A new report indicates the US West is heating up [ark] almost twice as fast as the rest of the world, causing severe drought [search] conditions, while threatening cities. Gee, who would have thunk ? You mean building metropolises in the desert with little more than the mid-sized Colorado River and diminishing mountain snowpack to provide water is not a good idea? Add to this ostentatious water use for agriculture and temperate gardens, and automobile and air conditioner dependent communities causing further warming (and you guessed it, much of the electricity powered by hydro dams), and all the ingredients are in place for apocalyptic ecological collapse.

Much of Western development on arid and other ecologically sensitive lands was gravely ecologically misinformed. I expect these cities to be depopulated within decades. How soon sanity and ecological knowledge comes to our economic growth, land use and energy policies will determine whether their population and other climate refugees can be absorbed by other areas already exhibiting various ecological stresses. One cannot help wonder just when those ensconced within their air conditioned, bottled water, energy dependent lifestyles will realize they are living in a mirage that threatens their families lives. Fasten your seat belt, society and you are in for the ride of your life as collapsing regional ecosystems [search] and climate refugees [search] become part of life.