American West shows signs of slowly drying up

Australia now enters its tenth year in the worst drought of the last 100 years, complete with bush fires and halved wheat production. "Think of that as California's future," said Heather Cooley of California water think tank the Pacific Institute. Global warming-produced extremes of droughts and floods make the future of agriculture in the region, one of the major food-supply regions in the US, look increasingly bleak. Trends show losses that are only bound to increase in coming years. How can the U.S. reconcile its growth – especially of cities in the driest states in the country – with the rapid depletion of water, perhaps our most undervalued resource? Full story: Reuters