Are Y'all following the news about dangerously low water levels in rivers and lakes around the world? The U.N. calls this freshwater crisis "global water bankruptcy."
https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166800
An old nazi warship was visible and had to be hauled out of the Danube, a river cruise ship ran aground, there are extremely low levels in reservoirs in places like Colorado and Wyoming, Lake Mead giving up secrets we don't want to know. The Rhine and especially the very low Danube provide critical resources for transportation and cooling for power plants. Water reservoirs in Spain are down to only 71% full. In France, loss of groundwater is making some soils unstable. The Dutch have declared level 2 restrictions.
Officials in Italy are trying to reassure (gaslight?) residents and tourists that the levels in Lake Garda are just fine. The Greeks are alarmed to see that Lake Mornos has lost HALF of its capacity over the past four years. It could rain every day and you'd never catch up. Australia is in a full-on water crisis. Water flows from rivers into Perth’s dams has fallen by over 80%. China and 75% of Asian countries are experiencing a severe water crisis. Not only is most of the region water insecure, but also there is a contamination problem from upstream construction dams in rivers like the vital Mekong, the third longest river in East and Southeast Asia, which is at its lowest level in 100 years. 1 out of three people on the largest continent: Africa, lack access to just basic clean drinking water. South America's biggest cities are facing severe strain on their water resources. Same in Central America and the Carribean. Some wise guy will suggest we just build a bunch of desalination plants, not realizing the devastating damage to our soil, air, waterways, and ecosystem.
Everyone depends on (disappearing) snowpack to melt into rivers, lakes and streams. For years, we've been saying that there's too much water use, that these bodies of water cannot meet the demand. And now we have these data centers wasting more water and electricity than whole towns.
Even with all the extra rain we've had, Lake Lanier* is still five feet below full pool. That's not much at all for a lake over 1k feet deep, but it is significant to me that if it is not at full pool, even with extra precipitation, what will happen if we get less rain than we need? As in other places, we depend on lakes and rivers for drinking water.
At least the Great Lakes are very deep and pretty much drought-resistant. Lake Louise and associated rivers and streams were at near flood stage earlier in July, not sure about now. I hope Canada has had better snowpack than most places.
Whoever controls access to critical freshwater resources will have the most power. Wars will be fought over this.
*If you really wanna know why Lake Lanier is for real haunted, and why so many swimmers die there, look up the town of Oscarville.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/lake-lanier
Kim Possible :kimoji_fire:
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2026-08-01 14:48:38 UTC
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"content": "Are Y'all following the news about dangerously low water levels in rivers and lakes around the world? The U.N. calls this freshwater crisis \"global water bankruptcy.\"\n\nhttps://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166800\n\nAn old nazi warship was visible and had to be hauled out of the Danube, a river cruise ship ran aground, there are extremely low levels in reservoirs in places like Colorado and Wyoming, Lake Mead giving up secrets we don't want to know. The Rhine and especially the very low Danube provide critical resources for transportation and cooling for power plants. Water reservoirs in Spain are down to only 71% full. In France, loss of groundwater is making some soils unstable. The Dutch have declared level 2 restrictions. \nOfficials in Italy are trying to reassure (gaslight?) residents and tourists that the levels in Lake Garda are just fine. The Greeks are alarmed to see that Lake Mornos has lost HALF of its capacity over the past four years. It could rain every day and you'd never catch up. Australia is in a full-on water crisis. Water flows from rivers into Perth’s dams has fallen by over 80%. China and 75% of Asian countries are experiencing a severe water crisis. Not only is most of the region water insecure, but also there is a contamination problem from upstream construction dams in rivers like the vital Mekong, the third longest river in East and Southeast Asia, which is at its lowest level in 100 years. 1 out of three people on the largest continent: Africa, lack access to just basic clean drinking water. South America's biggest cities are facing severe strain on their water resources. Same in Central America and the Carribean. Some wise guy will suggest we just build a bunch of desalination plants, not realizing the devastating damage to our soil, air, waterways, and ecosystem.\n\nEveryone depends on (disappearing) snowpack to melt into rivers, lakes and streams. For years, we've been saying that there's too much water use, that these bodies of water cannot meet the demand. And now we have these data centers wasting more water and electricity than whole towns. \n\nEven with all the extra rain we've had, Lake Lanier* is still five feet below full pool. That's not much at all for a lake over 1k feet deep, but it is significant to me that if it is not at full pool, even with extra precipitation, what will happen if we get less rain than we need? As in other places, we depend on lakes and rivers for drinking water.\n\nAt least the Great Lakes are very deep and pretty much drought-resistant. Lake Louise and associated rivers and streams were at near flood stage earlier in July, not sure about now. I hope Canada has had better snowpack than most places.\n\nWhoever controls access to critical freshwater resources will have the most power. Wars will be fought over this.\n\n*If you really wanna know why Lake Lanier is for real haunted, and why so many swimmers die there, look up the town of Oscarville. \n\nhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/lake-lanier",
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