The West is the driest it's been in 1,200 years -- raising questions about a livable future

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Trees are dying. Riverbeds are empty. Lake Mead's water level dropped to its lowest point in history, and Utah's governor asked residents to pray for rain.

Water is increasingly scarce in the Western U.S. — where 72 percent of the region is in "severe" drought, 26 percent is in exceptional drought, and populations are booming.

Insufficient monsoon rains last summer and low snowpacks over the winter left states like Arizona, Utah and Nevada without the typical amount of water they need, and forecasts for the rainy summer season don't show promise.

This year's aridity is happening against the backdrop of a 20-year-long drought. The past two decades have been the driest or the second driest in the last 1,200 years in the West, posing existential questions about how to secure a livable future in the region.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-west-is-the-driest-its-been-in-1200-years-%e2%80%94-raising-questions-about-a-livable-future/ar-AAKW7ab

[CrispyQ]

1. "Six billion miracles is enough."

I bought that bumper sticker back around the turn of the century.

[NeoGreen]

6. 7.8...

Billion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

Just sayin'....not to be pedantic.... or a doomsdayer.

[Thomas Hurt]

2. Maybe need to stop or slow growth in Phoenix, and Vegas.

[PortTack]

3. Agree, but how does one do that?

[Grins]

4. The history of the west is WATER.

For drinking, cattle, crops, and electricity. And politics. There isn’t enough of it, and when you add in a long period of drought....!

I may re-watch “Chinatown” tonight.

[mountain grammy]

5. We have the ruins of the ancients

to show they lived here, and then they left. No water, no life. Meantime, in the east, they're drowning.

We better figure something out or the Southwest will die.