The world is a lot stranger than it seems. All around us things are happening that can’t be explained. I think that many of us realize that there is a fresh water crisis. This, in itself, is not so strange given the number of people on the planet and the change in the weather. Global warming is an absolute fact, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Most of the people that deny global warming have some sort of political agenda that doesn’t allow them to tell the truth. So far, all of this is common knowledge, but what isn’t so well known is the fact that lakes have been disappearing all over the globe. Oh I am not only talking about lakes drying up over a period of time, that would be understandable, but I am also talking about a lake that is there one day and gone the next. Sure some of these lakes drained, but others left no evidence of a hole to drain into, they just vanished.

Lake Jackson, in Florida was a very famous Bass fishing lake. It was known throughout the area for the fine fishing. One day, exactly half of the lake drained through a sinkhole. Sinkholes can appear almost anywhere and they not only appear at the bottom of bodies of water, but on dry land, as many people have fund out. Houses have fallen into some of these things. Even in places like New York City giant holes have formed in the streets. One lake, that has just disappeared, really has geologists confused. It was located in O’Higgins National Park in Chile and now it is just gone. There is no evidence of a sink hole and the lake was pretty large, it was 20,000 square meters. The last time anyone saw the lake was in March. There is just a big depression left where the lake used to be. Ice was floating on the lake and now it is on the lake bed. The crater left by the empty lake is 30 feet deep in spots. It looks like a meteor crater now. Some of these lakes are actually able to be restored. There are different methods for doing this, but essentially, if there is no sinkhole, then it might just be refillable.

In Russia, in 2005, Lake Beloye completely disappeared overnight without a clue as to how this happened. The scary part is that there was no reason that could be found for the disappearance. When something like this happens, you can’t help but get the people out there that say it was aliens that took the lake for some unknown purpose. Now as is widely known, I have a very open mind and never dismiss anything, but to just make a statement like this without any proof of anything is just ridiculous You might just as well say that it got sucked into space or that a spell was cast over it that made it disappear. Satellite photos that were taken between 1973 and 1988 show that hundreds of lakes have just disappeared across Siberia. The big questions here are why is this happening and where is the water going? Has something changed in the area that has cut down on the water that went into the lakes, allowing them to just dry up from evaporation? This wouldn’t explain why some of the lakes just disappeared in a short period of time or even overnight. Prior to this discovery, a study had been conducted that reached the conclusion that the lakes were increasing. I guess there is nothing like photographic proof to show the true results.

If we could take all the water out of Lake Superior and pour it over the continental United States, we would be under a foot of water. We are finding that Lake Superior is disappearing. It is down almost 2 inches, if it were to continue this way, someday it would be gone. This is probably not going to happen, I hope, but the lake is at the lowest point it has been in over 80 years. The big question here is, where did the water go? 2 inches of water across this lake is an awful lot of water to just disappear. Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. This is not the only large American lake to be dropping. Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are both very low. The problem in this case, is that there has been less rain and higher temperatures over the lakes. This is another case for global warming. Could it be that we are going to lose the Great Lakes someday? While they will never disappear overnight, their demise could happen. We are quickly losing the biggest fresh water supply in the world. Lake Superior alone is the largest body of fresh water in the world, being 31,700 square miles. It has 1826 miles of shoreline.

MPEG Movie of Lake Chad Drying Up - Size 2,319 KB
Movie Source: NASA

In Nigeria, Lake Chad has shrank by a whopping 95%. It will soon be no more unless something is done. Unfortunately for the people of the area, this was their main source of fresh water. It was 25,000 square kilometers in the mid 1960s, but in 2001 it had shrunk to only 1,350 square kilometers. A real problem is developing in the world. There is a huge shortage of fresh water and it is getting worse. While we don’t notice it here yet, people in Africa are dying. In the developing world, even lakes and rivers that are not disappearing are so polluted that you can’t drink the water. This is made all the worse when you think of the fresh water shortage.

It was 66,000 square kilometers. It is located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and is down to 1/5 of its original size. Even the shore line has receded up to 250 kilometers in some areas. The area where the sea used to cover is now a contaminated wasteland. If things keep going this was, there will be NO Aral Sea in another 15 years. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it, if the Earth is going to become a Mars type planet in the future? Perhaps Mars was inhabited at some time in the past and might have had lakes, rivers and oceans. All that may have been lost due to mismanagement by the beings there, just like what is happening here. I know this is shear speculation, but when you think of the Red Planet and what some believe are ruins and man made structures, you just can’t help but think this way.

Even ancient bodies of water are in trouble. The Sea of Galilee in Israel, is in trouble. It is the world’s lowest lake being 209 meters below sea level. It is being used more than ever and not without consequences. On top of this the rate of evaporation is very high and the lake is shrinking. As it shrinks, it becomes saltier. There is also a drought in the area. Israel has another water problem that also effects Jordan and Palestine. That problem has to do with the Dead Sea. The sea is falling by one meter a year. This is because the rivers that feed it are being used for irrigation by Israel and Jordan. So much water is being used, that it is over 2X the amount of water that can be replaced naturally in the aquifer. The Dead Sea was originally 75 kilometers long and now is only 55 kilometers long and has split in two. As the sea retreats, sinkholes are forming on the shoreline forcing people to move. It is estimated that the Dead Sea of biblical fame will disappear by 2050 unless something is done. As the sea shrinks different species of animal life disappears, along with plant life.

So what is happening to our world? We are definitely losing our fresh water. What are the implications of this? Well besides the obvious one, that people will go dry, there could be wars over water. This has happened in the past in areas where water was scarce. We can look at the American west of 130 years ago, to see many examples of this. If you think that water is expensive now, it could go higher, way higher and become the most expensive item on our menu. Don’t think that companies are not going to take advantage of this situation either. Look at what has happened with gasoline. All we can do is hope that people come to their senses and start to practice conservation before it is too late. Another thing that I hope never happens is that since we have so much fresh water in this country, that we don't conserve it just to use it as an expensive export.