Speaking for the US many populated arid areas are completely unsustainable as population centers (ironically also where most people in the US have been moving for awhile now), especially because water resources haven’t been managed rationally in many arid areas. This story will absolutely be a global one though, see Tehran for one massive example, Lake Mead for another. No water and deadly heat waves are going to make for limitless ghost town tourism attraction opportunities!
The future is bright for abandoned building photography communities!
30 years? No, it’s happening now. But it’s not an off switch that is triggered and it’s the end. It’s more of a wiggly line that goes just above sufficiency, then just below on an ever worsening overall decline as ever increasing and extreme measures are taken to adapt. The emergency is only prolonged and the inevitable is people will have to move as there are limits to trucking in water from a cost and availability perspective.
https://climatecosmos.com/us-weather-updates/americas-quiet-crisis-10-cities-running-out-of-drinking-water-2/
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2021-10-30/california-water-crisis-state-intervenes-to-help-town
https://medium.com/@motherjones/here-s-what-i-saw-in-a-california-town-without-running-water-85a489f7da6d
I mean people are running out of water now, but I don’t think there are many ghost towns, yet.