Skye Childrey
Speech 2 Outline
Topic: Lake Mead: Its’ decreasing water levels: causes and effects
Organization: Causal
Introduction
I.Attention:
A.How many of you here today have ever seen the 2007 “Resident Evil” movie “Extinction” that takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada?
1.Minus the infected people and more of the abandoned homes and casinos, that barren post-apocalyptic scene when Alice walks through the Mojave desert may soon become a reality.
a.But before you allude that I must be a conspiracy theorist just listen to this startling fact.
B.On February 25, 2015, it was reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal, “Michael Connor, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said there is a 20 percent chance of [water] shortages
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"buckle up." Barnett co-authored a study estimating a 50% chance that a combination of climate change and increased demand could render Mead effectively dry by 2021” (qtd. Barnett).
B.Last updated on January 30, 2014, Ben Tracy of CBS news wrote an article called “Las Vegas is Shrinking--and with it Las Vegas’ Water Supply” and in it he states that, “Since 2000, the lake has lost 4 trillion gallons of water.”
1.To put that into perspective, Lake Mead has lost 36% of the total water needed to end the drought in California, 160 million swimming pools or four years worth of water that Americans waste per year due to leaky
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II.Review Main Points:
A.Climate change and increased water usage have created a deficit in the flow of water into Lake Mead.
B.The lake has shrunk significantly and led to changes in how Las Vegas locals use the lake both recreationally and for water supply purposes.
C.How we obtain our water in Southern Nevada may drastically change as soon as 2021.
III.Memorable Ending:
A.While it is far-fetched to picture Las Vegas in that scene right out of “Resident Evil: Extinction” the reality is Las Vegas’ major water supply, Lake Mead is drying up.
B.In the words of J.C. Davis who is a spokesperson for the project to drill a third intake pipe into Lake Mead, “Without Lake Mead, there would be no Las
How is development creating longer term problems for groundwater storage ? Cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are built in the desert. This whole process relies on water from two sources: 1. River water pumped from the Colorado system 2. Groundwater held in aquifers below ground.
B. You won’t be alone when you come to the staggering conclusion, that the CIA played a lead role in the death of our 35th President
Farmers and ranchers who own water rights should have their water amount filled earlier in order to facilitate themselves with the proper amount of water. They should not be restricted to a smaller prearranged amount of water each year. Water us...
The prospect of Lake Mead’s water level returning to the fullness of the past would be a desirable outlook. As stated, “Snowpack in southern and eastern Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada is still far below normal” (Berwyn, B., 2014, para. 3). The very dry conditions in New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Nevada muc...
2. Las Vegas was still relatively small and developing, and the land was bought “raw”, meaning that there was no electricity or water set up.
Texas, with its abundances of natural resources, is facing a new demon, one that doesn’t even seem possible, a shortage of water. Water, without it nothing can survive. Texas is the second largest state for landmass in the nation and ninth for water square miles. Within the borders of Texas are more than 100 lakes, 14 major rivers, and 23 aquifers, so why has water become such an important issue for the state? Politicians and conservationists all agree that without a new working water plan, the state could be facing one of the most damaging environmental disasters they have ever seen. The issues that shape the states positions are population growth, current drought conditions, and who actually owns the water.
As global temperatures and ocean levels rise, the water levels of the Great Lakes continues to fall. As the lakes hit their all time lowest level in global history in 2012, society remains ignorant to the imposing doom that lurks ahead. Since the Great Lakes make up the largest group of fresh water lakes on Earth and are responsible for approximately 21% of the Earth’s fresh water supply, this issue is becoming one of the largest environmental and economical issues our modern world faces. The effects of this issue include destroying animal habitats and a major economic market; shipping. Water levels in the Great Lakes have been dropping for the past fourteen years, but it wasn’t until boats were scraping the bottom of Lake Huron that people began to take notice. This terrible environmental issue has been dubbed a long term cycle of over evaporation and not enough precipitation to replenish the Lakes. Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the United States Army Corps of Engineers in Detroit has been monitoring this issue for a decade and has made startling discoveries, such as in 2012, he discovered Lake Michigan and Lake Huron’s water levels only rose four inches after winter, whereas the Lakes have been regularly recorded as gaining a foot of water after the winter season had ended. This amount of water added is not enough to maintain a proper water level during the dry, hot summer seasons that evaporate much water from the Great Lakes. While some scientists say that this is just a cycle that will adjust itself naturally, most experts that have been studying this phenomenon, such as Kompoltwicz, would agree that the issue has gone to far
It’s fall everyone and Halloween is coming.I would like to tell you that fall is the best season of all.
This film was presented beautifully and was able to appropriately discuss all forms of water issues our world is having from shortages to contaminations to possible solutions. The filmed opened up with the city of Las Vegas, Nevada and how they have used up so much water that at the time the
According to The Chicago Tribune “Close to 3,000 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year.”In 2016 chicago homicide rate was at an all time high,last year there have been reported 762 people died from gun violence,”3,550 shooting incidents, and 4,331 shooting victims.”Hundreds of people have died from gun violence every year and also a portion of the murder rate is made up of innocent people that have also died from a firearm violence.Also in the united states the number of fatalities from a firearm were “33,594” according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.I believe we should ban the use of firearms because the number of people that die or get injured from a firearm keeps dangerously increasing each year.
9. The Salton Sea Authority and the California State Water Commission presentation of : Salton Sea Symposium II - various speakers. The Salton Sea - January 1998
Grillo, I. (2009, April 11). Dry Taps in Mexico City: A Water Crisis Gets Worse. Retrieved January 2014, from Time: http://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1890623,00.html
Many scientific studies also show increases in the intensity, duration, and extent of droughts, higher atmospheric temperatures, warmer sea surface temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, and diminishing glaciers and snowpack. The bottom line is that causes of climate change, such as greenhouse gas emissions, will have to be minimized if people want to do as much as possible to solve the water crisis. Works Cited Water demand management: the case of Zaragoza, Spain Web 25 Nov. 2014. http://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/swm_cities_zaragoza_2010/pdf/final_report_swm_cities.pdf.
Miller, Debra A. Will the World Run out of Fresh Water? Detroit: Greenhaven, 2007. Print.
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).