're talking top soil... food production... water... greenhouse gas sinks... The confluence of these--largely borne from our dependence on cheap, abundant energy--is creating an amplification effect, feedback loops, that can happen with dizzying speed.
Once among the largest lakes in the world — at some 9,000 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey — Lake Chad has been decimated over the past four decades by rising temperatures, diminishing rainfall and a growing population that’s using more water than ever before. Today, estimated at less than 2 percent of its original size, the lake’s surface would barely cover Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Not surprisingly, the retreating tide in this century of declines is exposing those who live closest to the edge--the world's poor and most vulnerable. While many of us complain about gas prices and the rising cost of food, the 30 million Africans who live in the Lake Chad basin may soon be facing a life and death situation.
Get The End of Growth http://www.postcarbon.org/eog | Watch the animation Who Killed Economic Growth? http://bit.ly/whokilledgrowth
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1 comments
Lake Chad
From: Duane Navarre, Aug 23, 2008 07:45 PM
Lake Chad is a very shallow lake, at its deepest about 34 ft.
Scientists have concluded Global Warming is not the primary cause of
its recent rapid drop in water level.
For all the details check Wikipedia => http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Chad
The sources are noted at the bottom.
Keep in mind the lake almost completely dried up in 1908.
Long before man could have much impact.