Frank Nieslanik’s calloused hand pulls hard on the gear shift of his 1951 Jeep Willys as he navigates the bumpy roads of the land he has farmed for the last 30 years.
On one side of the road, the fields are verdant, filled with rows and rows of young sweetcorn. On the other side, the fields lie fallow. It is one of the many efforts that Mr Nieslanik has made in recent years to conserve water at his farm in Grand Junction, Colorado.
“We’re using less,” he said. “We’re trying to leave one piece fallow off of each headgate just to give more water to the others in case they cut us back — or when they cut us back, which they will. We’ll have some vacant ground we don’t have to water."
The Colorado River, which runs adjacent to his farm, has been in a drought for 22 years.
The waterway and its tributaries snake through seven US states and Mexico. Along the way, the river provides drinking water for about 40 million people and nourishes the farmland that helps feed families across the country.
In western Colorado, where Mr Nieslanik farms, the river has supplied agricultural producers for generations and made the state famous for its cattle and produce.
But exceptionally hot weather this year coupled with an increase in water demand downriver means there is mounting pressure on farmers in the area to use less water.
“Seems like we’re shorter every year,” Mr Nieslanik told The National. “We’re in an extended drought and we keep hoping that they’re going to get a big snowpack to alleviate part of that, but we just haven't had it.”
The source of the Colorado River lies high in the Rocky Mountains, which serve as the continental divide that separates the water basins of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The region’s heavy snowfall fuels the river, but several years of low snow levels have left the river a shadow of its former self.
Scientists say climate change is exacerbating the problem.
A study by the US Geological Survey published in February found that global warming is causing the Rocky Mountain snowpack to shrink at a rate of about 9.3 per cent per degree Celsius increase in temperature.
“Climate change is having a pretty profound impact on snow in the west and our water supply,” said Keith Musselman, a scientist at the University of Colorado’s Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
The Rockies' snowpack is like a water tower for the Colorado River: snow accumulates in the winter and melts in the spring, filling the river when demand is at its highest.
“Climate change is affecting that in a couple of different ways,” Mr Musselman said, standing on a rocky outcrop overlooking the continental divide.
“It's changing the type of precipitation that we get; instead of getting snowfall in the winter, we’re frequently seeing rain and that rain doesn't persist into the dry seasons as readily, so that leaves our soils dryer, vegetation thirstier and more stressed.”
Janie VanWinkle has been working the land near Grand Junction her entire life. The fourth-generation cattle rancher has seen good, bad and even really bad years. This year is shaping up to be the latter.
“We’ve been through dry spells before and we’ve been through droughts,” she told The National.
“The hard part is the cumulative effect. We saw 2018 was dry, 2019 was an average year, 2020 was dry and here we are again, so the soil moisture is just gone. There’s just nothing left in the soil.”
This means there is very little food for her cattle.
“They’re just not happy,” she lamented, looking at her cows. “It’s not because they don't have food and not because they don't have water, because they do have feed, but they have to walk a lot farther and they have to work a lot harder.”
Clad in a cowboy hat and sunglasses, Ms VanWinkle treks along the rocky banks of a reservoir high above the land she ranches. Her loyal and capable border collie, T-Bone, bounces along the shore next to her. Beneath her work boots, the dry soil crunches where it would normally be soft and spongy.
“I’m appalled at how low it is,” she said, inspecting one of her reservoirs for the first time this season. “This is the level I would expect it to be for September.”
The reservoir is Ms VanWinkle's primary source of water for two of the tracts of land she grazes her cattle on.
She estimates it is only about 40 per cent full, leaving her unsure of how her cows will manage in the autumn and winter months.
“If we're lucky, we’ll be able to irrigate until the first of August.” In a good year, she would irrigate the ranch until the first of October.
Ms VanWinkle, 60, runs VanWinkle Ranch with her husband, Howard, and their son, Dean, who has just returned home from university.
The family has already had to sell 70 heads of cattle in an attempt to preserve the health of the herd and the land.
The drought has taken an emotional and psychological toll on Ms VanWinkle as well.
“The drought is just right here in front of our face in everything that we do,” she said. “It's just hard to stay positive and stay looking forward and do the hard work that we do.”
Every meal as a family is spent talking about the drought, strategising ways to try to mitigate its devastating toll on the land and animals.
“We can't keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” she said.
But without a good snowpack, there is little the VanWinkles can do but sell more cattle and try to find alternative sources of food for the cows.
They’re discussing hauling in hay from Kansas to offset their own hay production issues.
But the family is unbowed by the drought and Ms VanWinkle is determined to see the ranch she has worked her entire life building succeed into another generation as her son Dean learns the ropes.
Mr Nieslanik is less optimistic. With no children to pass the farm to, he doesn’t believe the land he has tilled for three decades will survive into the future.
“It’s sad and it’s discouraging,” said Mr Nieslanik as he gazed out over a bend in the Colorado River. “The water is really concerning. In my opinion, we won’t be farming here in 30 years.”
It's a stark outlook, but one shared by many climate scientists.
“Life in the west is going to be different,” Mr Musselman said. “And life globally is going to be different going forward until we mitigate the changes that are occurring.”
Agriculture is a major component of Colorado’s economy, contributing $47 billion and employing more than 195,000 people. The success of farmers like Mr Nieslanik and ranchers like Ms VanWinkle are critical to the state’s well-being.
The state is working hard to protect farmers and ranchers from the effects of the drought.
On July 1, Governor Jared Polis declared a drought emergency for the western slope of Colorado where Mr Nieslanik and Ms VanWinkle live and work.
At the federal level, Michael Bennet, a Colorado senator, introduced the Outdoor Restoration Partnership Act, which would invest $60bn in local forests and watershed restoration. The bill, which was included in President Joe Biden’s American Jobs infrastructure package, aims to help prevent wildfires in the West and to preserve the region's fragile watersheds.
Mr Nieslanik doesn’t blame anybody but the weather for the current drought. But he said he is concerned by the growing populations downriver in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado that he said are using more water than ever before.
While some accuse farmers and ranchers of abusing their water rights, both Mr Nieslanik and Ms VanWinkle bristle at the idea.
Ms VanWinkle sees herself as a steward of the land.
“We look at ourselves as a part of the solution to food security, part of the solution to climate change, with the carbon sequestration that we can do on range land — part of the solution to ensuring these open lands and these big expanses of lands continue. I think livestock production is the most efficient way we can utilise these lands to meet all of these other goals.”
This story is part of a series on the Colorado River drought in the American West. Read more here.
What is Folia?
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal's new plant-based menu will launch at Four Seasons hotels in Dubai this November. A desire to cater to people looking for clean, healthy meals beyond green salad is what inspired Prince Khaled and American celebrity chef Matthew Kenney to create Folia. The word means "from the leaves" in Latin, and the exclusive menu offers fine plant-based cuisine across Four Seasons properties in Los Angeles, Bahrain and, soon, Dubai.
Kenney specialises in vegan cuisine and is the founder of Plant Food Wine and 20 other restaurants worldwide. "I’ve always appreciated Matthew’s work," says the Saudi royal. "He has a singular culinary talent and his approach to plant-based dining is prescient and unrivalled. I was a fan of his long before we established our professional relationship."
Folia first launched at The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills in July 2018. It is available at the poolside Cabana Restaurant and for in-room dining across the property, as well as in its private event space. The food is vibrant and colourful, full of fresh dishes such as the hearts of palm ceviche with California fruit, vegetables and edible flowers; green hearb tacos filled with roasted squash and king oyster barbacoa; and a savoury coconut cream pie with macadamia crust.
In March 2019, the Folia menu reached Gulf shores, as it was introduced at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, where it is served at the Bay View Lounge. Next, on Tuesday, November 1 – also known as World Vegan Day – it will come to the UAE, to the Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach and the Four Seasons DIFC, both properties Prince Khaled has spent "considerable time at and love".
There are also plans to take Folia to several more locations throughout the Middle East and Europe.
While health-conscious diners will be attracted to the concept, Prince Khaled is careful to stress Folia is "not meant for a specific subset of customers. It is meant for everyone who wants a culinary experience without the negative impact that eating out so often comes with."
Match info:
Portugal 1
Ronaldo (4')
Morocco 0
Alita: Battle Angel
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Stars: Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Keean Johnson
Four stars
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The specs: 2018 Nissan Altima
Price, base / as tested: Dh78,000 / Dh97,650
Engine: 2.5-litre in-line four-cylinder
Power: 182hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque: 244Nm @ 4,000rpm
Transmission: Continuously variable tranmission
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.6L / 100km
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987
Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon
School: ACS in Lebanon
University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City
Nationality: Lebanese
Status: Single
Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh12 million
Engine 8.0-litre quad-turbo, W16
Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch auto
Power 1479 @ 6,700rpm
Torque 1600Nm @ 2,000rpm 0-100kph: 2.6 seconds 0-200kph: 6.1 seconds
Top speed 420 kph (governed)
Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Scores in brief:
Day 1
New Zealand (1st innings) 153 all out (66.3 overs) - Williamson 63, Nicholls 28, Yasir 3-54, Haris 2-11, Abbas 2-13, Hasan 2-38
Pakistan (1st innings) 59-2 (23 overs)
THE DRAFT
The final phase of player recruitment for the T10 League has taken place, with UAE and Indian players being drafted to each of the eight teams.
Bengal Tigers
UAE players: Chirag Suri, Mohammed Usman
Indian: Zaheer Khan
Karachians
UAE players: Ahmed Raza, Ghulam Shabber
Indian: Pravin Tambe
Kerala Kings
UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Abdul Shakoor
Indian: RS Sodhi
Maratha Arabians
UAE players: Zahoor Khan, Amir Hayat
Indian: S Badrinath
Northern Warriors
UAE players: Imran Haider, Rahul Bhatia
Indian: Amitoze Singh
Pakhtoons
UAE players: Hafiz Kaleem, Sheer Walli
Indian: RP Singh
Punjabi Legends
UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Sandy Singh
Indian: Praveen Kumar
Rajputs
UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed
Indian: Munaf Patel
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Premier Futsal 2017 Finals
Al Wasl Football Club; six teams, five-a-side
Delhi Dragons: Ronaldinho
Bengaluru Royals: Paul Scholes
Mumbai Warriors: Ryan Giggs
Chennai Ginghams: Hernan Crespo
Telugu Tigers: Deco
Kerala Cobras: Michel Salgado
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
