The California drought and groundwater shortage has the potential to not only be deadly for Californians, but due to the agricultural diversity at risk, the rest of the country faces a severe shortage of fresh healthy foods. There could be more dire consequences than that.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/05/10/bill-gates-funds-th...
Cloud seeding with seawater could deliver much needed rain, but Bill Gates' money currently tending to the experiment is not enough to help it scale. With government involvement in this or other projects that might deliver large volumes of rain and/or fresh water to drought-besieged California, a number of nationwide disasters may be averted.