Australia’s leading scientists made a significant global-scale declaration about the fight to deal with the climate crisis this week – but you could be forgiven if you missed it.  In what it described as a landmark report, the Australian Academy of Science painted a picture of what could happen to the country under 3C of global heating, including ecosystems made unrecognisable, food production being compromised and people’s ability to exist and survive in hotter and longer heatwaves regularly tested.  The central message? There is no time to wait.  But lying within the report was another substantial claim – that limiting global heating to 1.5° C was now “virtually impossible”. - Guardian

In Phoenix, two cities are emerging: one is water-rich, the other water-poor  Every two weeks, Dawn Upton floods her lawn. She treks into her back yard, twists open two valves big as dinner plates, and within minutes is ankle-deep in water.  “You have to have irrigation boots, girl,” she says during a video tour of her property in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. She flips her camera to reveal green grass, then tilts her phone skyward at four towering palm trees. As she walks, she pans across pecan, pomegranate, and citrus trees – lemon, orange, a grapefruit sapling. A tortoise, between 80 and 100lb, lumbers toward her, chewing. “There’s Simba,” Upton says. “Hey buddy! What is that, Simba? You can’t eat it.” She pats him affectionately on the head. - Guardian

State officials are putting farmers in south-central Arizona on notice that the continuing drought means a “substantial cut" in deliveries of Colorado River water is expected next year.  A statement issued Friday by the state Department of Water Resources and the Central Arizona Project said an expected shortage declaration “will result in a substantial cut to Arizona’s share of the river, with reductions falling largely to central Arizona agricultural users." - AZ Family