---
title: How Climate Change is Destroying the American West
date: 2008-08-21T18:27:46Z
modified: 2008-08-21T18:27:46Z
permalink: "https://elizabethyarnell.com/how-climate-change-is-destroying-the-american-west/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 3793
categories:
  - Living Naturally
tags:
  - American west
  - climate change
  - Colorado River watershed
  - melting glaciers
  - nuprana
  - water conservation
  - water conservation products
author: Elizabeth
---

Think climate change won’t affect us in our lifetime? Think again.

1. In 1910 there were 150 glaciers at Glacier National Park; now there are 25.
2. Glacier National Park will have no more glaciers within ten years.
3. Southern California is home to 23 million people, all of whom are dependent on the Colorado River for the majority of their water needs.
4. Due to decreasing mountain snow melt in areas like Glacier National Park, the Colorado River, the primary water supply for seven states, will be unable to meet demands within FOUR YEARS.
5. An April Gallup Poll found that only one in three Americans are worried about Climate Change.

It’s coming faster than you think. Read the whole article on [climate change in the wes](http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_14167.cfm "climate change")t from the [Organic Consumers Association](http://www.organicconsumers.org "organic activism").

![](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/50/112550-004-7B056C78.jpg "Glacier National Parks disappearing glaciers")

_These are a series of [photographs of the Grinnell Glacier](http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/234676/57353/St-Mary-Lake-reflects-the-Rocky-Mountains-in-scenic-Glacier "Grinnell Glacier melting") taken from the summit of Mount Gould in Glacier National Park, Montana, in 1938, 1981, 1998, and 2006 (from left to right). In 1938 the Grinnell Glacier filled the entire area at the bottom of the image. By 2006 it had largely disappeared from this view._



_1938-T.J. Hileman/Glacier National Park Archives, 1981 – Carl Key/USGS, 1998 – Dan Fagre/USGS, 2006 – Karen Holzer/USGS_

Those of us who live in the states crossed by the Colorado River should be especially concerned about water conservation, and it rankles me every time I learn about a new golf course planted in this arid environment. Don’t even get me started about how the sight of vast expanses of water-hungry Kentucky bluegrass in a high mountain desert raises my blood pressure.

Check out Nuprana for [user-friendly water conservation products](http://www.nuprana.com "water conservation products") for environmentally friendly people.