In 2021, southwestern states saw the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River, the result of long-lasting drought due to climate change. The water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell are both at all-time lows, and experts predict this pattern will continue. The Colorado River provides water to almost 40 million people, and we will need to adapt water use practices quickly as the Colorado’s volume declines. Climate-induced drought is already one of the most critical problems in the Rocky Mountain West, and to protect the water that millions of humans and other species depend on, we will need rapid action to reduce fossil fuel use and limit warming. From this photo’s vantage point, with the Colorado reduced to just a thin glimmering thread, it is easy to see that even the river that carved the Grand Canyon can be vulnerable.

By Isabel Devito, '24