So if you’re in the desert SW of the US or on its northern margins, expect to have an even dryer climate. But what does that mean for dry parts of Mexico? Will those trend drier, or will rainfall increase as tropical forests push north? I don’t know, and I’m not convinced yet that the experts in the field can say with relative certainty that they know either.

One of the things about Spain’s water problems that impressed me was how much of it was not directly a result of a hotter climate, but rather a direct result of poor land-use decisions and ground-water depletion from irrigation and population growth. And those things will need to be addressed regardless of how much the climate heats up.

Now i don’t want anyone to die because i was hording “my” water. But i will draw a line…nobody out west or down south is getting it so long as they’re wasting what they have. Rain water collection, composting toilets, and gray water recycling damned well better come long before pipes and tanker trunks.

Of course, my state allows bottling companies to sell massive quantities of water without charging them. Lots of water is already leaving Michigan in little plastic bottles; the people get nothing for it; and the state is dead broke…how about that?

This week: Freshwater is the new oil for rarity and conflict; Greenlanders want global warming; new study says Florida should stop building along its coastlines; new weather balloon study cleans up erroneous data used by global warming deniers….