With the mountains and desert of the West entering an eighth successive arid year, the exposed vegetation on the riverbed of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida setting on fire recently and the south-east recording its driest months since records began way back in 1895, the country is in desperate need of water.

But while the short-term effects are confined to restrictions on hose-pipes and garden sprinklers in eastern cities, the long-term consequences are clear.

“A lot of people think climate change and the ecological repercussions are 50 years away,” said Thomas Swetnam, an environmental scientist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, in The New York Times. “But it’s happening now in the West. The data is telling us that we are in the middle of one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States.”

The West is set to receive 10-20% less rainfall by mid-century, which will increase air pollution in cities, kill off trees and water-retaining giant cactus plants and reduce water supply by as much as 25%, according to a report by the US government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“The 1930s drought lasted less than a decade. This is something that could remain for 100 years,” said Richard Seager, lead researcher of the NOAA report.