The Colorado River, it is really the lifeblood of the American Southwest.

It starts in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and goes down 1,450 miles to the Gulf of

California along the way it created the Grand Canyon.

That's our colleague Jim Carlton.

I've spent tons of time on the Colorado River and my job is to cover really the American

West, you know there's some of the most spectacular scenery in America, Red Rock canyons, those

Native American reservations, there's so much history.

Right now in the American West there's an epic drought and it's causing the Colorado

River to dry up.

The Colorado River is in crisis due to largely climate change.

It's in the worst drought in at least 1200 years.

1200, like 1200 years.

And it's so dry you can see like little dust levels and a boat covered and like dried

up caked mud and like a coyote on the distance, you know it's just like out of a cleniest

one movie or something.

There are seven states and tens of millions of people that rely on the Colorado River

for drinking water, agriculture and basically their entire existence.

Those states all have to share the river's water and the drought is making that a lot

more difficult.

The Colorado River is on the virtual collapse and with that there's a very large economy

kind of at risk.

I mean that's how bad the situation is and that's what everybody is trying to figure

...