The Review-Journal’s lead story on Tuesday addressed the historic decline of the water level in Lake Mead, which continues to get worse day by day. Scientists have been warning about this for years.
In 1985, Carl Sagan testified before Congress on behalf of the scientific community, warning that humanity’s continuing emission of greenhouse gases could lead to dire, irreversible consequences — including a drought in the southwest United States. That news was counter-intuitive at the time considering that the lake level had reached its all-time high in 1983, requiring the opening of spillways.
Today Lake Mead has 29 percent of the water it had in 1983. If it is not sufficient that 97 percent of scientists agree with the predictions of Mr. Sagan, we now have proof of the consequences. Yet the leader of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, calls climate change a “hoax,” and his administration has dismantled most measures of mitigation that prior administrations — Republican and Democrat — took great pains to establish.
It’s not an over-statement to say that the continuing support of MAGA threatens the very existence of Las Vegas.
