Rio Grande may dry up through Albuquerque, NM

[left-of-center2012]

(Global warming - climate change)

May 10, 2018 05:20 PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. –
It's a sad sight for John Fleck, director of the UNM Water Resources program. He said the drought-ravaged Rio Grande is just a shadow of its former self.

There is a real threat that the Rio Grande could go dry through Albuquerque for the first time in decades. Fleck said it would look drier today if it wasn't for upstream reservoir water being released into the river for farmers.
Even that is fleeting.

"Once the water for the farmers runs out, the river will just dry up and that could come as soon as July," Fleck said.
So far, Fleck says, it's the second-worst year on record for the once-mighty river.
"Unprecedented in many, many decades – certainly in the lifetime of most of the people who live in Albuquerque today – to see a dry Rio Grande through the middle of this town," he said.

Some areas have already dried up, like a section near Bosque del Apache in Socorro, NM.

http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/dry-rio-grande-albuquerque-unm-water-resources-director-john-fleck/4902714/

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. I agree......

On our road trip to New Mexico this past February and March, I too noticed that the Rio Grand is drying up. That spells disaster for the state.

[hunter]

2. New Mexico's Top 10 Agriculture Commodities

1. Dairy Products

New Mexico ranks seventh in the nation in milk production, producing about 600 million pounds of milk per month, much of which becomes cheese and other dairy products. In addition, New Mexico cows rank amongst the highest producing in the U.S. in milk productivity thanks to the state’s excellent climate conditions. Milk and dairy products generated $1.2 billion in cash receipts.

https://www.farmflavor.com/new-mexico/new-mexicos-top-agriculture-commodities/

The dairy industry dries up rivers in California too. It takes about 2000 gallons of water to produce a gallon of milk, mostly to grow the hay and other foods cows eat. The energy costs are also high.

I'm a traitor to my dairy industry ancestors when I suggest that nobody needs to drink cow milk, not even children. We raised our own kids on the typical breakfast cereal and glass of milk for lunch diet, but that was before I'd given it much thought.

"Factory farm" meat and dairy cows do not live a good life.

I'm not vegetarian myself, but my wife and daughter-in-laws are. I'll confess to eating bacon and sausages the carnivores in my family serve up. My wife and I also have dogs who we'd never expect to be vegetarian. But I do try to pay some attention to where the meat and dairy products I buy come from.

I might be working in the dairy industry myself but that two of my grandparents went to work in the shipyards during World War II and never went back to the cows, one ran off to the bright lights of Hollywood, and one joined the Army Air Corps and then worked as an aerospace engineer.

[RamblingRose]

3. And what about the Rio Grande south of Albuquerque?

We're going to Big Bend National Park this summer and were hoping to do a rafting (kayak) trip down the Rio Grande but am wondering if that will even be possible or if it will be like kayaking in a stream. I noticed one of the outfitters is closed for the whole month of June however that might not be uncommon considering the heat.

[NickB79]

4. It's only a matter of time before the Southwest depopulates

Streams of domestic climate refugees streaming for the West Coast, the Midwest and Canada as a decades-long megadrought settles in . They'll be met by refugees fleeing Florida and the coastal cities of the Gulf states and Eastern seaboard as rising waters consume neighborhoods there.

We pushed the climate too far to prevent catastrophe, I'm afraid.