Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a statewide drought after two years of below-average rainfall, low snowmelt runoff and a court-ordered restriction on water transfers.

The drought in the southeastern U.S. has abated somewhat over the last few weeks, though as you can see in the picture at right the situation is still fairly bleak, not only in the Southeast but across the country.

Nor is the water crisis limited to the U.S.

"The glaciers on the Himalayas are retreating, and they are the sponge that holds the water back in the rainy season. We're facing the risk of extreme run-off, with water running straight into the Bay of Bengal and taking a lot of topsoil with it," he said.

"A few hundred square miles of the Himalayas are the source for all the major rivers of Asia - the Ganges, the Yellow River, the Yangtze - where 3bn people live. That's almost half the world's population," he said.

Lord Stern, the World Bank's former chief economist, said governments had been slow to accept the awful truth that usable water is running out. Fresh rainfall is not enough to refill the underground water tables.

"Water is not a renewable resource. People have been mining it without restraint because it has not been priced properly," he said.

More on this pricing issue in a little bit at culturemonkey.

And of course, if it's not too little water it's too damn much: The president of the low-lying Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati said Thursday his country may already be doomed because of climate change.

* I refuse to believe that the new Indiana Jones movie isn't totally awesome, regardless of what people on the Internet have to say about it.

* Double-amputee Oscar Pistorius has won his appeal against the Olympic Committee and will be participating in the Beijing Olympics.

* Jesse the Body Ventura teases a third-party run in the Minnesota Senate race. I thought Franken would have this thing walking away, but his campaigning hasn't impressed me so far. I have no sense of whether Ventura helps him or hurts him.

* Los Angeles may be forced to turn to sewage to meet its water needs.

* How to get out of serving on the R. Kelly jury, via Kottke.

I blame R. Kelly for Sept. 11. When the judge asked one prospective juror about his feelings regarding Kelly, he cryptically answered: "R. Kelly may have led the Taliban in attacking us on 9-11, but you can't prove it." You're right, we can't. In fact, we're fairly certain that no one has ever tried.

* What went wrong: TNR reports on how Clinton blew it.

* And in the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan calls 2008 for the Democrats.

Monday morning environews:

* Pentagon to Bush: climate change will destroy us.

A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

Worse even than the boogeyman! Too bad we've sat on our hands for the last seven years.

* Meanwhile, in local news, Tennessee and Georgia get ready to go to the mattresses over water rights to the Tennessee River.

* And the "They talked about global cooling in the '70s!" meme officially bites the dust.

Lake Mead, the water source for nearly 8 million people (including both Las Vegas and Los Angeles), could go dry by 2021.

The study’s findings indicated that there is a 10 percent chance that Lake Mead could be dry by 2014 and a 50 percent chance that reservoir levels will drop too low to allow hydroelectric power generation by 2017. There is a 50 percent chance the lake will go dry by 2021, the study says.

Researchers say that even if water agencies follow their current drought contingency plans, those measures might not be enough to counter natural forces, especially if the region enters a period of sustained drought or if human-induced climate changes occur as currently predicted.

"We were stunned at the magnitude of the problem and how fast it was coming at us," said study coauthor Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California at San Diego. "Make no mistake, this water problem is not a scientific abstraction, but rather one that will impact each and every one of us that live in the Southwest."

In the pictures left and up top, the white level on the rocks indicates where the water level used to be.

Here's another striking photo, courtesy of National Geographic:



At Lake Mead National Recreation Area, for instance, a barren landscape has replaced a harbor that once attracted campers and boaters.

This year's drought—the worst the southeast has faced in 100 years and the worst the American West has faced in 500—is just the beginning.

An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn't have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York's reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year.

Across America, the picture is critically clear - the nation's freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

The New York Times Magazine has much, much more. Discussion at MeFi.

For the first time in more than 100 years, much of the Southeast has reached the most severe category of drought, climatologists said Monday, creating an emergency so serious that some cities are just months away from running out of water.

In North Carolina, Gov. Michael F. Easley asked residents Monday to stop using water for any purpose “not essential to public health and safety.” He warned that he would soon have to declare a state of emergency if voluntary efforts fell short.