From Watts Up With That?

Essay by Eric Worrall

But this might result in less food.

Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the future

Published: April 8, 2026 10.19pm AEST
Renee Obringer Assistant Professor in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Penn State
Dave White Director of the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona State University

When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city’s first step is often to limit lawn watering and launch a campaign to encourage everyone to conserve. It might raise water-use rates or offer incentives for installing low-flow devices.

While demand management techniques like these have had a lot of success in reducing water use, our new research suggests that they may not be effective enough in the face of climate change.

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Research shows that the region is likely to experience more intense, frequent droughts that last longer due to climate change, putting the water supplies for farms, people and energy systems at risk. 

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These solutions, however, take time and money to implement. Desalination is incredibly expensive. A recently built desalination plant in Carlsbad, California, cost US$1 billion – four times the initial estimate.

Other solutions, such as reducing agricultural water use, require significant buy-in from local farmers and could result in producing less food.

…Read more: https://theconversation.com/water-conservation-works-but-climate-change-is-outpacing-it-phoenix-denver-and-las-vegas-offer-a-glimpse-of-the-future-279837

I really wish the climate micromanagers would keep their hands off agriculture. How many historical learning examples are required to demonstrate government agricultural policies which reduce productivity always end in disaster?

The solution to lack of water availability is to provide more water, not restrictions on farming. Israelis, Gulf State Arabs and the Chinese have all found ways to make water supply affordable. Desalination, long pipelines, whatever it takes.

If desalination is required but is too expensive, instead of giving up, figure out why it is too expensive. Examine the reason for that high cost. Is the problem that all the components have to be imported from China? Or is the energy too expensive? Both of these problems are fixable.

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The article portrays the professors’ warnings as leaning toward “degrowth”-style limits on farming rather than innovation.

Critics of this view argue it underplays human ingenuity: throughout history, societies have expanded arable land and water access through engineering (Roman aqueducts, modern dams, Israeli tech).

Restricting agricultural water as a primary response could raise food prices, hurt rural economies, and disproportionately affect developing regions—potentially increasing hunger rather than preventing climate impacts.

They emphasize that global food production has risen dramatically with modern agriculture, even as CO₂ has increased.

Water management for agriculture faces real pressures from climate variability, demographics, and land use.

Targeted adaptations—efficient tech, better storage, crop breeding, and policy reform—offer higher-leverage paths than broad restrictions that assume the worst-case outcomes and minimal innovation.

Evidence shows CO₂-driven plant efficiency gains provide a partial buffer, and history demonstrates agriculture’s resilience when incentives align with supply-side solutions rather than rationing.