Water scarcity and food security. Aquifers deplete in the US Southwest, India, and China; data centres and farms compete for the same water; food prices carry a climate premium.
Emerging Real but not yet at scale. The effects described are expected rather than observed. Largest effect expected 2025–2050.
Second-order effects
Water rights become a financial asset; desalination and precision agriculture scale; migration away from dry regions reverses sunbelt growth; food inflation becomes a permanent line in the Fed's problem.
Its neighbourhood
Everything this entry connects to directly. Click any point to follow it.
Frictions it intensifies
These pressures get worse, or reach more people.
Solutions it accelerates
Solutions it threatens
Sectors it reshapes
How to track it
If this trend is real, these are the numbers that will show it first.