A tale of two droughts: Climate change in the U.S. & China
The Hohokam civilization, once the region’s predominant power, had begun meticulously forging this sinuous system of miles and miles of waterways across the arid desert as early as the 1st century C.E. With water sourced from the distant Salt River, the Hohokam perhaps cultivated more than 10,000 acres of arid land. … A century and a half later, the American Southwest is sweltering under another harsh drought. Last year, 1,000-foot wells dug deep underground by residents of Rio Verde, a community on the outskirts of Phoenix, started coming up dry. … In the meantime, Phoenix has become one of America’s fastest-growing cities, a trend bolstered by preferential tax schemes and the growth of the (very water-hungry) semiconductor industry.