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TechnoratiNEW YORK - Climate change could diminish North American water supplies and trigger disputes between the United States and Canada over water reserves already stressed by industry and agriculture, U.N. experts said on Wednesday.More heat waves like those that killed more than 100 people in the United States in 2006, storms like the killer hurricanes that struck the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 and wildfires are likely in North America as temperatures rise, according to a new report that provided regional details on a U.N. climate panel study on global warming issued in Brussels on April 6. 
Severe weather already costs North America tens of billions of dollars annually in productivity and damaged property, and those costs are expected to rise, the U.N. report said.
The broadest effects of climate change will be water problems across the entire continent -- including more frequent droughts, urban flooding and a scramble for water from the Great Lakes, which border both the United States and Canada.
"Water was an issue in every region ... but in very different ways and very different places," Michael MacCracken, a review editor of the report, said in a telephone interview.
Unlike many continents, North America has no east to west mountain ranges that limit droughts by forcing rapidly moving wet air to release rain, said MacCracken, also chief scientist for climate change at the Climate Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit group.
Cities will also be threatened as glacial melt leads to higher ocean levels. Late in the 21st century, severe flooding that occurs in New York once every 500 years could happen as often as once in 50 years, putting at risk much of the infrastructure in the New York region, the report said.
Droughts would also occur more often in the U.S. Midwest and Southwest as warmer temperatures evaporate soil moisture.
Those droughts could diminish underground supplies like the Edwards Aquifer in Texas, which supplies 2 million people with water, by up to 40 percent, and cut levels of the Ogallala aquifer which underlies eight U.S. states, the report said.
During droughts like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, U.S. farmers pumped water from underground aquifers to save their fields through irrigation. "Much of that water is now gone," said MacCracken. "We've used up our savings bank."
Tight underground water supplies could kick off a scramble for large above-ground supplies in the Great Lakes, the report said. Spats have already occurred over diversion of the lakes' water for distant cities and farms, while calls have increased for channeling water to the Mississippi River to supply U.S. cities during hot summers.
Problems are also expected to intensify as warmer temperatures lower water levels through evaporation. "Climate change will exacerbate these issues and create new challenges for binational cooperation," the report said.
The tension could be heightened by the fact that a majority of the Canadian population lives close to the Great Lakes, while only a small fraction of the U.S. population reside nearby, MacCracken said.
© Reuters 2007.
32 Comments so far
Show AllAs you will be reading this, there is a meeting in Canada where "discussion of "water transfers" and diversions is to take place during a series of closed-door conferences, according to an outline for the North American Future 2025 Project..
"The project is a trilateral effort to draft a "blueprint" on economic integration for the governements of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. It was launched by the three nations in March 2006 to help guide the Secur4ity and rosperity Partnership, a bid to further integrate everything from environmental rules to security protocols and border controls"
"It's no secret that Canada is going to have an overabundance of water. At the end of the day, there may have to be arrangements."
If it is negotiated by the same scumbags that negotiated ALENA, we will have no water left. Already, the big oil companies are using a lot of fresh water to pump oil from the bitumen, spoiling our wild areas at the same time.
Our current PM is buddy-buddy with Bush and does what he says. There is no hope there. The multinationals are buying us one company at a time.
Catherine
Laval, Quebec, Canada
one thing that would help is to do away with golf courses also
put water meters in everyones homes and businesses and make them pay for water and not just give them a unlimited amount every month. Also cover and line all the aqua ducts transporting water & to help with the effects of evaporation.
Don't forget how much companies like nestles and coke are pumping water our of the countries rivers and lakes and aqua filter and selling it back to us at prices that are well above what we pay for a gallon of gas today. they are depleting the local water supplies all over the states. just to line their pockets with $$$$
This needs to stop also
Enough about the problem. Can we talk about solutions?
We don't have a lack of water; we have a lack of beaver. Beaver used to occupy every suitable stream in the US until we killed most of them. They slowed the movement of water across the landscape and created much of the rich bottomland that is prized for farming and homesites.
The drought that people are talking about is here today. There wasn't enough rain in the L.A. basin to green the hills this year and they will get limited shipments from N. Cal due to a light snowpack and early melt.
The situation is even more dire in the intermountain west where cities like Pheonix and Las Vegas have ignored the now realized possibility of drought. I once saw lakefront properties in Pheonix being built as I flew into the airport.
In the next few years we all get to watch as tens of thousands of houses become worthless because there is no water for them. Short of a miracle the US economy is screwed.
Nature bats last.
Joined the Green Party yet?
The water crisis that is facing us and will be threatening us in increasingly devastating fashion was already observed by the American biologist Wilton Ivie in his 1948 paper "The Ecology of Man" (The Technocrat, vol. 16, no. 12, December 1948; available online, at wwww.technocracy.org), where we find the following comment:
"It is not only these organic factors of the environment that are being disturbed by man's recent activities on the earth, but the disturbance extends into the inorganic elements as well. Among these is ground water. Through millions of years, the rocks of the earth have been saturated with water below a certain level. This level is known as the water table. Man has disturbed this ground in a great many places. He has instituted drainage to remove surplus water from the surface, which has resulted in a lowering of the water table. He has destroyed the plant cover in many places and this permits a more rapid runoff, hence less water seeps into the ground. He has drilled wells and pumped water out of the ground at a faster rate than it is replaced by natural means. He has diverted many lakes, streams and underground flows into the water mains of his large cities and then increased the population of the cities beyond the capacities of the water to supply their needs. Thus, in many areas where there was adequate water to supply a moderate population on a long-term basis, there is now a deficiency of water because of the uncontrolled increase of the population and the short-sighted exploitation of the water resources."
Here are some meditation worthy excerpts about our our present and future water predicament from James Kunstler's 2005 book "The Long Emergency, Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century":
"The vast majority of the earth's surface consists of water, yet only three percent of that is fresh water. The World Bank has famously declared, 'The wars of the twenty-first century will be fought over water.' The United Nations has identified three hundred zones around the world that will be the sites of conflicts over water in the years ahead.
The great aquifers of North America, China, and India are all depleting rapidly due to aggressive irrigation -- up to seventy percent of all cropland in China, for instance -- made possible by cheap fuel. This is one way we can understand the direct conversion of oil into food. The rapidly diminishing supplies of fresh water, especially in the heavily populated third world, also exacerbate sanitation catastrophes, and prepare the stage for epidemic disease. More than two million people worldwide die every year from contaminated water. In the maquiladora zones of Mexico today, water is so scarce that babies and children drink Coca-Cola instead. [...]
Like China, the United States is divided roughly in half between wet and dry. Though the human population of the United States is proportionately much smaller than China's, the amount of effort America has expended on manipulating habitats and altering terrain is as impressive in its own way as China's birthrate. Especially significant is the stupendous amount of paving laid down in the United States during the past hundred years. It prevents rain from being absorbed as groundwater and sends it instead into rivers, and ultimately into the ocean. The effect of this is the inability of water tables and wetlands to recharge and the diminishing ability of the terrain to support life. In the United States, only two percent of the country's rivers and wetlands remain free-flowing and undeveloped. As a result, the country has lost more than half of its wetlands.
The U.S. average of 1,300 gallons of water per day, per citizen, is the highest use rate in the world, and some sixty times the average for many third world nations. Low density suburban sprawl is the fastest-growing sector of water use in the United States now. [...] Global warming implies that a greater proportion of the annual precipitation in the American west will fall as rain rather than snow. The snowpack acts as a storage reservoir, releasing water in summer time when demand peaks. If that precipitation falls as rain instead, it will flow into rivers and streams and run off into the Pacific Ocean at a time of year when demand is lower. The result will be summer crises in both water and power generation. A joint study by a consortium of U.S. agencies and institutes projected that over the first half of the twenty-first century a one-third drop in reservoir levels along the Colorado River would cut hydropower generation by as much as forty percent. The same study also predicted reduced flows in the Sacramento River and the Colombia River." (pp. 162-166)
ooohhh the canadians and their pubically funded health care.
we hate them already. now they have our water, we hate them even more. their schools are better then ours, more hatred, we must save them, who else will. as for water problems here, we'll just make the problem worse fixing it for a profit. taking the water from where nature put it and sending it to places like los angeles ca or los veges nv. how about fewer kids, ahh but the churches must grow and without more children in our church that other church will get bigger then ours. i hate those other churches. put your shoulder against the wheel and keeping pushing in the other direction.
All dams fail. And in Colorado it is illegal to collect the rainwater from your own roof. If you could collect it you would have all you need right from the sky above you.
Living here in Wisconsin where there's plenty of water--so far--the water wars looming on the horizon are a scary thing. Using less, protecting what we have from pollution and being sustainable in our growth decisions must all become reality and SOON.
Also I agree that places like Las Vegas are such obscene examples of American development and the philosophy of greed that they should be allowed to "die" as a result of their own poor planning and choices. Sadly, the big bucks people will be the last to feel it.
Perhaps the national "Step It Up" campaign that is being launched in over 1350 places on April 14 to petition Congress to take action may help a few people snap out of it and begin to pay attention. These are the end times unless we change our tack very soon.
I try to be hopeful, it's hard.
To the point of water use in the west (OK, water waste in the west) why are people in southern CA allowed to have lawns at all? From LA to SD, is arid desert, and if it weren't for water piped in from the Colorado river, the place would also be a dust bowl. What is Schwarzeneger doing to address this? At what point are supporting people and agriculture more important than a lawn? The time is now to cut their alotment of river water and compel them to use reverse osmosis to desalinate sea water. They still have access to the Pacific, right?
Might be a good time to invest in RO manufacturers and to push for reversing the direction of water flow from LA back towards the CO river and parts further east.
As for the article, and it pointing out that we don't have any east west mountain ranges, I'd say, huh?!! Neither does Russia. So? As far as I knew, the storm track runs west to east in the northern hemisphere, and hence forcing the moisture out of the air is what is done by the Cascade range, the western side of the rocky mountains, etc.
How is this person being quoted about the east-west mountain thing a scientist? Because they say they are, or because the writer wanted them to be? If they were really a scientist, wouldn't they be working for a University or R&D department instead of some sorry political think tank?
Good to get a discussion going on this topic, but again our problem is that some people (typically those with more money than sence, ...and have you noticed how many are @$$hole republicans, or live in California?) think all resources are unlimited and can waste with impunity with no repercussions.
The state of MInnesota just recently passed a law stating that Lake Superior water could not be sold or taken even by the state. It's a good solid environmental legislation and I'm glad it passed. The capitalists weren't happy though, as they wanted to sell it by the tanker load to Asia. Here in MN we have been having a drought, seriously. The lakes and rivers are down by several feet. The north where I live has been logged over extensively. For meat, I eat venison and grouse, walleye. Beef is a rare treat.
I remember my economics professor back 25 years ago saying that fresh water in the future would be worth more than oil. The waste is sinful.
Thanks, hsk, for your comments on the "Bushies". I hope more discussions will begin to link together the oil and water politics. Great potential here for positive changes. Liken the lack of emphasis on alternative energy sources to the lack of emphasis on water purification and distribution systems.
Yes, but the "Bushies" land holdings in Paraguay (both father and son have large plantations) are located on one of the world's largest fresh water aquifers. Wonder why "W" is a so-called "global warming denier?" (from Marblehead)
I see no comments about the use of water and power in LasVegas. The "entertainment center" of America needs to be under the same impact scrutiny as the other issues surrounding the water/energy future of America. Will it eventually come down to entertainment vs. food?
Interesting story from Australia today where they are suffering a prolonged drought. Thieves stole, by siphoning, 12000 litres of water from a water tank at a sports ground.
Apparently it can cost up to AS$2000 to fill a swimmimg pool in the affluent suburbs of Brisbane, so it is now becoming worthwhile for innovative criminals to steal water rather than burglarize houses.
An ominous portent for the future perhaps?
Here in Vietnam, nobody leaves water running. When taking a shower you get your body wet, turn off the water, soap up, and then turn the water back on to rinse off. Same goes for brushing teeth and washing dishes. Toilets are flushed when they really need to be. And you know, it rains a lot here.
Rice is also grown here because the Mekong and Red River Deltas are ideal places to grow rice. A few days ago, there was an announcement about planting GM rice in Kansas.
The general response was, Where are you going to get the water?
No doubt about it. Water is the next natural resource to fight over (or air to breathe). For years now the Israelis have made sure that they have taken the land which is the source of the region's water. They're mean, but not dumb.
I know a fellow teacher here in this poor village who is a native of Sweden. He told me that back in his country, the roofs are covered with a type of membrane that acts as a water filter. The size of the holes in the membrane are small enough to keep out even most viruses.
Now what in the world is stopping us from using such common sense ideas? Well, because nobody can make money off it. Once you have this way to save rainfall, which otherwise would go down a drain in the street, you have become - to a certain extent - self sufficient. Most governments have there heads in their collective asses. Stop getting down on your knees before the rich and powerful. Do something for the people for once.
Again, it will be Dennis Kucinich. I don't care if he wins or loses. I'll have voted for who I think should lead this country.
The draining of the giant aquifers is another lassez faire capitalist plunder, to make more corn to make more meat. This is to cheapen the meat, to increase consumption, to buttress the whole enterprise. This fundamentally violates free market principles i.e. producers may not manipulate markets.
The meat chain is the most intensive food chain, requiring ten times the inputs as the plant chain. Capitalists enjoy the extra nine units of investment opportunity created by every one unit of investment made in the meat chain. It didn't happen by
The draining of the giant aquifers is another lassez faire capitalist plunder, to make more corn to make more meat. This is to cheapen the meat, to increase consumption, to buttress the whole enterprise. This fundamentally violates free market principles i.e. producers may not manipulate markets.
The meat chain is the most intensive food chain, requiring ten times the inputs as the plant chain. Capitalists enjoy the extra nine units of investment opportunity created by every one unit of investment made in the meat chain. It didn't happen by accident.
When a new high energy input, e.g. water, is identified to increase a process volume, the capitalist lurches at it, knowing very well that this new input expands investment opportunities, and creates more busywork jobs. So the feds print more funny money and the production is expanded, oversupply results, so the retail price is lowered, so more meat is consumed, more people become addicted, more bucks are passed, the Pentagon collects more taxes and expands its range.
In Scandinavia and East Europe, cogeneration of electricity and heat, for district heating, is commonly employed to achieve ultra high efficiencies (90%) in the central plants. Meanwhile, in the good ol USA, they plan new electric plants like the old ones, with average efficiencies of 25%. They know that cogeneration will depress energy consumption. They need new plants to be as wasteful as the old plants so energy consumption may expand, not contract.
The people must demand greatest efficiencies in all industrial sectors, to minimize the plunder and pollution, the wasted labor, the unnecessary wars, etc.
accident.
When a new high energy input, e.g. water, is identified to increase a process volume, the capitalist lurches at it, knowing very well that this new input expands investment opportunities, and creates more busywork jobs. So the feds print more funny money and the production is expanded, oversupply results, so the retail price is lowered, so more meat is consumed, more people become addicted, more bucks are passed, the Pentagon collects more taxes and expands its range.
In Scandinavia and East Europe, cogeneration of electricity and heat, for district heating, is commonly employed to achieve ultra high efficiencies (90%) in the central plants. Meanwhile, in the good ol USA, they plan new electric plants like the old ones, with average efficiencies of 25%. They know that cogeneration will depress energy consumption. They need new plants to be as wasteful as the old plants so energy consumption may expand, not contract.
The people must demand greatest efficiencies in all industrial sectors, to minimize the plunder and pollution, the wasted labor, the unnecessary wars, etc.
All this and yet we continue to use 50% of our water to raise animals for food......
That's America for ya.
Water wars with Canada? We'll have a civil war over water in Texas before that! Dallas and Ft. Worth want to build lakes in East Texas to insure they have enough water. The people in East Texas don't want the city slickers taking their land and flooding it just so people in Plano can water their lawns.
Central Texas wants the water from North Texas because illegal immigration is swelling their population and their main source of water; underground aquifers, are already under stress.
The people in North Texas have no more intention of giving their water to the people in Central Texas than the people in East Texas have of letting the people from North Texas (Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex) flood East Texas just so they can wash their BMWs every day. Does that make sense yall?
Keep in mind this IS Texas, everybody owns guns. And yes, the red necks have arsenals that rival the National Guard, and lord knows there are plenty of those folks down here.
If you're thinking this water shortage is on the horizon, you're wrong, it's here now. Much of North Texas has been experiencing drought conditions for the last two years, the same for the San Antonio area in Central Texas. That's about 7-8 million people. To add insult to injury, the population keeps growing by leaps and bounds, much of it fueled by illegal immigration. What the heck, while we're fightin' each other we may as we'll go to war with Mexico and force em to take the illegals back. Nothin'like a good war to get the economy jump started.
He got it from me.
Dick Cheney will soon be claiming that he has unequivocal proof that Canada is trying to purchase yellowcake from Niger.
maybe emissions will drop(not) when LA (and all of SoCal) completely dries up and becomes a ghostopolis
"Climate change could diminish North American water supplies and trigger disputes between the United States and Canada over water reserves already stressed by industry and agriculture..."
Already 'stressed' yep that's one way of saying "we've been dumping shit into our water supply for decades without care" and by 'shit' I mean do mean actual shit and anything that causes harm to other living beings in the water. HELLO HAMILTON, DETROIT, TORONTO etc...
It's not like we didn't see this coming either. The focus should be on safe-guarding the great lakes and I DO NOT MEAN MILITARILY, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that most American's will want their share "protected" by such means. Well, I'm willing to share as long as a gun is not pointed at me. Otherwise we're in for chaos. Peace is the only way and peace means giving and sharing. However, if anyone attempts to steal, or claim in the name of nations what is not rightfully theirs, you can bet that we will see revolutionary violence in the future. I do not want it to come to that, but given the United States' actions abroad, I would not be surprised one iota.
You may be against the wars, but you haven't stopped them from happening, you may be against torture, but that still continues. At the very least this will continue to be a decade of truth: the enemies of true freedom control America and they still will despite the changing of figure-heads in 2008.
i'm sorry to hear of your illnesses, gwmRNpozSC. it's sad when people might have to long for the end just to escape the coming disasters.
WE also have publically funded health care.
Canada is pretty evil already. WE have pubically funded health care.
Global warming, impending water shortages, absence of bees to pollinate our crops - sigh.
South Carolina has already been declared a "disaster" agriculturally, losing vast quantities of it's produce this year, because the early warm weather caused early blooming, and then the latest plunging freezes at night did horrendous damage.
We're in for a rough one, for sure, and no one seems to be looking at it - Ie., politicians.
Almost makes me glad that I've so much "against" me medically that I probably won't be here too long. I'd really dread to see what comes the next two decades.
That said, I probably shall be here, to suffer with everyone. (I say that not out of morbid thought, but based on (A) HIV, (B) COPD, (C) Diabetes, (D) Hypertension, (E) CHF, (F) COPD, and (G) oxygen 24/7. In theory, my time to face all of this has been....shortened.)
Having worked as a journalist in Colorado, at the headwaters of rivers feeding a majority of the American West, I can tell you the worst of the coming fight over water will not be between Canada and the US. Two camps will form here at home: those living downstream of Lake Powell, and those living upstream of Lake Powell. The "haves" and the "have nots."
Unfettered "development" in the West simply must stop.
I wonder if the evil Canadians will be "liberated" as the Iraqi's were for access to their plentiful water supply?
P.S. - Maybe we should stop urban development in arid regions. ie. Las Vegas. It's called common sense!
So many of us are focused on oil...