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“We’ve been in denial for a long time,” a water official said about Borrego Springs residents coming to terms with a looming water shortage. Those desert folks aren’t alone. Denial about changes and limits in the natural world is running into harsh reality, whether it’s regarding water supply, wildfires or sea-level rise. A cold snap back East or rain in California doesn’t change any of that. While the politically charged debate over climate change rages at high levels, states and local communities are having to deal with its effects. Consensus on solutions is hard to find because, invariably, there are big economic and quality-of-life issues at stake.

The tiny, remote dot in northeastern San Diego County known as Borrego Springs and its several thousand residents face a daunting task: To survive, they need to ensure they use the same amount of water as the town has in its sole aquifer, which provides declining supplies. Officials expect to have 75 percent less water available by 2040, and they say the town must allow most of its 3,800 acres of citrus and other farms — which use 70 percent to 80 percent of all the community’s groundwater — to fallow. The narrowly defeated Proposition 3, the $8.8 billion state water bond, would have provided $35 million to fallow the farms, which would then become part of adjacent Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Now there’s talk of pursuing a new water bond or seeking help from the Legislature to fallow farms and retrain about 60 farm workers for other jobs.