As someone who lives in Utah, John going on about the state and our governor was completely earned. Our state's leaders rarely do anything that makes sense or actually helps.

The fact a leader of a state can go on TV and ask the entire state to pray a problem away so he doesn't have to do his job is terrifying.

In case you were wondering who was keeping drought records in the southwest during 800 AD, it was the trees 🌳

The fact that Vegas can have huge water shows and still be beneficial on their water supply should really be a wakeup call that we can actively do something to help the situation if we really tried, without having to lose all of the luxuries we once had. Sure some things have to go and change, but if we actively make these changes there are many things we can keep that we wont be able to if we dont act fast.

You know, I'm gonna just thank John Oliver and HBO for putting his main content for free on YT. I'm an HBOMax subscriber so they already have my money. They are putting out important info for free.

Lived in Vegas as a kid. Every museum and science field trip stressed the importance of water conservation and how dire the situation was for the future of the city and the southwest as a whole. Decades later, its in the exact place everyone said it would be. Its almost at the point where the Hoover Dam won't be able to provide any power. I am hoping these cities that keep approving golf courses and mega resorts in the desert become the biggest ghost towns in history.

My family’s well in AZ went dry in 1996 and I grew up like those folks did. Showered at friend’s or in the school locker rooms when we could, did laundry at laundromats, flushed toilets with buckets of already used water. House never felt clean and it was a constant source of stress. When i moved to the city and could flush my toilet with the handle instead of a bucket I literally cried.

My dad is a groundwater microbiologist and my family has lived in Colorado for generations. My dad said that when he was a kid it never got too hot even in the summer. Flash forwards thirty years and my parent's house IN TOWN almost burned down twice in the span of three months. Our neighbors lost everything including pets to the fires and my parents are seeing their house and moving to a less burnable area. Last year we didn't get our first snow until January (the day after the devastating fire). And as a child through adulthood I went to summer camp in the Rockies and worked as a counselor, only to evacuate the camp three years in a row due to fires. Colorado is in trouble. And as far as states go it's probably one of the luckier ones for water. We are all in trouble.

As a indigenous woman, we have known about this problem for a long time. Even before Glen canyon dam was built. We warned the US government. We’re just ignoring the problem at hand. Like nothing is happening. Oliver hasn’t even talked about our aquifers that are not drinkable due to uranium mining on the Navajo reservation. As native people, we are not even in the talks about water. A few years ago John McCain tried to pass SB 2109 (Navajo-Hopi Little Colorado River Water Settlement) he came to Navajo trying to negotiate our water with the state of AZ. While the whole state has majority of the Colorado River. Navajo chased John McCain off of the Navajo reservation and his offer. We need water too!

Not just a surfing lagoon in the California desert, it's a surfing lagoon in the desert for people who 100% could afford both the time and cost of just going to the goddamned beach, which is literally less than 90 minutes away!

Once again, Brian Cox delivers an authentic performance, capturing the spirit and intent of the character he portrays. Bravo, sir!

I live in Western Australia and here there is a groundwater replenishment scheme that I don't think many people know about. Purified wastewater is pumped underground and will get back to aquifers in about 30 years. We also have desalination plants off the coast because rainfall is increasingly not enough to supply the city of Perth

I live in Tucson, Arizona and my entire life we learned about water conservation. We even had people come to our school to teach us how we can conserve water because we are always in a drought. Our landscaping is just rocks and cactus. But just 2 hours north in Phoenix every house has lawns, all the neighborhoods have lakes and it just makes me feel sick. I grew up knowing when the best time to water plants is so the water doesn't evaporate and then I see people who are acting like we dont only get 9 inches of rain each year. This is such a serious problem and it feels like no one is taking it seriously.

I lived in Vegas when they started the “No lawns” and I was surprised how little people argued against it. I’m not saying some people weren’t upset but surprisingly it was pretty much a “that makes sense” moment. Also they were going around and offering to “buy” peoples lawns and replace them with decorative gravel. I took them up on that offer. Saved a ton of money on no longer caring for a lawn

I'm European and seeing that a state head in the USA apparently thinks it's a reasonable solution to pray for rain in the 21st century is just so mind-blowing, I don't know if I'm more shocked or scared. Someone in a charge that high should at least believe in science or be able to gather a team of experts who can explain the topic to him and help find a solution.... Right?! 😳😳

"All faiths....or one of the many wrong ones!" As a Utah resident, this was an amazingly accurate and insightful set of comments by Oliver.

Hey Coloradan here! I did a water usage project in like the 4th grade (probably 14 years ago) and discovered a lot of of content John just presented on - including that Colorado snowmelt is the sole watershed for like 7 states and 4-5 territories of Mexico and that we allocate way more than we actually have. Even an 11 year old saw the writing on the wall that the western states were in massive trouble - I was traumatized and avoided taking baths for years and begged my parents to get rid of the lawn! I could never figure out why my teachers weren’t as surprised or alarmed as I was. Just sayin, If an elementary school student understands that the only way to solve this problem is to actually reduce water usage along the watershed, so should our elected officials!!

“Nobody wants to be the one having to deliver bad news… so I guess I’ll just do it” was probably the pitch for this show to HBO

May we please get a show on Tipping? I feel like with the economy influx, I'm noticing more and more places forcing tipping into everyday purchases. Its hard to tell how much to tip, when to not tip, and how we can help employers maybe offer better pay (if that is what its compensating for in some cases).

I live here in Utah and one of the largest consumers of water in Salt Lake is the University of Utah. They have so many lawns where they should just have rocks or something else

Denying climate change for 30 years, then pray to god for rain: a perfect allegory for our "modern" civilization.

And let's not forget Nestle's contribution: buying water rights for a small amount of money (and then stiffing the area amount in subsequent years) and then depleting the underground aquifer, then moving on to the next -- all over the country. Nestle is a foreign multi corporation who is centered in Switzerland.

There should be a spin-off series giving updates on each of these fantastic stories!

The end is the funniest thing I've ever seen on LWT. Fantastic. I want a feature film with god! What a great performance

I'm from Arizona, and Ive seen "rock gardens" and "gravel lawns" more beautifully decorated than any water-wasting patch of grass ever was. Rock lawns may not fit the style of the eastern usa, but in the desert, it looks wonderful and you can get some truly beautiful and artistic lawns using only sand, gravel and rocks, with maybe a few cacti for some color. The shades of red, and grey, and tan from the gravel lawns can literally be made into art at the front of the house without using a single drop of water, and absolutely no maintenance. I wish and hope this becomes the standard for the south-west

My geology professor in college was from Alabama. He started the first class by saying in a heavy southern drawl, "that's right, I am that rarest of birds, a redneck with a PhD". One subject John didn't cover in this was contamination of groundwater by human waste, a subject my prof went into at length. I remember the whole lesson years later, possibly because one of the funniest phrases to hear in a Southern accent is "poo water".

We need a part 2 to this now that it’s been a few months.

The scene of God roasting people was one of the best parts of the show IMO

John Oliver is getting closer and closer to just having " LIFE " as a topic.

In Cape Town, South Africa we literally had a countdown a few years ago where we would've been the first city in the world to run out of water...

I feel like the existence of a surf lagoon in the middle of the desert may be the single largest middle finger mankind has ever given to nature. Which *sounds* cool until you remember Nature doesn't have a sense of humor about that sort of thing.

Wow. Whenever I heard about water shortages and droughts, I was under the impression it was resulting from climate change. But from the sounds of it in this video, a lot of it (perhaps not all) is due to infrastructure and water usage issues.

My mom is a geologist and likes to play with water when she’s not playing with rocks. She was in Israel a few years ago and was seated next to a man in charge of the public water systems in Tel Aviv. He was speaking to her of the expansion that was being planned for that area and Mom asked him “where will the water come from?”. He told her that there was plenty of water. She told him that no, she had seen there was not, that the River Jorden was very low. That is when he replied that God would provide, stood up and walked away. Another one bites (mom’s) dust..lol…

“That’s just unsustainable” “That’s just human nature” That’s the whole problem

Thank you HBO for putting all this on KZfaq

I'm never disappointed when Brian Cox shows up.. 🙏

Great video. One thing not mentioned: the lack of water in Lake Powell and Lake Mead also means the eventual halt of electricity production. The lakes are very close to not having enough water to produce electricity for all of the states in the southwest. We're screwed.

"It is imperative that we learn from our past mistakes." We are _so_ screwed.

Thank you for bringing this issue up to the mainstream media. The water wars have been going on forever, and it is about time someone shines a light on it. Thank you, John!

One of the most absurd things being contemplated in Utah is piping water from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Salt Lake (which is about half the surface area in the last few decades).

The amount of blindness on this issue is staggering, especially for people who actually live in the Southwest and see the effect of the water shortages firsthand.

I come from a long line of ranchers in western Colorado. My family used a practice of flood irrigation where the land was all sloped gently and fed water from a ditch at the uphill side for short periods (usually less than 10 hours) and then allowed to dry for up to a week at a time. Water that the land didn't use ran off and was collected in a lower end ditch and routed back to the streams and rivers. This meant the water was never stagnant and the unused portion was returned to the water supply, and underground aquifers were replenished at the same time through the root systems of the pastures. Then livestock was allowed to graze on the land and trim the grass, which fed the natural cycle of root growth and and then die off, building soils. Animal wastes were also evenly spread, and each spring a spring tooth harrow would be drug over the land to further spread the dung without ripping the soil up. The pastures were also rotated for hay production to feed the herds and flocks through winter, and for the hottest parts of the summer the animals were moved to managed public lands for widespread grazing at higher, cooler elevations, allowing a dedicated period of growth for hay production and also shading the ground for the hottest part of the year. The net result was that the land required no chemical inputs, was generally productive, and the few wells needed for water through the winter didn't run dry. Starting in the '80s, the area ranchers started seeing pricing pressure for the livestock from larger factory farm operations, making it unsustainable to keep ranching this way. One by one, all the "old timers" started selling their ranches to developers because it was worth drastically more as potential houses and they couldn't make ends meet otherwise, and in the mountainous areas factory farming just doesn't work. Had they been able to hold out for 20 years, they would have seen a resurgence of value in their animals because the methods used were technically raising animals that were organic (minus a few very infrequent vet visits for sick animals), grass fed, and grass finished, now in high demand. There are a few ranchers that did make it through and are capitalizing on that now. A big part of the reason these ranchers couldn't compete was access to water. The water diversions from the rivers and streams would be shut off mid season, even though the rivers were running high, because the water was needed downstream in another state. Less water meant less animals that could be fed with the land, meaning less animals to market and less profit. Wells that were used seasonally ran dry, the land started to parch in the late summer because the grasses couldn't be nursed through, and as a result the overall health of the land started to decline in a cascading fashion. Weeds started to take over in a lot of places and some land was just left alone for lack of water. You can imagine how frustrating this was when a short drive (or sometimes just a walk) to the closest stream or river showed plenty of water, but it was illegal to turn the ditches back on. Fast forward 35 years and much of that land is now subdivisions and golf courses, water is either being wasted on non-native grasses that are too thirsty or being funneled off through storm drains, and the area is quickly turning into more of a desert. I am not a rancher, and my entire extended family is now out of agriculture. Most of the old timers have passed away (lifelong ranchers don't retire, they just slow down a bit and eventually keel over), and the next generation mostly didn't take it up. The land was sold. I actually don't even eat meat, which is a huge departure from my upbringing. I have come to realize though, that what is now referred to as regenerative agriculture is really just a highly managed version of what was once just "agriculture". Water usage used to be surprisingly low, but the demands put on lands and the practices used to achieve those demands drove water usage up and soil quality down. Well managed lands can easily rebound from droughts even several years long. Healthy soils and native plants growing in them cause water to "slow and spread", soaking into the ground and allowing groundwater and aquifers to replenish. In many areas this means water can start to travel underground and not suffer evaporation loss, meaning water used by the vegetation is offset by the conserved water the vegetation moves underground. I think Tuscon, AZ has the right idea. They have seen massive success in working with nature to direct water back underground and take advantage native plants, and as a result the city is cooler and is seeing long dead natural springs running again as the aquifer replenishes. They should stand as a model for all western cities.

Being an ex-Mormon and living in AZ, I very much enjoyed this.

It was so good of God to come on the show and tell all of us what we needed to hear. Replace the water issue with absolutely anything else people tend to pray for and it still works. Thank “God” Thoughts and prayers.

As an environmental engineer focusing on water and storm water design, this is explained very well and covers the big topics for the western states better than I could. Water rights are ridiculous and out of control. Groundwater gets contaminated bad, and don’t forget about sea levels rising and moving up rivers contaminating water sources too.

Now we need "Water II: Nestle." Enough for an entire show just about them.

I live in Colorado, and this past 6 months they've started construction of THREE new car washes within 2 miles of my house. We already have a ton scattered around town, so there's not a demand. It's insane, irresponsible, and I'm pissed. My own neighborhood's HOA uses so much water there's practically a river in the gutter every other day. I don't even know what I can do to help at this point :(

This show brings more value than any news outlet and posts about 1/20 of what they do. That's impressive.

I love this show it’s eternally depressing but they’re real topics and he’s funny about such sad serious things

20 seconds in and you reminded me to water the plant my son gave me… lifesaver

THE GOD SEQUENCE IS UTTERLY BRILLIANT! TEN GOLDEN STARS! AND THANK YOU!

In my country, if a politician asked people to pray in order to solve a problem, the next seat that person would get, would be in a psychiatric ward. I'm so very grateful for living in a secular country.

Rick Perry once gathered thousands of people together to pray for rain during a drought. The following four months were the hottest on record.

His face when he claps at the fountain display 😂 I can't

GREAT MONOLOGUE. THAT SHOULD GO VIRAL. GREAT DELIVERY. AS A CONSERVATIVE, GAY, CHRISTIAN, NON-AMERICAN, I APPROVE OF THIS MESSAGE. YASS.

“When the well’s dry, we know the worth of water.” - Benjamin Franklin

Poor part of Utah: Well yes, we're in drought, so we won't be turning on your ground water this summer Rich part (southern): Why yes, you can build another golf course in the middle of the desert next to your brand new pool and unaffordable houses! It blows my mind to see all these rich people getting a pass to do whatever they want and everyone else gets blamed for it. Imagine if they actually faced consequences *gasp.*

In Australia we brought in restrictions and built a desalination plant. The Desal plant has not been switched on yet....but we will be glad when the next drought happens, and so will anybody who remembers the last one

The knowledge of the word aridification is my gain for the day. Thanks Last week with John Oliver!

Got into an argument with someone about golf courses, they claimed that they took better care of the environment than when it had been left empty. When I pointed out golf courses in places where they completely destroyed ecosystems like the desert or wetlands, he said I obviously never played golf, so my opinion wasn't valid. XD

Politicians could literally be told that what they’re doing would cause the earth to explode and they’d still complain about “their right to do what they want” and “their standard of living”

I would love an episode on meat consumption, as it seems relevant to climate change, water conservation, and pathogen risk. It's also an area where the status quo of how people eat, still holds strong in a lot of people's minds. But if we were opened alteration society actually could pressure corporations into demonstrating that they are operating more sustainably, and shifting to making sustainable options more accessible

Thank you for talking about the water crisis.

As a resident of AZ, thank you for covering our water issues. I live in Phoenix, and I am not joking when I say we have neighborhoods that look like they are from Indiana or something. The whole area is covered in grass, there are trees not native to the desert, and they will even have gardens in their backyards. Remember, we are in a DESERT. The only way they can keep these plants from dying (since they do not belong in a desert) is to flood irrigate their neighborhood, which is a method of watering crops where you literally flood the entire field. Our government is so corrupt about this too. They keep doing campaigns telling people to do stuff like shorten/reduce their showers, buy more efficient washer/dryers, etc, yet do and say absolutely nothing about the neighborhoods literally flooding their lawns just to keep the decorative plants alive. In the middle of this water crisis, guess what is the #1 consumer of water here? I kid you not, grass. We are draining the Colorado river because we want to grow grass, in a desert.

I lived in Utah for three years and when I turned the sprinklers off at my home to save water, my landlord showed up and threatened to charge me for damages done to the grass. They then sent over a person to program the automatic sprinkler and locked the control unit shut.

Canadian here, youd be shocked how much of our water is sent to the desert states. Which isn't terrible, since we have water to spare. I live on Vancouver Island and it's a literal temperant rainforest, like so much rain. Our winters don't have as much snow, as buckets of rain. And when we do get snow, theres usually freezing rain right after that turns the snow into hard ice. My apartment relies on a well that is supplied by the nearby river, that often overflows. So please, take our excess water. You guys in the US clearly need it.

Brian Cox amazing as always.

When I was child, I read a book on how we waste water everywhere, how this will become a problem along the way, and how we could do better. This was 40 years ago… it impressed me so much, I have been mindful of water everyday since. Strange that no one else seems to have noticed.

I am from Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. My city has been experiencing water scarcity for this entire year. My grandma’s house didn’t have a drop of water for an entire week. This has been on going since March. Beer companies and other industries are sucking all the water that’s left in the state. Idk if we will run dry for good or if we will find a way out of this one. Good episode.

this is 21st century journalism right here.

Another great episode!!! We need a show like this for every country or at least continent!!!

Ah, yes, praying. I've heard that it's made as much difference in recent years as praying for victims of gun violence, praying for cancer patients, praying for the Red Sox and praying for world peace. Praying is the least effort when you don't really want to do anything.

The worst part about this situation is that we can't call it "watergate"

As a citizen of Ventura county, I’m so proud of our ingenuity and passion for solving drought conditions

some times I don't think I have the time to watch these but they're always so gooooood!!! so I make time. Good to see and hear from God.

I'm surprised at how little attention the "food production takes up 70% of water usage" part got. Growing the wrong crops in the wrong areas, overreliance on the incredibly water intensive practices in animal farming etc. Animal ag uses more water to produce less calories than even rice patties, but regulating agricultural water use is still not properly discussed. Tragic.

Praying for rain like it's a real (and apparently the only) solution feels like something I'd see in a movie set thousands of years ago

I just have to show this segment to my students next year. I think I have an answer for Arizona. Anyone moving there has to bring their own water!

Has anyone seen if Utah by chance has had more water this year since the Governor asked people to pray for it?

"I'll be the Drought Daddy, I'll keep track of the wets" needs to be a tshirt

I’m not surprised to learn that Utah uses the most water. I have a relative has a sod farm in the desert of Utah where he grows luxury grade grass for the NFL and various golf courses around the country. That same relative has been complaining for a decade about the effects drought has had on their business, but rather than redirect their business model, they are consuming as much water as they can get their hands on while they wait for the drought to end.

"we stan a damp legend" 🙌 I can't. I just can't. 😂😂😂

Brilliant God!!! Thank you so much!!! They never listen do they??? Thank you for John Oliver!!!!

Once again, John, a masterful presentation about the absurdity of the American way.🗿

Was really hoping John would go further into alfalfa farming, and how it’s done mostly to provide feed for livestock overseas. It’s a huge reason for the Great Salt Lake’s continued shrinkage, and thus Utah’s current aridification. It’s also leading to the potential exposure of arsenic along the Lake’s dry bed, which will be blown, as dust, into the surrounding area’s air. Another reason to examine our support for animal agriculture, AND to turn your damn sprinklers off.

The risks of using too much ground water should already be clear from the historical record. Centuries ago, there was a city in the Arabian Desert which was a major trading post. They got their water from an oasis, and when that dried up, they switched to groundwater. One day, the city just vanished in a huge calamity. After that, the survivors scattered and the city was only remembered in legend. We found that city again, in the 1990s, at the bottom of a giant sinkhole that had opened up and swallowed 90% of the fortified city center. They had used so much groundwater they had hollowed out the land underneath the city and it eventually just caved in.

"WHERE'S THE BOY?!" That line pops into my head every now and then XD

What cannot be stressed enough is that corporations need to be held accountable for their water usage! We as citizens can do all we can to limit our water usage, however what we use is a tiny fraction of what many corporations use and they don’t have many regulations.

I live in Utah. It blows my mind that the city I live in requires a certain amount of green lawn in the visible parts of the yard. It's something like 70 or 80% of it has to be green lawn. I don't want to waste the water on stupid grass that has no business being in a desert. I'd much rather xeriscape so I can have a nice-looking yard without dumping gallons of precious water on it. I mention it to city officials, but they ignore me. It's frustrating Edited to add: I read the most recent version of the city ordinance last night. The amount of required living plant matter has been reduced from 70% to 30%. Artificial grass may be used if each artificial blade is long enough, if it's dense enough, and if there's at least a 5-year warranty against color fading and physical wear. A permit must be obtained prior to installing artificial turf. The city I live in is kind of like the world's largest HOA

I could definitely believe in that God at the end. Straight to the point and swearing haha.

I wish you would do one show on the wildfires and the fact that fires in smaller areas go ignored. And some of them are bigger then those that get shown in the news.

Shoutout to the person in the audience @2:28 that uncertainly says a lil "Woo!" when John says that two instances of human remains were found.

"Water supplies are measured in acre-feet". A mention here to the incredibly capable American civil engineers who are still having to work with this unbelievably archaic system.

John's Craigslist shower post description was spot on! lol

Thank you for using real examples of poor water usage like apartment developers and golf courses! And not condemning the average homeowner.

I was just scrolling through KZfaq and I saw this video and out loud, without even thinking, I asked “oh John why?”. You condense despair into such an informative and entertaining package. Each week I both dread/ look forward to whatever fresh terrible you and your team are dishing out

I love the "let's just pray" guy, it shows his high level of understanding of the whole situation

I need to add here that the problem doesn't end at reduced water usage. Rain is dependent on many things and one of the most important ones missing in this video is forests. Forests cool warm rain by providing multiple impact areas for water droplets. Each leaf a droplet hits cools down the water significantly. By the time the water reaches the ground, it is cool enough to sleep into the ground more easily, rather than running off or evaporating. This is because H2O molecules are denser when cold and further apart when warm. Denser particles of water can slip through smaller gaps in the soil than if it were warm, allowing more to remain in the area where it fell. There is also a huge mulch layer in forests that provides a surface area large enough to hold water from even the most intense downpours. The water then remains in the forest until there is a significant difference between the temperature inside and outside of the forest. At this point huge amounts of water evaporate into the air and form clouds that carry water further inland. The fewer forests you have, the less chance that rain from the coastal regions makes it inland to where the water is most needed. Forests are sponges and serve a vital function in the weather system. We are currently deforesting the world in a time of great water usage and heat. It's easy to see why there's a problem here. Also I should add that plantations do not perform the same function as a dense forest. Neither does other green space. Forests alone are where the magic happens and we need to replant huge areas as soon as possible if we want to even come close to fixing the water issue.

This echos the lessons I learned in water law very accurately. Oliver's team has done it again.

I've been doing reading on water supplies/usage in California, and it all matches the episode. A fun fact I found is that water allocation in the state was all based on generous assumptions of 'average precipitation'. That is, rather than budgeting low and using extra as it comes, the state budgeted high and is left wringing its hands when it falls short. On top of that, evidence suggests that the 20th century was an unusually wet century in California, even before accounting for anthropogenic climate change. So the state is built on an assumption of plentiful water that simply doesn't exist, and won't exist anytime this century. Also, bonus fun fact about pumping groundwater: In California, at least, freshwater aquifers lie on top of saltwater aquifers that were deposited when the place was under the sea. So the more fresh groundwater gets pumped up, the more saltwater will rise to the surface. And once an aquifer is contaminated with saltwater, there's no fixing it; that source of water is done for. So all that unregulated groundwater pumping is just adding to an unfixable state of waterlessness. The situation: it be dire.