Water has been a godlike force determining life and death for centuries across Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula. And today, climate stressors, a boom in tourism, and urban growth are making water an extra precious resource in Mexico’s driest state. … In many ways, Baja offers an extreme snapshot of a globally intensifying aridification crisis, where landscapes are permanently drying up. But the state’s situation also offers an opportunity: If an arid, fast-growing peninsula can stabilize its water supply, it could share those lessons across the country – and even beyond Mexico.