The Long Read: California is battling a devastating drought

Will chronic water shortages kill the California dream? by Elijah Wolfson

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.