Living there was never sustainable, you're kidding yourself. Even before the mega drought the west was using it's water faster than it's naturally replenished, and then there's climate change...

While it's true synthetics get used a lot for outdoor clothing it's mostly a cost factor. There is no widely used insulation that's as good as down, there is no better shell material imo than wool. (Water resistant, maintaining 70% of it's insulation value when wet, durable, and flame retardant) Natural materials are heavier and more expensive though

I was watching a doc about a guy in Australia doing something similar, just making little 1-2 foot dirt ridges along his property perpendicular to the slope, tiny pools of water would build up behind each one and in just a few years all kind of trees and shrubs were growing along each ridge and the groundwater was being replenished.