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In North America we are looking into a future of uncertainty regarding long term safety of our water supply. A lot of factors contribute to this development, but one is more apparent now than ever.

Our water infrastructure — pipes beneath our feet, ageing treatment plants and critical flood protections — is easy to take for granted. But there is a problem brewing and it is not regarding the water infrastructure alone. The true crisis is emerging not in concrete and steel, but in the ranks of skilled engineers and technicians needed to build and keep these systems working. North America is entering a workforce crisis. Which begs the question – who will maintain our water infrastructure in 2035 and beyond?

Over the last century, Southern California has grown and thrived by accessing water from faraway sources including the Colorado River, the Eastern Sierra’s streams and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Massive aqueducts transport water through deserts, farmlands and mountains to sustain 19 million people across six counties.

But these traditional sources of water are projected to become less reliable as global warming shrinks the West’s mountain snowpack and unleashes more intense droughts.

You are not imagining it. Fire season in California is indeed starting earlier and lasting longer in virtually every region of California than it did two decades ago, researchers have found, thanks largely to human-caused climate change.

In the Sierra Nevada, fire season starts about 24 days earlier than it did in the early 1990s. In the Northern Basin and Range region, which runs along the northernmost border with Nevada, it’s 31 days earlier.

Authorities in California are bracing themselves for a prolonged heat wave this week that could amplify the risks of a wildfire and intensify fires already burning in the southern and central portions of the state.

The warming trend is forecast to bake almost all of inland California over the next week, dialing up the heat on what’s already been a fiery summer in the state’s southern half, and raising the risks up north after a relatively quiet start to the season.