Speaking for the US many populated arid areas are completely unsustainable as population centers (ironically also where most people in the US have been moving for awhile now), especially because water resources haven’t been managed rationally in many arid areas. This story will absolutely be a global one though, see Tehran for one massive example, Lake Mead for another. No water and deadly heat waves are going to make for limitless ghost town tourism attraction opportunities!
The future is bright for abandoned building photography communities!
I in a city that is a confluence of two rivers and the next city over is known for its aquifer.
Yet, the city government has hired consultants to come up with ideas for how to handle expected water shortages in the area as a result of development. Not to get all /c/collapse but it sure does make me feel negative about humanity’s effect on the planet.
Add to the list Mexico City, which hasn’t had water for a while.
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I suspect coal country in Kentucky, WV and rural PA and Virginia and the western plains in Nebraska and Kansas, which are already severely stressed with population loss, will see some real ghost towns soon. Especially if the Ogallala aquifer dries up in the latter case.
Not a big guardian fan but I just saw an article about such towns pertaining to Trump cutting the funding that was earmarked to help those kinds of towns transition away from coal.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/29/trump-coal-country
Not a big Guardians fan??? Surely you can’t deny that Jose Rameriez is one of the greatest in the game today!!! Go Guards!
…we’re talking baseball right?
Well it was really the whole Vin Diesel I am Groot thing that didn’t click for me. Otherwise the music in it was pretty great.
I recently took a ‘no tolls’ route south through rural Oklahoma and Texas and saw many of these dead and dying small towns.
Many had a fat county sheriff hanging out to ticket people driving through.
It really is sad to see it. Those people are all now living in suburbs and slowly being driven out of their neighborhoods there by cost of living too.
I think this will happen for reasons other than water too. So many towns in America were built to be in close proximity to train lines, who’s locations today makes no strategic or economic sense.
I believe many will hit critically low population levels where they can no longer support hospitals, schools, grocery stores, churches, etc
It’s happened before with mining towns and the early days of the oil boom. Lots of still abandoned towns in the middle of nowhere.
Good for affordable housing?
not if they’re abandoned because they don’t have accessible clean water, affordable power etc…
people aren’t walking away from livable places.
🤫 that’ll upset our precious 1%
I could see them buying up places and doing the slumlord thing but otherwise, it’ll be a net loss for them too: fewer educated workers for their empires
but I doubt they’ll care until it hurts.
I hope to dive the ruins of Miami one day.
free realestate
You can recycle your water very well. Vegas has a very low loss rate. It will be cheaper to pipe water in to replace losses than build an entire new city.
You willing to bet a city on that?
Bum fuck nowhere might go under because there’s no business there anyway. Vegas is not going anywhere.
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Vegas is a destination to its own now. Collapse isn’t happening. Give your head a shake.
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It’s an experience now. You can disagree with it, but it is. It hasn’t been just for gambling for a long time.
