Tim Egan ponders the end of California

Mary Bruno

Mary Bruno Jun 28, 2025

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>Tim Egan ponders the end of California</h1>
                <h2><p>"... [T]here is nothing normal about the fourth year of the great drought," writes Tim Egan in  Sunday's New York Times. "... For all the fields that will go fallow, all the forests that will catch fire, all the wells that will come up dry, the</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/mary-bruno-crosscut-com/">Mary Bruno</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>"... [T]here is nothing normal about the fourth year of the great drought," <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/03/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-california.html?ref=opinion">writes Tim Egan</a> in  Sunday's New York Times. "... For all the fields that will go fallow, all the forests that will catch fire, all the wells that will come up dry, the lasting impact of this drought for the ages will be remembered, in the most exported term of California start-ups, as a disrupter." But don't count California out, he continues: "What California still has, in great supply, is ingenuity ... If the drought continues, California will be forced to rely even more on what has long sustained it — imagination. Not a bad thing to have too much of."</p>
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"... [T]here is nothing normal about the fourth year of the great drought," writes Tim Egan in Sunday's New York Times. "... For all the fields that will go fallow, all the forests that will catch fire, all the wells that will come up dry, the lasting impact of this drought for the ages will be remembered, in the most exported term of California start-ups, as a disrupter." But don't count California out, he continues: "What California still has, in great supply, is ingenuity ... If the drought continues, California will be forced to rely even more on what has long sustained it — imagination. Not a bad thing to have too much of."

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By Mary Bruno

Mary was Crosscut's Editor-in-Chief and Interim Publisher. In more than 25 years as a journalist, she has worked as a writer, editor and editorial director for a variety of print and web publications,