PrintClimate change is also increasing competition for water resources. Competition for water already exists in drier areas. The U.S. and Mexico compete over Colorado River water, and Northern and Southern California compete for meltwater from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, for example. Such rivalries will increase as climate continues to dry in the Southwest, snowpacks continue to shrink in California, and other regions experience decreases in water resources. There will be competition not only within regions, but also between regions as water-poor regions fight for survival and water-rich regions seek to maintain competitive economic advantage.
In addition, climate change is bringing growing competition between and within market sectors. For example, in many regions of the nation, competition already exists as agricultural interests, municipalities, and energy production companies vie for shrinking water resources; that struggle is growing more combative over time, even resulting in calls for changes in longstanding water laws. Within sectors, such as agriculture, economically and politically entrenched water-intense activities are competing for water with less powerful, more environmentally sensitive, and less water-intense practices. Such competition will continue to intensify as the distribution of water over time and space changes with the climate.
North America is not the only continent facing this problem. The Murray River in Australia, for instance, is drying up and not reaching the population centers near its mouth. The cause of this drying is a combination of long-term drought and overuse by upstream farmers growing such water-intensive crops as rice. Severe competition therefore exists between agricultural and urban interests.
