The details might be a bit goofy, but this sort of large scale geoengineering project is going to be the only way that the SW is going to remain inhabitable.
The American southwest has a couple big things going for it -- unlimited sunshine and an extraordinary amount of empty land. You can combine these things to create huge amounts of electricity which can be used to irrigate new farm land, power mines and build new cities.
The status quo of drawing down on the increasingly precarious water supply is not feasible though. Before the unprecedented snowpack of 2022/2023, many regions were facing extreme water rationing.
Habitable? There is plenty of water for it to be habitable, residential use is a drop in the bucket compared with agricultural use. Without a technological solution, we'll have to scale back agriculture, but that's not a regional problem, since the market for food is an international one.
Also, we don't have to get all of the water from desalination. Southern California can use desalination, which makes sense to the ocean, short distances, and solar power. That frees up Colorado River water that Nevada and Arizona can use.
Desalination will probably never be worth it from agriculture, but agriculture should survive on the water they can access after people.
The American southwest has a couple big things going for it -- unlimited sunshine and an extraordinary amount of empty land. You can combine these things to create huge amounts of electricity which can be used to irrigate new farm land, power mines and build new cities.
The status quo of drawing down on the increasingly precarious water supply is not feasible though. Before the unprecedented snowpack of 2022/2023, many regions were facing extreme water rationing.