More water cuts as the US adjusts to climate change

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The fear-inducing climate change stories are coming with more frequency and intensity, and the predictions about what will happen are dire.

Here are three CNN stories published in just the last few days:

The government is also, for the first time, trying to do something major about climate change. President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law Democrats’ plan to spend hundreds of billions to transition the country more quickly away from fossil fuels and move the US toward carbon neutrality. See what’s in the package.

But the big lesson from this summer should be that we don’t have to wait for the effects of climate change. They’re happening now with floods, wildfires and the drying out of the Western US.

The Colorado River supplies water to 40 million people in the West. And on Tuesday, the federal government announced fresh cuts.

Starting in January, the river will operate in what’s known as a Tier 2 shortage condition for the first time, since Lake Mead’s water level is projected to be below 1,050 feet above sea level at that point.

That means two states – Arizona and Nevada – as well as Mexico will face deeper cuts in how much water they can use from the Colorado River. California, however, will so far avoid cuts to water it receives from the Colorado River.

Lake Mead has been around 1,040 feet this summer, just 27% of its capacity.

Read the full report from CNN’s Ella Nilsen and Rachel Ramirez.

The Western water situation could ultimately affect all Americans since those states and the water they need fuel a multibillion dollar agriculture industry that feeds the country with access to green vegetables in the winter months, among other things.

On a hill in Boulder City, Nevada, overlooking what’s left of Lake Mead, CNN’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir talked about the coming water cuts.

He pointed Tuesday to a so-called “bathtub ring” that shows where the lake used to reach. He showed a marina, moved a quarter mile from its former spot to follow the receding water line.

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