Drought ended the Maya empire: Are California and Southwest Next?

http://grist.org/science/drought-ended-the-maya-empire-is-california-next/?utm_campaign=daily_feed&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

Once upon a time, the Mesoamerican lowlands of Mexico and Guatemala belonged to the classical Maya empire, a civilization on par with what we now call Ancient Greece — which is to say, pretty damn civilized. The Maya built major cities for tens of thousands of people, established complex political systems, industrialized agriculture, and erected two-hundred-foot-tall pyramids and elaborately be-fripperied temples; they knew more about the movements of the stars than their contemporaries in Europe, and they operated a highly organized political administration of offices, tariffs, laws, and punishments that would make any modern bureaucrat proud. (They also practiced regular human sacrifice — but at least they had a lotta heart, amirite?)
And then everything changed. Around 900 AD, the empire collapsed, and their splendid city-states faded into ruin. By the time Europeans made it across the pond, the Aztecs were the new kids on the block and the Maya glory days were a distant memory.
What happened? In a word: drought.