A lot of things does not make sense.

Even if all the ice melted in north and south, the sea should not rise at all. Just like how ice cube in water does not increase after the ice is melted.

Another weird thing is, if it was all very hot here and drying up, where does all the water go?

For this i would say all of the water went to China & Middle East greening their land.

I only stand on the theory that if we all are 100% and someone chipped away 10% of something, eventually that 10% will end up somewhere.

And to prove that, petrochemical companies are always looking to dump waste carbon from petroleum products into Asia & South America. Simple reason is our land with has a lot of greens purify carbon better than anywhere in the world naturally.

It is that archaic unbreakable law that everything you take, you have to give something back in return.

Coming back to the lake. This does not seem like a natural lake. The soil is too bright and compacted. Most if not all ponds and lakes have dark soil that allows vegetation to grow. The sand here did not show any sign of dried up vegetation at all.