Media CenterHow Climate Change Contributed to Disappearance of a Major Lake

Catholic Relief Services staffer and Chicago native Joe Kelly is on home leave, and is hearing a lot of concern about Lake Michigan's water levels. In a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune, Joe highlights another lake affected by climate change, Lake Poopó in Bolivia -- once the nation's second largest lake covering 750 square miles -- that is now gone. He writes:

There are several reasons why the lake – and the livelihood of thousands of fishermen – is now gone, including mining that diverted water from tributaries, and last year’s drought blamed on El Nino. But without question the main culprit is the rising temperature associated with climate change.

Global warming has led to the disappearance of glaciers that fed Lake Poopó and increased the length and frequency of droughts even before El Nino disrupted rainfall in Bolivia over the last year.

In Central America, climate change is drastically altering the health of crops that people depend upon for their livelihood. Coffee beans are plagued by a disease because of climate change. Corn won’t grow where it once grew. As farms fail, more young people abandon the countryside to find jobs in cities or migrate north.

Read the rest of Joe's excellent letter, and what can be done about climate change, on the Chicago Tribune website (scroll down to the title "Vanished Lake.")