If you walk to the edge of Lake Mead, on the border between Nevada and Arizona, you can stand on a rocky shore that used to be more than 100 feet below water. After 23 years of drought and increasing demand for water, the lake keeps shrinking. Satellite photos show the stark difference between the way the reservoir looked in 2000—dark blue and sprawling—and what’s left now.⁠ ⁠ As the water level keeps dropping, the neighboring Hoover Dam, which provides electricity to 1.3 million people, can’t generate as much power. The water is currently at 1,042 feet (boosted slightly by recent monsoon rains, but still only at 27% capacity). If it drops to 950 feet, hydropower will stop working—and water will stop flowing from the Colorado River to millions of people in Arizona, California, and Mexico.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ The Great Salt Lake, 1985 and 2022 [Images: ©USGS/contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2022), processed by ESA]