From dust bowl to California drought: a climate scientist on the lessons we still haven’t learned

Peter Gleick argues there's an urgent need to reshape our relationship to water: There is enormous untapped potential for conservation'

California is once again in a drought, just four years after the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and left many rural communities without well water.

Droughts are a natural part of the landscape in the American west, and the region has in many ways been shaped by its history of drought. But the climate scientist Peter Gleick argues that the droughts California is facing now are different than the ones that have historically cycled through the Golden State.