Disappearance of Bolivia's No. 2 lake a harbinger

[WhiteTara]

http://news.yahoo.com/disappearance-bolivias-no-2-lake-harbinger-051323393.html

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.

more at link

[KamaAina]

1. As long as Lake Titicaca is okay

[Kaleva]

2. Figured somone would get Titty Kaka in this thread somehow

[Mendocino]

3. It's happened in the US

Tulare lake in California at one time was the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi at about 700 sq miles. It had extensive marshlands and supported the southernmost salmon run in the US. Dams and irrigation canals have caused it to disappear.