What about the rest of the west?
Arizona? New Mexico? Nevada? etc etc
Water needs to be brought in from somewhere? Who's going to pay for that? How do you do it safely, sustainably. And on and on.
I know people forget the rest of the west a lot. (Or maybe they just don't care about us as much?) But it's actually more of an issue in those places than it is in California.
A personal illustrative story. I used to live in Scottsdale. The water issue is such common knowledge out there that people started trying to get into the magic zip code. (Phoenix sits on like a gazillion years worth of water that they squirreled away.) I had moved into the magic zip code just about 1 year before everything went crazy. As it happened, about 18 months after we moved to that zip, we decided to move back to the Great Lakes region. Fully expecting to lose money on the house. But the word had got out on that zip code, and the final offer was over 60% more than we'd paid just 18 months prior.
That gives an indication of how even individuals are thinking. It just kind of felt like a lot of people, governments and organizations know there will be an issue, but money is gating everyone's ability to do anything about it.
Whereas of course, money's not as much of an issue in California.
I think large parts of the west will need help in the future. Or people will need to pay significantly more in taxes to live in those places.
It can't go on forever the way it has been. That much is certain.
