California's Doomsday Water Cycle

In California and around the world, water supply and carbon-based energy production are locked in a destructive feedback cycle. Fossil fuel extraction and combustion consume water -- lots of it. Obtaining and delivering water, in turn, requires energy -- lots of it. Too little of one yield shortages of the other. Climate change -- the result of burning too much fossil fuel while destroying forests and soils -- accelerates this cycle, disrupting the equilibrium between climate and water that enables civilization.

Vast amounts of water are required at each stage of fossil energy production. Every kilowatt hour of electricity generated in the U.S. from coal, oil or gas sucks 25 gallons of water out of the nation's rivers and streams. Half of U.S. water withdrawals for cooling systems are devoted to electricity generation by coal plants.