I would imagine this ends up having some effect on events. That is, if things don't collapse in spectacular fashion ala Tresckow's Soylentverse.
Oh, this will have some effects. Just wait a bit for the 2024 election
What's the water situation like in the western US ITTL 2024? Have the Great Salt Lake, Lake Mead, Colorado River, etc. dried up? Also, has there been a renewed push to pipe water from the Great Lakes out west? Because if so I imagine it'd be super divisive; Midwesterners won't be interested in giving up water so California can grow alfalfa in the middle of the desert. Speaking of which, Chicago being the capital of the post-collapse US honestly makes sense given its access to so much fresh water from the Great Lakes.
On that note, how is agriculture in the US adopting to the deteriorating environmental situation, especially since I assume a lot of the agricultural areas out west have become physically impossible to grow crops in by TTL 2024.
All of the major Western lakes and rivers are drier than OTL. California is on a dam-building spree, and has entered into a compact with Oregon and Washington to import water at high prices. California is also the main leader of a coalition of states behind legislation to commit to a national water pipeline from the Great Lakes to the Western states. This has not helped simmering political tensions in the country.
Agriculture is in dire straits. Lots of imported international food items are no longer available, and other fruits and vegetables are not at all available in the off-season. Alfalfa, almond farming, etc. have been banned in California for exorbitant water usage, although agriculture still hogs up an insane amount of water. Agriculture is still thriving in the
Imports from other countries have filled in some of the gaps. You're much more likely to find Asian pears in a supermarket than European ones. Another way to meet demand is to simply sell more American made stuff (this is where our massive farm subsidies finally come in handy). So, high fructose corn syrup is much more omnipresent than even OTL.
And as an aside, the NYT front page graphic from 2021 that said that the US was in a famine is no longer canon. Things aren't that bad in the US yet, but they might be in the future.
Yeah that's what I was referring to when I mentioned the post-collapse US being based in Chicago. And yeah, I feel like a definite flashpoint would be the federal government trying to take control of the Great Lakes to better distribute water to the rest of the country, the midwestern states giving the government the finger, and things snowballing from there.
Yeah, that's one of the main political divides in the country at the moment. Alongside this, there's the urban/rural divide like OTL, although much less prevalent, and the north/south divide based along climate priority funding and internal refugees.