What Will Life Look Like as MAJOR Rivers Run Dry?

Neighborhoods with lawns where water is an issue is ridiculous. California pays residents to remove turf, and plant native, drought hearty plants. We did it in 2017, and our yard became amazingly beautiful, full of bees, butterflies, and color

The problem with efficiency is that when you say that we could grow the same amount of grass using 50% less water, the person who is selling grass will hear “I can grow twice as much grass using the same amount of water.” Efficiency under Capitalism is a paradox, it ultimately just provides cover for unsustainable growth.

There was a woman 20 years ago who was the czar of water management for Vegas… her far sightedness is what has kept the water flowing in a desert.. someone should do a story on her… she is AMAZING!!!

A while back I read a piece written by a farmer noting that she legally cannot upgrade to use more efficient irrigation methods without loosing her family's long-standing water allocation. This stupidity has been around for over 50 years, and is noted as being an obstacle every year, yet nothing is ever done about it. Another long-standing stupidity are "use it or loose it, forever" water allocation use regulations...a known problem for many years as well. Solutions are never purely supply side or purely demand side. They are all the sides.

It's interesting that the dude was like '64% of our water goes to growing feed for meat" but thought the solution to that was to just make irrigation more efficient... not reducing meat consumption.

Maiya, I love how you present the information not just in this video but all the other weathered videos. You explain the topics in a way that makes it really easy to learn something.

Depressingly, I have to applaud the title. As rivers run dry, not If

Growing Alfalfa with irrigation just made my inner plant scientist want to throw a meteor at the USA.

Las Vegas is ahead of it’s time when it comes to managing its water. From living in Hawaii to living in Las Vegas I’ve seen such a huge difference when it comes to conserving water.

One of the biggest reasons for rivers running dry is to with the degradation of soil organic content. Soils that are rich in organic content can hold much more water , which then trickles into streams and rivers drop by drop. Some simple measures such as growing cover crops instead of leaving tilled and barren lands exposed to sunlight can also help with this.

Cities with millions of people in the middle of a desert, makes zero sense, no matter how much you conserve the water resources, its still arrogant.

Over half of my water bill is a meter fee. If I cut my water use in half, it would reduce my water bill by about 20%. This discourages water conservation.

The majority of that alfalfa in Arizona is being sold to other countries. These farmers are literally shipping our limited resources overseas to the highest bidder so it's not heartbreaking to hear fields going fallow.

Great job Las Vegas. My house is in a place where water isn't really a concern yet. However many years ago I noticed a few homes were doing low maintenance landscaping which looked really nice so I took out both lawns and landscaped with rocks, gravel , shrubs more natural. I can say I haven't brought out a garden hose since. More people should watch this video, Thanks PBS.

I think that with all of the information about permaculture and the importance of cultivating soil that this type of agriculture is irresponsible and dangerous in this day and age and it should be illegal. I also think that the states and especially the young people of those states should sure for the damage done to their future. It is time to hold these corporations accountable. No one should be above the law and the law should protect everyone's access to clean water and air. This should be a universal human right and not a privilege. Thank you for igniting this conversation and sharing the enlightening content.

I am a lettuce and passion fruit farmer in Puerto Rico, and one possible solution is for the USDA encourage and discourage the growth of produce according areas and states. Maiya, on the matter of Alfalfa you mentioned that is grown for cattle. Please investigate because I believe that it is used for cattle but a substantial amount is used for cattle in Japan for high end meat growing. And Alfalfa is over 90% water, it is literally water transferring or water being ferried outside the U.S.

FYI everyone. Desalinization is incredibly energy-intensive.

Great video and presentation! It’s amazing to see how far Vegas has come in reducing and reusing water. I hope others catch on

I agree 1000%. Our local "Hualapai basin" is drying up fast due to agricultural farms not too far by. Came in, in sweeping numbers and are depleting our water fast, no regulation in our county in AZ. Makes me worrisome but AZ has been my home all my life.

An explanation as to why water going down the gutters is not recycled would be useful. Yes, it will contain all the muck that comes with a car-centric urban hellscape that is basically every American city, but there are ways of cleaning that up.