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Phoenix is less of a city and more of a monument to the man's hubris.
Irrigated agriculture is the largest user of water in Arizona, consuming about 72% of the available water supply. In the past, this percentage was as high as 90%.
And I saw a Bluesky post that said ~25% of Arizona's water use goes just to the thirsty crop alfalfa.
They’re growing alfalfa because it’s something they can grow and tend with just heavy equipment. It’s midwestern farming in the middle of a fucking desert where they think the sunny weather is just for fun. They’re terrible.
A lot of it is grown by large foreign-owned companies, I know in particular Saudi Arabian companies but from elsewhere too. Average people in AZ complain about the companies and water usage plenty from what I've seen at least.
There is no limit to how much water you can pull from the water table on private land in Arizona. In fact, it was made illegal just for the government to track how much is being pulled even though they can't stop you. So not only is Arizona the most precarious state in terms of water reserves, it's also the easiest to just remove all the water you want.
Sounds like a great place to put a big data center
monument-to-mans-hubris.jpg
Sorry, where are these numbers coming from? The articles estimates 917 deaths over five days, or 1873 deaths in a hypothetical mega heat wave after 60 more years of climate change. That's still bad, but it's only like 1-2% of 30k in one day.
"STREET TREES, COOL ROOFS", sweet I just found the name of my next rap mixtape
I edited my title.
this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026
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