Climate change: Bolivia's second largest lake dries up, in pictures

[Judi Lynn]

Climate change: Bolivia's second largest lake dries up, in pictures








More photos at link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/earth/12058237/Climate-change-Bolivias-second-largest-lake-dries-up-in-pictures.html?frame=3530426

Environment & Energy:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/112795114

[Judi Lynn]

1. Disappearance of Bolivia's 2nd largest lake declared a natural disaster

Disappearance of Bolivia's 2nd largest lake declared a natural disaster

Published December 19, 2015/
EFE

The government of the western Bolivian province of Oruro issued a declaration of natural disaster Saturday after learning that Lake Poopo, the second largest in the country after Titicaca and which once covered more than 4,600 sq. kilometers (1,780 sq. miles), has almost dried up.

Oruro Gov. Victor Hugo Vasquez enacted a law that declared it a natural disaster, which will speed up the acquisition and use of funds to somehow improve the disastrous situation, which also affects the economy of the inhabitants of eight municipalities in the area.

. . .

Poopo maintained its balance for six or seven years, but now "the lake won't have enough time to reestablish itself in a natural way as the ecosystem it used to be," he said.

The drying up of the lake has also banished some 200 species of wildlife including birds, mammals, fish and reptiles, the ornithologist and expert in fauna of the Andean lakes, Carlos Capriles, told the daily La Razon.

The lake, now reduced to three small wetlands, was once a resting place for the thousands of birds migrating from north to south, and also a source of water for threatened species like the Andean puma.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2015/12/19/disappearance-bolivia-2nd-largest-lake-declared-natural-disaster/