Climate

Inside Climate News -   After 13 years, Texas and New Mexico have finally reached a settlement in a Supreme Court case over Rio Grande water management. Now comes the hard part.

Texas sued New Mexico in 2013, arguing that its upstream neighbor was hogging water on the river that millions depend on for irrigation and drinking water. The settlement requires New Mexico to reduce the amount of water drawn from wells that deplete the flow of Rio Grande water to Texas.

The agreement also introduces a new accounting method to determine how much water New Mexico owes Texas. And for the first time, the volume of water flowing into Texas will be measured at the state line. Compliance will cost New Mexico upward of $150 million. If the state fails to meet the settlement’s requirements, it could face harsh penalties or another taxing lawsuit.

New Mexico officials hope that buying water rights from farmers and shutting off their wells will be enough to comply. But if climate change continues to drive drier conditions in the Rio Grande basin, those initial voluntary measures will likely fall short. The state expects to have 25 percent less water in 50 years because of rising temperatures.

If New Mexico has to make further reductions to water use, the possibility of mandatory water cuts looms over the region. Behind closed doors, major water users, including farmers and the city of Las Cruces, are negotiating contingency plans. The Lower Rio Grande in New Mexico shows how difficult it will be to fairly reduce water use among farmers, industry and residents as the climate gets hotter and drier.

NY Times - Fast-moving wildfires in France and Spain have forced nearly 300,000 people to evacuate or shelter at home as of Saturday, as blazes moved closer to major cities like Bordeaux and Madrid during the peak of the summer holiday season. In France, the authorities have ordered the evacuation of around 197,000 people from the Gironde and Landes regions in the country’s southwest, where the fires have burned through an area about three times the size of Paris.