“I don’t call it a crisis anymore. This is a state of failure. That’s why for years I’ve referred to it as water bankruptcy,” said Kaveh Madani, the director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

“A crisis is a state that you can mitigate, you can go back to normal at some point if you put forces together. But the damages we are seeing to the ecosystem, to the nature and even to many parts of the economy and infrastructure are irreversible.”

The US Southwest and Southern CA will be at this point by 2027, according to projections based on current consumption levels. Lake Mead will be dry, and everyone who depends on it to live will be fucked. https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06102025/colorado-river-water-supply-report/

I'm not even entertaining the idea that we'll take emergency action to avoid it. That seems too unrealistic that our governments would be that responsible.