Glug, glug, glug....

Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern United States, could go dry by 2021, a new study finds.

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.

Anyone else thirsty?

Both of this country's two fastest growing states, Nevada and Arizona, rely on Lake Mead's water supply.

We can smirk about Las Vegas and we can fiddle while Rome burns. Or we can enact severe restrictions on growth and water usage and let the folks who can't give up their swimming pools go the hell back to Michigan. We can get serious and confront the utter un-sustainability of large populations in the desert southwest and then boot the lawns, cotton fields, and golf courses out.

Or we can continue in the happy la-la land that is America these days. But la-la ain't going to fill Lake Mead, and 2021 is only 13 years away.