In December, two urgent and potentially disastrous pieces of news came out in just one week. First, that due to drought, historic cuts in the amount of water taken from the Colorado River may be needed in the near future to avoid "dead pool" situations that could eliminate the ability of the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams to produce power and, even worse, severely limit the southward flow of water from the dams. Second, that after observing an Alaskan glacier front melting up to 100 times faster than previously assumed, researchers developed new computer models showing that the same could be happening to the Greenland ice sheet, the second largest in the world. What do these two things have in common? Both are potential examples of foreseeable calamities that could come to pass after ample warning but insufficient appreciation of - or preparation for -the disasters themselves.
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