Where's the Water?

[Brenda]

JUNE 7, 2024

Climate change is clobbering water resources and testing the nerves of the world, especially megacities, e.g., Mexico City (pop. 22 million) could run dry this summer. Nearly 90% of greater Mexico City is in severe drought. The country has been in widespread drought since 2021-22. Subsidence is causing the city to sink 20 inches per year because of rapid groundwater extraction supplanting low reservoirs. The Metro is sinking unevenly. The rails are wobbly. The massive city could go dry this year.

Global warming is impacting a very sensitive touch-and-go relationship between major cities and diminishing water resources. Extreme heat shrinks reservoirs combined with decades of neglect as water infrastructure crumbles and climate change shifts precipitation patterns making once wet regions drier than ever.

The 2024 World Water Development Report claims that nearly one-half of the world’s population experiences “at least temporary severe water scarcity.” Meanwhile, tensons over water are exacerbating conflicts worldwide, Press Release: Water Crises Threaten World Peace, UNESCO, March 2024. More to the point, 2.2 billion people don’t have access to “safely managed drinking water.” This is a guaranteed formula for trouble as desperate people take desperate measures… to survive.

The future really is now. I can't believe there are people on this site who claim Phoenix is always this hot, nothing to see, move along. Mexico is right next door, folks, US cities WILL run dry and suffer extreme deadly power outages as well.

An excellent video at the end of this article:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/07/wheres-the-water/

[CrispyQ]

1. I live in Colorado & very soon Denver will be the Phoenix of olden days.

Mexico City out of water. Fifty people dead from heat in India. Heatstroke going up around the world. Maybe this will be the year the human collective pulls it's head out of its ass on global warming?

I've gone back to calling it global warming cuz that's what it is. I think we were lulled into calling it climate change because not every place was heating up back then & climate change just doesn't sound as alarming as global warming. And here we are.

[Brenda]

3. I agree with that about the name.

It really has been a Climate Emergency for decades. The deception is so ingrained in all governments and corporations.

Unfortunately it will take massive heat deaths and extreme weather disasters to move people into the real world and band together to demand change.

But then again, I think it's just too damned late to do anything to stop it now.

[CrispyQ]

7. I agree with you about it being too late.

Were you the one who posted the article yesterday about feedback loops & how they think they're here already?

[Brenda]

8. Yeah, I did.

I've been holding onto a sliver of hope that civilization will change massively and quickly. But with each new disaster, we get absolutely insane responses.

I'll never forget watching coverage of Hurricane Ian a couple of years ago and the mayor of Naples I believe said exuberantly "We're going to build back bigger and better!!!"

We're doomed because of that kind of thinking.

[mountain grammy]

5. Yep, and we are moving back to Denver

out of our beautiful mountains because I can't breathe and can't control my blood pressure at 9000 feet. But we're up here for the weekend, enjoying 45 degree nights and 75 degree days while Denver swelters.

[CrispyQ]

6. 75 days...perfection!

So sorry to hear you can't stay up there! Also I didn't realize blood pressure was affected by altitude. Interesting.

We broke down & bought a window air conditioner two years ago. We can tolerate a few days in the upper 90s but when it got to a week or more in a row the house never cooled down.

[mountain grammy]

2. I had a dear friend in Phoenix

She died last fall, she was 85. I spoke to her a few times last summer when Phoenix had 60 straight days of 120 degree heat. She lived there since she was a teenager. No, she said, Phoenix has not "always been this hot." This is different.

[Brenda]

4. Yes, it's very different and escalating quickly.

It is still shocking to me that thousands of people are still moving to Florida, Phoenix, Vegas and barrier islands across the US.

People will have to evacuate these areas.

[2naSalit]

9. I'm in Montana...

And we have been seeing many triple digit temp days every summer now and it's usually at least +85 - 98F through most of the summer now. A couple decades ago +85F was considered a heat wave.

North of the 45th parallel and it gets that hot in mid - late summer. If I didn't have AC I'd die.