I know negotiations among states that draw from the Colorado River are ongoing with water rationing measures being discussed, but it feels like the threat of water shortage doesn’t align with booming growth in this part of the country. Is the threat overstated? Are there solutions available when things get really dire? Or is it just hubris of prioritizing short term profits instead of long term sustainability? All the above?
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Is argue the threat is somewhat overstated. City’s will not be abandoned for lack of water. There is plenty to drink.
Their however is not enough to plousably continue agriculture in the Southwest as it is now. It uses about 70% of water from the Colorado River.
Before you jump to ‘we’ll all starve’ remember a large large chunk of that is for alphalpha which is massively water intense and it’s not human food. It’s cow food. And moving calories grown in a field to feed a cow to then eat it is literally about an order of magnitude less efficient then directly eating plant based food.
We likely will have to have a reconning and rewriting of water treaties, but if we can cut back on animal products, especially beef, no one needs to go hungry. That said no human should be going hungry with the food production we already have, but they do due to social inequalities. That will probably get worse, with Americans and rich countries not changing their ways
We had a global pandemic and nearly half of people preferred acting like nothing changed and continue to do so. People are dumb and selfish and numerous, while we are also lacking in any coherent and competent leadership. Smart people are bitter or narrowly specialized to the point of obliviousness to other problems outside their interests. Dumb people are happy being ignorant or expect sky daddy to save them while armed with weaponised incompetence learned from weak men.
Because that’s a threat for tomorrow and today we’re too focused on celebrity blow jobs and political hate.
Because all of America causes that water shortage by demanding the absolute cheapest vegetables and milk. So we grow all the veggies and milk for the country in the desert where there’s fewer bugs and it’s hot so we get two growing seasons when the rest of the country just gets one.
So if we stopped farming in the desert we could triple the population.
But we won’t because y’all are cheap and would rather destroy ancient habitats with drought than pay an extra $.50/lb on tomatoes that are grown closer to where you live.
Cows aren’t desert animals. They use lots of water. California is now the biggest dairy …
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Welcome to the United States!
Here, you don’t matter. No one matters. What matters, is profit.
So to you, lack of water is a problem. But for companies, it’s just an opportunity to charge you for something you weren’t paying for before. Your ass is going to be paying for water. And it’s not going to be cheap.
All part of the plan. Just google nestle water controversy.
We are boiling lobsters.
I’m using “boiling” as an adjective there.
That’s how people are – long-term threats are just not given the urgency they need, because our biology didn’t evolve to do that.
Billionaires exploit this tendency to make their money and will eventually destroy the civilization, if not the entire species.
Because it has an easy fix… Stop turning a desert into alfalfa and corn fields to feed thirsty cattle.
It’s mostly a threat to agriculture. Residents can afford more expensive solutions to get their water but farms cannot. As a result, it’s not really that newsworthy, outside of a few reports of poorer residents not being able to afford those solutions
In short, the same reason most world problems exist. The people in power profiting off the current situation will be dead before consequences arrive.
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