It's actually raining here in northern CA this weekend. The state goes a long way to hide the consequences of the drought to the urban public, although I don't know how long that will last.

I think Australia will depopulate faster in percentage terms than the American southwest over the next 50-100 years. Australia is a desert. You can't run a modern urban society off of a desert. I drove around New South Wales in 2008 including up to the Murray river in Mildura, and most of what I saw was this for endless miles, in cloudless 40C+ heat. It reminded me of the southern portions of California's central valley, only over a much larger area. A lot of it looked like it had already been left fallow for years. Man's folly and audacity rolled into one if I ever saw it.

you are the media you consume.