A nearly two-decade drought has drained the Colorado River, leaving regulators scrambling to protect the waterway, which provides water to 40 million people across seven states. Colorado officials are treating the situation as an emergency, the Aspen Times reports. But their efforts may come too late; the Bureau of Reclamation predicts a 57 percent chance that the river's largest reservoir will be too low to give each state its agreed-upon share by 2020, according to a Colorado Public Radio report.
More and more people in the American West, like millions of others worldwide, may soon suffer the effects of water scarcity. According to a 2017 NASA study, rising global temperatures will bring more frequent and severe droughts, with consequences for the planet, including increased greenhouse gas emissions and forest decline.
But drought's effects have also been found to harm people on an individual level, affecting mental health and aggravating anxiety. A growing body of social science research links water insecurity to emotional distress. Here are a few of the relevant findings:
[For more on this story by EMILY MOON, go to https://psmag.com/environment/...affect-mental-health]
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