Next month, the seven Colorado River Basin states — Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming — are set to finalize a new framework for sharing a shrinking resource. Billed as a modern compact for a hotter, drier century, it will shape how the West survives in an age of scarcity. Yet amid debates over drought, equity, and cutbacks, one rapidly expanding demand remains almost invisible: the immense water consumption of artificial intelligence and the data centers that sustain it.
–Written by nature photographer Rusty Childress.