The Long Read: California is battling a devastating drought
FELICIA Marcus, chairwoman of the US State Water Control Resources Board, says that the California dream isn’t dead. We’re driving in my beat-up Volkswagen through the Central Valley, just south of Sacramento, and even here the effects of the drought are stunning: the hills to the west, usually soft and green, are burnt-crisp and yellowed.
The fields spreading for miles in both directions are also toast; they look as if they would crumble under your feet. Here and there, crops still live, but they are hedged in on all sides by death.
