Call me naive but I read the article as consequences of acute human expansion. Virtually every example was followed by explanations along the lines of “man made canals, irrigation, mining...”

I really think technology and better civil planning will be the way to fix these problems. Technology will cause the cost of renewable energy to trend towards zero while better civil planning will apply that energy to pump water from oceans to where it is needed by people. Eventually there will be success stories that will be copied around the world. Israel has had considerable success in water conservation and is considering replenishing the Dead Sea via canals.

If we can build oil pipelines from Canada to Texas eventually there will be a model that says we can build water pipelines from the pacific north west to Phoenix and Las Vegas. Governments around the world will either do something along these lines or they will not. Surely some will. Those that do will still be here long into the future, those that don’t will not.