Human-driven climate change is already happening in the southwestern United States, including in Southern California, and it’s only going to get worse, with further drops in Colorado River water increasing conflicts among water users. 
So says a new White House report, Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, which lays out a variety of potentially harmful effects for various regions of the country.
In the Southwest, including California, droughts are expected to worsen, temperatures to increase and water supplies to further tighten in coming decades, according to the report, compiled by the United States Global Change Research Program. That could increase water conflicts among states and even nations, as well as different types of users, such as farmers and urban dwellers.
“Human-induced climate change appears to be well underway in the Southwest,” the report says. “Recent warming is among the most rapid in the nation, significantly more than the global average in some areas.”
