As the water receded from Lake Mead this past year, all the major news headlines focused on the human remains it revealed. Very rarely did any mention the ecosystem in crisis as trees, fish and other aquatic creatures, birds and other species are dying out as they are left out to dry.
The Colorado River supplies water to roughly 40 million people in seven states, 29 Native American tribes and parts of Mexico, and farmers use it to irrigate nearly 5.5 million acres of agricultural land, according to the Smithsonian magazine. It’s a problem of our own creation, as the Colorado River Compact was signed 100 years ago last November.