{"id":439319,"date":"2026-04-13T12:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439319"},"modified":"2026-04-13T12:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T19:49:30","slug":"sustainability-professors-global-warming-might-force-restriction-of-agricultural-water-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439319","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability Professors: Global Warming Might Force Restriction of Agricultural Water Use"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by<\/strong> Eric Worrall<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this might result in less food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Water conservation works, but climate change is outpacing it: Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas offer a glimpse of the\u00a0future<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published: April 8, 2026 10.19pm AEST
Renee Obringer<\/a>\u00a0Assistant Professor in the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Penn State
Dave White<\/a>\u00a0Director of the Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Arizona State University<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a drought turns into an urban water crisis, a city\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While demand management techniques like these have had\u00a0a lot of success<\/a>\u00a0in reducing water use, our new research suggests that they\u00a0may not be effective enough<\/a>\u00a0in the face of climate change.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that the region is likely to experience\u00a0more intense, frequent droughts<\/a>\u00a0that last longer due to climate change, putting the water supplies for farms, people and energy systems at risk.\u00a0

\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These solutions, however, take time and money to implement.\u00a0Desalination is incredibly expensive<\/a>. A recently built desalination plant in Carlsbad, California, cost US$1 billion \u2013\u00a0four times the initial estimate<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other solutions, such as reducing agricultural water use, require significant buy-in from local farmers and could\u00a0result in producing less food<\/a>.

\u2026Read more:\u00a0https:\/\/theconversation.com\/water-conservation-works-but-climate-change-is-outpacing-it-phoenix-denver-and-las-vegas-offer-a-glimpse-of-the-future-279837<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

_____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The article portrays the professors’ warnings as leaning toward “degrowth”-style limits on farming rather than innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restricting agricultural water as a primary response could raise food prices, hurt rural economies, and disproportionately affect developing regions\u2014potentially increasing hunger rather than preventing climate impacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They emphasize that global food production has risen dramatically with modern agriculture, even as CO\u2082 has increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water management for agriculture faces real pressures from climate variability, demographics, and land use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Targeted adaptations\u2014efficient tech, better storage, crop breeding, and policy reform\u2014offer higher-leverage paths than broad restrictions that assume the worst-case outcomes and minimal innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence shows CO\u2082-driven plant efficiency gains provide a partial buffer, and history demonstrates agriculture’s resilience when incentives align with supply-side solutions rather than rationing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These academics frame water scarcity as an inevitable consequence of warming, pushing for restrictions on farming rather than solutions that expand water supply (e.g., desalination, reservoirs, efficient infrastructure, or aquifer management). It contrasts this with practical examples like Israel’s advanced drip irrigation and desalination tech, or water management in arid Gulf states and China, suggesting the “restriction” approach risks harming food security unnecessarily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":439321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818444,691818056,691819743,691819348,691818087],"class_list":["post-439319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-agriculture","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-propaganda","tag-drought","tag-global-warming","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Sustainability-Professors-Global-Warming-Might-Force-Restriction-of-Agricultural-Water-Use.jpg?fit=1168%2C784&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1QhN","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":378998,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=378998","url_meta":{"origin":439319,"position":0},"title":"Human extinction is a baseless climate scare, Slate","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"05\/20\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"In a recent Slate article, titled \u201cI Used to Hope Humans Were Headed for Extinction. 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