Just returned from Scottsdale this morning and water has been on my mind. Two years ago when I wrote Could Water be the Oil of the 21st Century?, I was thinking pretty hard about the possibility that the current growth rates in the desert Southwest weren’t sustainable and the wisdom of a potential second home investment in that region.

No one knows, but I’m reading a lot about water and the desert. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) includes a sobering prediction that temperatures in the
American West will increase by an average of nine degrees Fahrenheit by
the end of this century. For more read Denial in the Desert which discusses drought, the draining of the aquifers under the desert, this report and more.

My bride and I looked once again for a second home there but came away without moving forward. Each time we return, the traffic is worse; there are more roads being built; newspapers discuss a far off but looming crisis in water, heat and smog; and the crush of humanity just feels oppressive at times.

Makes me wonder if technology might be the answer.

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