Los Angelenos have long forgotten that they live in a desert, but the coming drought will mean water consumption patterns will need to change on a massive scale writes Scott Thill.
"Los Angeles has always been a managed fantasy...It has water on its beaches, but rarely anywhere else. For that, it has drained someone else's supply for centuries. Which brings us...to the future of Los Angeles, whose Sierra snowpack will likely evaporate under the weight of global warming's changed game. With declining snowfall and earlier snowmelts, there is nothing Los Angeles can do but borrow someone else's water and get its hyperreal and hyperconsumptive act together.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the state's water reserves are nearly finished, which leaves California with two options: Pray for rain, or suck off Northern California's supply.
Behavior modification is the only way Los Angeles can extend, but not prevent, what some scientists are saying will be a permanent drought for not just the sunshine-and-noir metropolis but also for most, if not all, of the American Southwest. Sustainability exercises and policies will go a long way to mitigating the desert's reclamation of its lands from Hollywood and Hummers, but the Dust Bowl had nothing on what's coming to California. And it's coming to stay."
FULL STORY: When Will Los Angeles Run Out of Water? Sooner Than You Think.
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New York City School Construction Authority
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Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
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