Steve Milloy

Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton says Lake Mead is shrinking because of climate change. Is it? We report. You decide.

Here’s is Carlton’s claim:

First, the history of Lake Mead’s elevation is actually quite volatile.

And the elevation is relatively low now — about 1,070 feet.

But today’s elevation is not all that different from the low points of 1956 and 1965 (about 1,090 feet, shown in first graph), especially when you consider the increases in water use and human management of reservoir levels over time.

No doubt that drought is affecting Lake Mead. But Western drought is natural (the region is a desert, after all), and Lake Mead was comparably low more than 100 ppm CO2 ago.