Can Human Ingenuity Substitute for Natural Capital?

New UCLA research on water supply suggests that the answer is "yes".  So, here is the "dance step".  Climate scientists alert us to the natural capital challenges posed by climate change.  With this "heads up", our engineers get to work both out of concern for the future of humanity and due to the possibly of getting rich.  Some of these ideas will succeed while others will fail.  The induced innovation will create new approaches that help to mitigate resource scarcity challenges.  How unrealistic is this optimistic tale?  The anticipation of future scarcity triggers investments today so that we don't suffer the extreme outcomes that well meaning climate hawks fear we will face.