Disappearance of Bolivia's No. 2 lake a harbinger

[webfact]

Disappearance of Bolivia's No. 2 lake a harbinger
By CARLOS VALDEZ

UNTAVI, Bolivia (AP) — Overturned fishing skiffs lie abandoned on the shores of what was Bolivia's second-largest lake. Beetles dine on bird carcasses and gulls fight for scraps under a glaring sun in what marshes remain.

Lake Poopo was officially declared evaporated last month. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people have lost their livelihoods and gone.

High on Bolivia's semi-arid Andean plains at 3,700 meters (more than 12,000 feet) and long subject to climatic whims, the shallow saline lake has essentially dried up before only to rebound to twice the area of Los Angeles.

But recovery may no longer be possible, scientists say.

"This is a picture of the future of climate change," says Dirk Hoffman, a German glaciologist who studies how rising temperatures from the burning of fossil fuels has accelerated glacial melting in Bolivia.

As Andean glaciers disappear so do the sources of Poopo's water. But other factors are in play in the demise of Bolivia's second-largest body of water behind Lake Titicaca.

Drought caused by the recurrent El Nino meteorological phenomenon is considered the main driver. Authorities say another factor is the diversion of water from Poopo's tributaries, mostly for mining but also for agriculture.

More than 100 families have sold their sheep, llamas and alpaca, set aside their fishing nets and quit the former lakeside village of Untavi over the past three years, draining it of well over half its population. Only the elderly remain.

"There's no future here," said 29-year-old Juvenal Gutierrez, who moved to a nearby town where he ekes by as a motorcycle taxi driver.

Record-keeping on the lake's history only goes back a century, and there is no good tally of the people displaced by its disappearance. At least 3,250 people have received humanitarian aid, the governor's office says.

Poopo is now down to 2 percent of its former water level, regional Gov. Victor Hugo Vasquez calculates. Its maximum depth once reached 16 feet (5 meters). Field biologists say 75 species of birds are gone from the lake.

While Poopo has suffered El Nino-fueled droughts for millennia, its fragile ecosystem has experienced unprecedented stress in the past three decades. Temperatures have risen by about 1 degree Celsius while mining activity has pinched the flow of tributaries, increasing sediment.

Florida Institute of Technology biologist Mark B. Bush says the long-term trend of warming and drying threatens the entire Andean highlands.

A 2010 study he co-authored for the journal Global Change Biology says Bolivia's capital, La Paz, could face catastrophic drought this century. It predicted "inhospitable arid climates" would lessen available food and water this century for the more than 3 million inhabitants of Bolivia's highlands.

A study by the German consortium Gitec-Cobodes determined that Poopo received 161 billion fewer liters of water in 2013 than required to maintain equilibrium.

"Irreversible changes in ecosystems could occur, causing massive emigration and greater conflicts," said the study commissioned by Bolivia's government.

The head of a local citizens' group that tried to save Poopo, Angel Flores, says authorities ignored warnings.

"Something could have been done to prevent the disaster. Mining companies have been diverting water since 1982," he said.

President Evo Morales has sought to deflect criticism he bears some responsibility, suggesting that Poopo could come back.

"My father told me about crossing the lake on a bicycle once when it dried up," he said last month after returning from the U.N.-sponsored climate conference in Paris.

Environmentalists and local activists say the government mismanaged fragile water resources and ignored rampant pollution from mining, Bolivia's second export earner after natural gas. More than 100 mines are upstream and Huanuni, Bolivia's biggest state-owned tin mine, was among those dumping untreated tailings into Poopo's tributaries.

After thousands of fish died in late 2014, the Universidad Tecnica in the nearby state capital of Oruro found Poopo had unsafe levels of heavy metals, including cadmium and lead.

The president of Bolivia's National Chamber of Mining, Saturnino Ramos, said any blame by the industry is "insignificant compared to climate change." He said most of the sediment shallowing Poopo's tributaries was natural, not from mining.

In hopes of bringing it back, Morales' government has asked the European Union for $140 million for water treatment plants for the Poopo watershed and to dredge tributaries led by the Desaguadero, which flows from Lake Titicaca.

Critics say it may be too late.

"I don't think we'll be seeing the azure mirror of Poopo again," said Milton Perez, a Universidad Tecnica researcher. "I think we've lost it."
___

Associated Press writer Frank Bajak contributed to this report from Lima, Peru.


-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-21

[bluebluewater]

Them 'ol boys in Bolivia have a sense of humor about their place names!

[Chicog]

After thousands of fish died in late 2014, the Universidad Tecnica in the nearby state capital of Oruro found Poopo had unsafe levels of heavy metals, including cadmium and lead.

And prizes for guessing where that came from.

[FloridaExport]

After thousands of fish died in late 2014, the Universidad Tecnica in the nearby state capital of Oruro found Poopo had unsafe levels of heavy metals, including cadmium and lead.

And prizes for guessing where that came from.

Oooh. Me. Pick me.

Authorities say another factor is the diversion of water from Poopo's tributaries, mostly for mining but also for agriculture.

The article didn't mention Arsenic, but both agriculture and mining can contribute to that heavy metal as well.

[CliffH]

The Aral Sea has gone the same way. Used as an industrial waste dump, and water flowing into it diverted.

[Jingthing]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

[RickBradford]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

^^^

About a single lake, which has dried up before, drying up again?

They'll be saying considerably less than the bedwetters of climate catastrophe who are running around trying to get anyone interested, I expect.

[SOTIRIOS]

...open your eyes and do some actual research.....don't just swallow the bunk .....

[arjunadawn]

The political party of Climate Change now holds that a dry lake is from climate change, as is rain, as is no rain, as is heat, cold, ice, no ice, wind, left, right, DAESH/IS, ad infinitum. The political agenda couched as Global Warming ran into the obvious problem that no one believed it was related to man as these things had always been happening. So, they morphed into the political party of Climate Change and broadened its mandate to include every component of civilization being the result of those terrible humans. There is never mention of the fundamental and self evident causes of climate change: clouds interacting with solar forces, and even galactic/solar mechanics; certainly not earthly volcanology, magnetism, or tidal forces influencing each other.

Lets be clear: pollution is not climate change. Pollution is horrible and perilous. The two should not be confused. Looking at a worldview in the narrow window of years rather than eons anyone could invoke a theory to support their political ideology and fools will see the same thing when they look outside. However, the constant changing of planet earth have been happening for billions of years. An article just today suggests that man, 7,000 years ago, has terribly effected climate change. This political ideology is absurd fiction but concealing a very deadly Leftist ideology.

Climate Change is not an observation, it is an ideology.

[englishoak]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

Same as always id expect

That Climate change is mostly a natural process and has cycles driven mainly by THE SUN and has been happening since the earth was formed and will go on until its devoid of every bit of life on it.

its only us that perceive it as a problem, instead of building on stilts on a flood plain they whine when they are flooded once every 10 years or a lake drys up in a drought.. or we build houses at the base of a semi dormant volcano and wonder why theres lava running through the living room next time it blows....again

agitated by man sure can be but driven ? naaa thats for children and tax collectors

[Daniel Boon]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

^^^

About a single lake, which has dried up before, drying up again?

They'll be saying considerably less than the bedwetters of climate catastrophe who are running around trying to get anyone interested, I expect.

Yeah, that's the spirit, shoot the 'climate catastrophe bed-wetters' ... if / when the water comes back but no fish can live in it or people near it, that's not a problem ... dumping poison unchecked is no problem, it eventually entering the water table is no problem or it finding its way to the ocean is no problem ... you 'dry-bed' 'he-men' are the best ... you're the type who tells someone they lost their legs 'good news bad news; lost your legs but I got someone to buy your shoes'

[RickBradford]

you 'dry-bed' 'he-men' are the best

I guess we are.

It certainly takes a lot more character and courage to go out and actually achieve stuff than it does to sit around and whine about how terrible everything is.

I'm sure those wily Bolivians will find a way to deal with this; if it were me, I'd turn it into a tourist spot for all the well-off climate bed-wetters to visit and shed copious tears over the hardship of local people and the iniquity of capitalism. Free raindances nitely to the sound of nose flutes.

[i claudius]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

Its happened before,it will happen again,the world changes constantly,sorry

[Steely Dan]

They should build luxury lakeside villas and a marina, then wait for revision to the mean to bring the waters back.

[rickudon]

The drying of this lake, this time, may be due just to the El Nino but water is a critical issue throughout the Andes. Many rivers derive most of their dry season flow from glacial meltwater - and ALL Andean glaciers are in retreat. Many will be gone by the middle of the century. The high Andean plateau is already extremely dry but could soon become drier still.

Here is a scientific article (already 10 years old) about the dangers,

ftp://ftp-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/downloads/outreach/2011_Plagos_Review/Bradley-etal_Science-2006.pdf

Probably too technical for non-bedwetters .....

[MaeJoMTB]

So what do the climate change denialists say about this?

Flooding all over Europe and the UK at the moment.

Worst seen for 50 years.

[Steely Dan]

The drying of this lake, this time, may be due just to the El Nino but water is a critical issue throughout the Andes. Many rivers derive most of their dry season flow from glacial meltwater - and ALL Andean glaciers are in retreat. Many will be gone by the middle of the century. The high Andean plateau is already extremely dry but could soon become drier still.

Here is a scientific article (already 10 years old) about the dangers,

ftp://ftp-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/downloads/outreach/2011_Plagos_Review/Bradley-etal_Science-2006.pdf

Probably too technical for non-bedwetters .....

Some places get warmer over time, others get colder, just as some get drier as some get wetter. Weather effects climate and climate change has gone on since we had an atmosphere. That we are just crossing over to a time when the world is in the warmer half of the total climate history from the cooler half may be due to many things. That man made global warming is undeniable does not necessarily make it significant compared to other causes. To selectively focus solely on what fits your ideological stance does not magic away conflicting evidence, just as forgetting those troublesome data points that don't fit the supposed trend would be hardly conducive to further government funding.