To Hell With Oil ... Where Is The Water?

Expect lots of droughts in the future.

At least 36 states expect to face water shortages within the next five years, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. According to the National Drought Mitigation Center, several regions in particular have been hit hard: the Southeast, Southwest and the West. Texas, Georgia and South Carolina have suffered the worst droughts this year, the agency said.

This is obviously not a "Good Thing". With droughts come increases in food prices, which isn't something most people can handle right about now.

So, what can we do?

Water shortages don't have to remain a fact of modern life, drought experts say. Many offer the same solutions: Build better water delivery systems to accommodate population growth, develop more efficient uses of irrigation, and shift agriculture from the West to the East where it's easier and cheaper to water crops.

Infrastructure folks. More water storage capacity, both for on-farm and municipal use. I cannot stress the on-farm use enough either. I heard that costs in California for irrigation of a single acre in California is up from ~$30 last year to over $600 this year. If that report is true (if it was reported correctly AND I heard it correctly) that spells clusterf**k. Plus, it's about damn time we started working on inexpensive membrane technologies to desalinate sea water.