Bolivia's second largest lake, Poopó, has all but dried up, threatening the livelihood of fishing communities and spelling ecological disaster for hundreds of species. The Bolivian government is blaming dry weather spurred by El Niño and a changing climate, but that's not the whole story.

Located in a shallow depression high in the Altiplano Mountains in southwest Bolivia, the lake has shrunk to just two percent of its former size, which was approximately 380 square miles (1,000 square kilometers), or about twice the size of Los Angeles. 

Misuse of the water supply and a failure on the part of the Bolivian government to act on existing management plans are partly responsible for the rapid drying of the lake over the past few