Rather than wax on about all the many things that impacted our industry this year and will shape it going into 2023, let’s focus on a big one: the shrinking availability of water.
Most of us look back on the summer of 2022 with more than a little exasperation. It was unbearably hot in much of the world, with historic heat waves and widespread drought. Summer 2022 ranks among the hottest on record, according to data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Summers have warmed by 0.47°F degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1980.