Reuters: Climate change accelerates water hunt in U.S. West

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52900820090310

Climate change accelerates water hunt in U.S. West

Tue Mar 10, 2009 3:08am EDT
By Peter Henderson

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - It's hard to visualize a water crisis while driving the lush boulevards of Los Angeles, golfing Arizona's green fairways or watching dancing Las Vegas fountains leap more than 20 stories high.

So look Down Under. A decade into its worst drought in a hundred years Australia is a lesson of what the American West could become.

Bush fires are killing people and obliterating towns. Rice exports collapsed last year and the wheat crop was halved two years running. Water rationing is part of daily life.

"Think of that as California's future," said Heather Cooley of California water think tank the Pacific Institute.

…

[villager]

1. oh some of us *have* been thinking of that as California's future....

...for a long time, but no one else was getting it...

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. You know, when the Everglades were burning, I said, "Now that's not right…"

When our biggest "wet lands" are bone dry, that just can't be good news for our "dry lands."
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/18/florida.wildfires/index.html

[bananas]

3. map: Estimated change in surface water flows for the period 2041-2060 compared to 1901-1970.

From the article:
Estimated change in surface water flows for the period 2041-2060 compared to 1901-1970.

[Nihil]

4. That's a pretty impressive picture! (n/t)

:wow: