| 'America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow' (https://waterwatch.org/america-is-using-up-its-groundwater-l...) to support that stunning irrigation infrastructure. You should not interpret that historical success to imply future success as it depended on non-sustainable groundwater extraction. Eg, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogallala_Aquifer > Many farmers in the Texas High Plains, which rely particularly on groundwater, are now turning away from irrigated agriculture as pumping costs have risen and as they have become aware of the hazards of overpumping. > Sixty years of intensive farming using huge center-pivot irrigators has emptied parts of the High Plains Aquifer. > as the water consumption efficiency of the center-pivot irrigator improved over the years, farmers chose to plant more intensively, irrigate more land, and grow thirstier crops rather than reduce water consumption--an example of the Jevons Paradox in practice How will the Great Plains farmers get water once the remaining groundwater is too expensive to extract? Salt Lake City cannot simply build desalination plants to fix its water problem. I expect the bad experiences of Okies during the internal migration of the Dust Bowl will be replicated once the temporary (albeit century-long) relief of using fossil water is exhausted. |