Lake Mead, the prime source of water for Clark County may run dry in 13 years according to a new study.

The study by two researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, predicts a 50 per cent probability it will be gone by 2021 in the absence of other changes.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said study co-author Tim Barnett, a marine research physicist.

It's been a bit of a surprise to boat owners whose marinas keep moving to follow the vanishing shoreline, also, but it should make a great off-roading park when it becomes a dry lake bed. Besides no water to drink, what happens if there isn't water running through the electrical turbines of Hoover Dam?

In a response to Senator Lieberman's request for an analysis of the impact on the U.S. if the Climate Stewardship and Innovation Act of 2007 (bill S. 280) were to be passed the E.P.A. wrote the following:
...emmissions under S. 280 would be approximately 1-3 percent lower than 2000 levels in 2030 and 1-5 percent lower than 1990 levels in 2050.
...reductions in Gross Domestic Product would range between 1.1 percent and 3.2 percent. (If enabling technologies are widely available.)
...gasoline prices would increase $0.68 per gallon and electricity by 25 percent by 2050. (That would only be the cost of the bill--not other factors that might lead to $10-20 a gallon gasoline prices.)

The E.P.A. analysis does not try to calculate the cost to the U.S. if higher operating costs cause these business to move overseas nor the cost environmentally if they move to countries with little or no environmental protections at all. In another letter to Senator Spector the E.P.A. reports that Bingaman-Specter (S. 1766) requires a smaller percentage reduction of emissions in covered sectors, but since S. 1766 has broader coverage than S. 280, the total abatement achieved by both bills is similar.

2007 eleven most endangered historic places according to Preserve Nevada include:

1. Sprawl-Free Landscape - Gilcrease Family Properties, Las Vegas
2 . Historic Austin
3. Historic Goldfield
4. Commercial Row, Wells
5. First Presbyterian Church, Carson City
6. Hillside Cemetery, Reno
7. The Huntridge Theatre, Las Vegas
8. Nevada Northern Railway East Ely Shops and Yard, Ely
9. Round Hill Pines Resort, Tahoe
10. Southern Nevada Adobe Structures - Kiel Ranch, Las Vegas
11. Virginia Street Bridge, Reno

Just in case you blinked passing through Goldfield, here is what you missed.

Thousands of Argentines cheered and threw snowballs in the streets of Buenos Aires on July 9, 2007 enjoying the first major snowfall since 1918.

Oh, wait...maybe that disproves global warming.

Early proponents of protecting the environment include Dupont which lobbied Congress to ban the refrigerant R-12 in favor of 135. It also happened that 135 was the product of fruitless research by Dupont because it was not as efficient as R-12 and the R-12 patent owned by Dupont was about to end, opening the product to be sold cheaper by competitors of Dupont. But thankfully, Congress did ban R-12 and thus protect Dupont from losing money on 135--which appears to be more corrosive than R-12. Also on the list is former Prime Minister of the U.K., Margaret Thatcher, who announced threats to the environment by green house gases while she battled unions of miners who threatened the British economy. Obviously, since miners dug coal and coal creates gases when burned, the miners became the "bad guys" for wanting to continue mining coal and make a living. Later, Bill Clinton and Al Gore met with Ken Lay who suggested that his company be protected from competition because his was a "green" company. Yes, that Ken Lay--the one who ran the failed Enron corporation; and yes, that Al Gore--the one who wants you to know he is so environmentally concerned while he heats and cools his 30 room mansion and once claimed that volcanoes can't throw ash high enough into the atmosphere to affect climate, commenting on the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

Strangely, the so called "green" movement calls for more government regulation and yet less competition against the largest of corporations which can afford to buy pollution credits.
So it seems like a win/win for both Democrats and Republican politicians alike. Democrats who support more government and Republicans who support bigger monopolies of companies.

Losers will be ordinary citizens who pay for "green" programs in taxes and higher prices for products from the "favored" companies.

And for anyone who wondered: The Pinatubo eruption in June 1991, more than 490 years after the last known eruptive activity, produced the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century.

The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tons of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere--more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone destruction increased substantially. But remember, Al Gore said that couldn't happen.