Global Warming is Distrupting Water Supplies

A century's worth of water infrastructure built across the American West is being thwarted by global warming, according to two independent studies. "We have built all of our infrastructure to maximize the world as we know it," a researcher said.

Now, that world is changing, and it's due to human activity, the studies report. Scientists systematically examined variations in snowpack and stream flows and concluded that 60 percent of the changes had no natural explanation.

Winter snowpacks have traditionally stored water while reservoirs fulfill water needs during the winter. The reservoirs are re-filled when snow melts in the spring. Now, rain falls instead of snow, and water is wasted as reservoirs over-fill.