Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego say that Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake and reservoir in the United States, which supplies water as well as hydroelectric power to tens of millions of people throughout the Southwest, could be dry by the year 2021. Largely due to climate change, Lake Mead’s water level has been decreasing for about a decade--its decline is visible in this 2009 photo, where a bleached band of rocks indicates the lake's former high-water line. But Lake Mead is just one of a number of imperiled lakes around the world. Large and small bodies of water from Australia to Chile to China to Kenya to Central Asia to South Carolina are sadly deteriorating because of drought, global warming, chemical pollution, increased water demand, excessive fishing and other factors. A look at some of the lakes most at risk.
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