Texas drought worsens, cattle dying

I never realised Texas was a 3rd world state. It's amazing that there is no shortage of oil or gas that was prolly pumped from the other side of the globe, yet they can't supply the state with a simple commodity like water. lol

Egnite - Texas is not even close to a 3rd world state. Texas is the second largest oil and gas producing state in the US, with volume approx 1/5th of Saudi Arabia. We manage our resources and budget, and are not on the edge of bankruptcy like some other states. Texas is the only state in the Union with the legal right to secede and become an independent nation (and when I read posts like yours, I'm tempted). If we did secede, we would be a country with area larger than Spain and only half the population. We would have resources and wealth to spare.

The challenges of supplying sufficient water across an area larger than Spain are significant, and we are not alone in the US in facing that challenge. In my opinion, in the second half of the 21st century, access to clean fresh water will exert more pressure on the US economy, on social services, and on inter-state relations than oil and gas do now. Texas could build pipelines to send fresh rainwater from the Gulf Coast areas out west. We could, in fact, sell water to other states in the Union, adding that commodity to the oil, gas, meat and crops that we currently export to other states and around the world. But, long-term, capturing and re-distributing fresh water is probably more environmentally impactful than piping oil, since redirecting fresh water which would have replenished the Gulf of Mexico would ultimately raise the salinity of that water.

Access to energy affects quality of life, but access to water affects life itself.

The annual average percipitation of texas is ~500 cubic kilometres per year. That's an average flow of ~10 000 standard 42-gallon oil drums per second, a cube of water ~25 metres on the side per second, the amount of water 180 people will drink in a lifetime every second. As if that wasn't hard enough you need to evenly distribute it over 696 241 km^2 area.

Even limiting yourself to just irrigating 1% of the surface area of Texas you need to import more water than the entire worlds oil production.

We've had droughts before and we'll have droughts again. Texas will be OK. Physorg can go back to worrying about Global Warming.

the cattle are screwed either way; they either starve to death or are pressed into dirty, polluting feed lots, stuffed w/ grain 'till they fatten up, then killed and processed into tasty morsels.

The drought affected area of Texas should never have been used for raising bovines anyway. Jackrabbits are a better bet.