Shrinking Lakes

Yesterday I came upon the saddest picture I’ve seen in a long time, an aerial photo of a once large lake in California that looked as if it had about a tenth as much water in it as it should have. It was evidently once a popular lake for houseboats, because dozens of them were clustered into the part of the lake that was still wet. The scene reminded me of one I remember coming upon on an ocean beach –– a tidal pool with dozens of minnows clustered in an ever shrinking volume of water. The article opposite the California lake picture was about how the western United States is in the grip of worsening longterm drought. The article’s text was almost superfluous.