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TechnoratiEcologists Warn the Planet Is Running Short of Water
A swelling global population, changing diets and mankind's expanding "water footprint" could be bringing an end to the era of cheap water.
![[A dummy stands near a makeshift tent at a shanty town in the desert of Canete January 21, 2009. Reliable water supplies are difficult to find for the impoverished people living on the sandy desert fringes of Peru's capital, Lima. Clean drinking water is an unattainable luxury for a third of Peru's city dwellers. (Reuters/Mariana Bazo/Peru)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/nowater.jpg "nowater.jpg")
The warnings, in an annual report by the Pacific Institute in California, come as ecologists have begun adopting the term "peak ecological water" - the point where, like the concept of "peak oil", the world has to confront a natural limit on something once considered virtually infinite.
The world is in danger of running out of "sustainably managed water", according to Peter Gleick, the president of the Pacific Institute and a leading authority on global freshwater resources.
Humans - via agriculture, industry and other demands - use about half of the world's renewable and accessible fresh water. But even at those levels, billions of people live without the most basic water services, Dr Gleick said.
A key element to tackling the crisis, say experts, is to increase the public understanding of the individual water content of everyday items.
A glass of orange juice, for example, needs 850 litres of fresh water to produce, according to the Pacific Institute and the Water Footprint Network, while the manufacture of a kilogram of microchips - requiring constant cleaning to remove chemicals - needs about 16,000 litres. A hamburger comes in at 2,400 litres of fresh water, depending on the origin and type of meat used.
The water will be returned in various forms to the system, although not necessarily in a location or at a quality that can be effectively reused.
There are concerns that water will increasingly be the cause of violence and even war.
Dan Smith, the Secretary-General of the British-based peacebuilding organisation International Alert, said: "Water is a basic condition for life. Its availability and quality is fundamental for all societies, especially in relation to agriculture and health. There are places - West Africa today, theGanges-Brahmaputra river system in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, and Peru within ten years - where major changes in the rivers generate a significant risk of violent conflict. Good water management is part of peacebuilding."
David Zhang, a geographer at the University of Hong Kong, produced a study published in the US National Academy of Sciences journal that analysed 8,000 wars over 500 years and concluded that water shortage had played a far greater role as a catalyst than previously supposed.
"We are on alert, because this gives us the indication that resource shortage is the main cause of war," he told The Times. "Human beings will definitely have conflicts over this."
Although in theory renewable sources of water were returned to the ecosystem and their use could continue indefinitely, Dr Gleick said, changes in the way water was exploited and how its quality degraded meant that methods of processing it would become more expensive.
"Once we begin appropriating more than ‘peak ecological water' then ecological disruptions exceed the human benefit obtained," Dr Gleick said. Defined this way, many regions of the world had passed that peak and were using more water than the system could sustain.
A significant part of the problem is the huge, and often deeply inefficient, use of water by industry and agriculture. UN calculations suggest that more than one third of the world's population is suffering from water shortages: by 2020 water use is expected to increase by 40 per cent from current levels, and by 2025, according to another UN estimate, two out of three people could be living under conditions of "water stress".
The World's Water report sounds a particularly strong note of alarm over the state of water usage and pollution in China, where rampant economic expansion has overtaxed freshwater resources and could even begin to threaten stability.
"When water resources are limited or contaminated, or where economic activity is unconstrained and inadequately regulated, serious social problems can arise," wrote Dr Gleick, "and in China, these factors have come together in a way that is leading to more severe and complex water challenges than in almost any other place on the planet."
Drop by drop
- Water footprint calculations are still only rough. They differ around the world and depend on climate, soil types, irrigation methods and crop genetics. The water footprint of different meats depends on what the animals are fed and the relative "thirst" of the crops used to feed them
- The amount of water required to produce a single litre of soft drink may be only three or four litres, but vast quantities are used to produce the sugar and corn syrup feedstocks. For example, one kilogram of paper requires 125 litres of water to process, but that excludes the water needed to grow the tree
36 Comments so far
Show AllRunning out of water? Damn, I should have known. But what I really believe is that there is more water than what we know what to do with and that is the crux of 3 points.
1) there is plenty of water, just how clean it is is very debateable as we allow our elite corporate handlers to get away with murder, yes, real actual murder, by allowing them to pollute freely on the premise that their only of staying in business is not to be regulated by disposing of their waste, thus creating a very unhealthy situation that really becomes down right deadly. And we the people are complicit to let them make us believe that tale of the easter bunny.
2) there are definitely too many people in the world for the current political, economic, religious, social, environmental and natural resource systems to provide adequately for the whole of us. And we, the most intelligent thing, supposedly, this side of the sun cannot come to grips with the concept of figuring out what size population of people should be allowed to live on this planet that will allow an equal access to those things that provide for a comfortable life and how to reach that level humanely(hint-it will be far far below the 6.7billion of today). This is where the religious aspect of the above list fails utterly and miserably by making us believe that we must suffer and live under unusual circumstances such as exists here and now. And that there is no end to the number of people this planet will handle.
3) there is a definite problem if anyone cannot smell the old privatization plots of milton friedman when we are told that there is not enough water when there is. It is just being privatized as most all public services have been of late for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many. Still another attempt to expand the 'unfettered free market system' here in america that has come close to destroying all those countries that have had it shoved down their throats and that they not reject.
Fresh plants are the best source for human hydration. Next is solar distillation from any source. Look at all the pros/cons, do the math, you'll arrive at this conclusion. Look at the interconnections between the reliance on the plants for both nutrition and hydration, plus the many other benefits of trees. Look at the versatility and minimal costs of solar distillation, which increases self-sufficiency and increases the people's economic/political power against the elites' class war aggression. We need land/water rights for all right now. Did you see the article on Sadr City's new US-built water works? That is a chain on the people's leg.
A measure of security is gained if people can make their own water. Check out watercone.com for a low tech idea in that direction.
does this font make me look fat?
AND...
I just read that one pulp mill (paper) uses 16 MILLION gallons of water a DAY.
Don't confuse using with consuming. The vast majority of it is recycled or treated to meet environmental standards and then discharged back to the system, and even most of the losses get returned via precipitation.
http://waterbrief.businessroundtable.org/pdf/charts_graphs_tables/Forest_Products_Overall_Water_Balanc...
If we were using hemp for paper, we wouldn't be using anywhere close to that much water a day ! MR GOVERNMENT, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL ON THE HEMP BAN !!!!
This planet is very rich in water. ET must be rolling over in laughter. True, we may have to do a bit more work to make water potable and drinkable, or get water from areas that have too much for what they need to areas with not enough, but the technology exists. But the elite see a way to control the water, and limit supplies, and make a killing (no pun intended). Water, food, energy and money are being used as weapons against people like you. They justify it with neo-malthusian arguments such as overpopulation, but it is a lie.
"The amount of water required to produce a single litre of soft drink may be only three or four litres, but vast quantities are used to produce the sugar and corn syrup feedstocks. For example, one kilogram of paper requires 125 litres of water to process, but that excludes the water needed to grow the tree"
The tree gives back the water after it is cut down and dried. The water used to process the paper is recycled for the most part. The water we drink is also given back to a large degree as we breathe and void what we do not need.
A couple or three years ago, T. Boone Pickens was interviewed by Bill Moyers. It was pointed out that Pickens had purchased virtually all the water in the panhandle. He would soon control Texas' water supplies and could name his price. He was quite proud of the fact, if I remember right.
Yes. This was pointed out in the documentary called "Flow." Disturbing.
Wait for folks like Pickens start to buy the rights for air.
"All Nature's difference keeps all Nature's peace." Alexander Pope
and thene there is the polar bear - consider taking a minute and contribute your jhancock to some pressure on Int Sec'y Salazar. Petition being fielded unsdr cover letter from Robert Kennedy
http://www.nrdconline.org/campaign/Rescue_the_Polar_Bear
we will live as animals again, whether proactively or reactively...better to do it proactively...but, hey! what's on tv tonight?
I see a lot of my comrades here saying the problem is overpopulation. While I won't disagree that is a factor, it is not the main problem.
The main problem people don't have enough water to drink?
INDUSTRY & AGRICULTURE.
These two things take up to 97% of the fresh water available and leave the rest of us clinging for scraps.
Overpopulation is a symptom, not the cause. The cause is a culture gone mad that takes whatever it wants from the local population and gives us a few scraps left to fight among ourselves. We're so busy fighting, we don't realise we're being robbed of our birthright.
As nice as it would be to solve this so-called "problem" by not breeding, even if there were less people, we'd still have water shortages.
Let's wake up to reality instead of putting all the guilt on ourselves for taking 20-minute showers, as is so common of those of us in the "first world".
The rural areas are depopulating while the suburban and urban areas are turning into nightmare sprawls. That's the truth the Malthusian shills won't tell you or will go out of their way to vigorously deny.
To those who throw around the 'overpopulation' argument, let me say this:
While 'overpopulation' is definitely something to be addressed, it is not 'the' problem as is often made out to be by ignorant or deceitful people. May be someday I can write with more facts and figures - but my theory is this:
a lot of Caucasians migrated out of Europe into the Americas, Africa and Australia, and essentially took over three whole continents (North America, South America and Australia), with the native populations pushed to the brink or largely eliminated. If you try to fit all the white population back into Europe, it would look worse than the worst slum in any third world country. Historically, the white population grew fast as well - large families were the norm. When they couldn't get ahead in life (because a lot of the land and resources were controlled by aristocrats), they pretty much 'escaped' or were transported to one of these 'newly discovered' lands. In contrast, the population in what are called 'third world countries' today pretty much remained geographically stagnant (I'm talking about the last 500-odd years), except for refugees and immigrants who manage to get out today. And even in third world countries, countries that have somehow managed to pull a large part of their population above poverty, the population growth rates seem to be leveling off - so there is some hope there - to clearly address the population 'problem' through education and economic development.
That said, the human population, and, more importantly, our lifestyle, must still adapt to the carrying capacity of the earth. It is important to start paying attention to our share of the earth's resources - our ecological footprint - and then ask ourselves which category we fall under: (a) those who want to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle but with a smaller 'footprint' - which would mean making some major changes in our choice of food, transportation, entertainment, etc. or (b) those who justify our current lifestyle as well as the systems, assuming that this lifestyle was somehow brought about merely through hard work and ingenuity and not due to the use of larger amount of resources - inevitably resulting in exploitation and conflicts around the world. It doesn't matter which country we live in - there are people belonging to both categories in all countries.
Highintel: Can we do better?
"...the population growth rates seem to be leveling off - so there is some hope there - to clearly address the population 'problem' through education and economic development..."
The UN projects the world population to go from the current 6.76 billion to 9 billion by 2042.
>>The UN projects the world population to go from the current 6.76 billion to 9 billion by 2042.
Yes, the population will increase for some time. If you read what I wrote, I said 'the population growth rate' - not the population itself, which is growing, but at a steady rate, not at an accelerating rate. And in some countries, there is a possibility of stabilizing the population through education and economic development.
Highintel: Can we do better?
The UN has a knack of making flimsy predictions. Besides, 2042 is a long ways off and if the resources are tougher to come by, the population might already peak long before then. Besides, the UN is controlled by corporate hucksters and gives only the most corrupt nations full veto power. Toss out the UN and rebuild it !
THANK YOU ! The Malthusian ignorants always use "overpopulation" to "defend" the policies of deregulation, privatization, "free" trade, reckless wars, hostile corporate takeovers, political/religious genocide, etc ... Even Walter Malthus admitted that he was wrong before he died. People who blame "overpopulation" for society's ills are themselves pro-elitist and are the real problems and I might add enemies who have earned my contempt. Rural America has been depopulating but don't expect the Malthusians to bring up that fact.
Overpopulation is a problem that solves itself. I saw bacteria in a petrie dish go through it in grade nine. The bacterial growth chart is a one way one hill roller-coaster.
Wheeeeee!
Overpopulation does indeed solve itself.
In most species, this is due to the fact that they overrun their food supply, and starvation begins the self-limiting cycle.
The overwhelming majority of modern humans have figured out how to keep expanding food supply, thus expanding people (in every sense of the word). At some point, maybe due to environmental reasons, maybe due to sheer stupidity, we will no longer be able to grow as much food nor extract as much water. Thus, the population problem will solve itself.
Unless...
The ecologist is more like the sheppard boy crying wolf. Water is a renewable resource. It's just that like other resources. Remove the privatization and "dregulation" crap and water will be just fine.
Dennis,
It would help your argument if we could tell what it was. Try spell check, for a start, then make sure the sentences make sense, please. Your typos are almost poetic, though: Paul Shepard WAS a great ecologist; Nature and Madness, for example, was prophetic and brilliant. Although you couldn't really say he cried wolf in the usual sense, he was certainly crying about wolves.
Can't tell whether by "privatization and "dregulation" crap" you mean privatization and deregulation itself or some argument about p&d.
And resources, whatever they are, are only renewable if they are used at a slower rate than that at which they are renewed by natural processes. That's why people speak--metaphorically--of mining groundwater.
Dateline 1968. Frances Moore Lappe writes a Diet for a Small Planet, arguing that the water and crops used to rear livestock can be used for humans.
40 years later, voila:
A hamburger comes in at 2,400 litres of fresh water, depending on the origin and type of meat used.
And there is yet another bird flu outbreak in sanitary China.
So expect landfills of birds buried alive, just as it happened with foot and mouth in 2000.
Humans are overpopulated, and they never learn.
correction:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7845306.stm
a bit off topic but refers to your observation about humans never learning....
http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7845306.stm
Ecoman, your comment is so true. Very good point.
Begin now: Collect rain water in barrels, use safe biodegradable detergents and save your wash water as gray water for watering gardens, wash dishes with as little water as you can, don't let faucets just run and run, and get involved with the environmental movements in your area.
Yes, the world is over populated. We need to stop reproducing or at least limit to one child per unit. Mostly, we need to protect the life we do have, and as this article says, think about how we waste water. We will need to be mindful of how much water it took to produce any given product, and boycott the ones' that are water grabbers. Write the manufacturer of that product and tell them why you are boycotting their product. Eventually, entrepreneurs will come forward who will develop "smart" water saving products.
Thanks.
It's just too easy to look at all those starving black bodies--and the starving ecologies they inhabit--and say, "they do it to themselves . . . if only they'd stop reproducing . . . etc." And then to look outside our modern offices upon manicured lawns or even preserved acreage and say we have it right in the West. We live in such an illusion (one enabled by the fact that we are so far removed from the sources of our stuff). I would argue that the "overpopulation" argument is the argument that is actually least challenging, the one that keeps us in the West happily in this illusion, not asking us to turn the critical eye on ourselves.
Ecoman:
You hit the nail on the head!!!
Sure, we have too many people, but the whole overpopulation argument is a form of misdirection. The real problem is fundamentally a mis-allocation of resources that is concomitant with Capitalism. Capitalism requires an excess labor force (that is, the un- or under-employed) in order to keep wages down. Overpopulation is desirable to the Capitalist system as it increases profits: lower wages and more consumers.
I did a little math looking at consumption vs overpopulation. If Sri Lanka's (one of the poorest countries in the world), population reflected Americans' average energy use, they would have a population of 17 billion people! It's not population, it's consumption. And, increased consumption is fundamental to Capitalist GROWTH (the "lifeblood of Capitalism"). Capitalism's drive for increased profits, if you look at it closely, is responsible for global ecological degradation, global warming and to be sure, lack of clean water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_energy_consumption_per_capita
water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink
Yes, there are too many humans and we are so full of ourselves that we continually try to solve our problems with the same thinking that got us into them. Be it population control, economics, extinctions, war ... there is no visionary leadership.
Spain leads the world in desalination technologies. Most other countries put more of their resources and attention into their social issues than into their military. Most other countries have health plans that care for their People, not profits. etc. etc.
But the US ... we just bailed out banks who produce NOTHING but debt, feed no one, and, like the Bushies, are not going to be held accountable for their thefts. If the new administration put HALF of the military budget, HALF of its attention and brain power, moved even HALF-way towards what true Progressives consider progressive, towards solving the REAL problems we face, such as water, overpopulation, healthcare, meaningful jobs and production of goods, etc., we might stand a chance.
If they continue to create and chase false demons (terrorism), "bail out" the fat-cat bloodsuckers who have sent OUR manufacturing base to other countries, etc. ... we'll not make it through the dark times, and we'll die of thirst as we drown.
A major shake-up and overhaul of the corporate, stock market, purely-for-profit-and-excess-consumption USA as we know it is in order, and not many have the stomach for it.
[quote]It is not a shortage of water but rather an excess of humans.[/quote]
excellent point and it's the one great taboo wich will be avoided by almost anyone speaking on global warm,ing, peak oil, food production, pollution, water shortages and so on.
the one thing that eventually MUST be broken and abandoned, be it the soft way or -through armaggeddon, hunger, diseases and mass death- the hard way and that it the unalienable right to reproduce.
humans are like roaches or bacteria, except that there are no or few perdators around that feed on them. they breed and breed and breed, spoiling where they live, pooping in their own nest and copulating and more breeding than a sack full of bunnies
this has to stop. it is THE maincause of all global problems
people who say "this planet can easily hold 15 billion", well, yes it can, but do YOU want your kids to live like laves in a faul environment, packed like sardines in a tincan and the whole planet void of wqildlife and beautiful nature all gone?
I think not.
Be careful, here. Those places where population rates are high are not always the places where consumption of water (of everything) is high. The post-industrial West has a relatively stable, and low, population, but it is the post-industrial West that has the greatest footprint . . . by far. It has exploited the nations of the South for its modern comforts.
Not to simplify things, but "THE maincause of all global problems" is NOT overpopulation but instead the economic system that the West has militaristically spread all around the world: capitalism.
Excellent point.
It is not a shortage of water but rather an excess of humans.
Would it be fair to assume that perhaps it isn't that we have an excess of humans, but rather an excess of irresponsible usage of water, and a lack of regard for our resources. We have water, but it is poisoned and wasted. Poisoning our environment when there are billions of people that are being killed by starvation and dehydration is sadistic and insane. Wasting our water supply on industrial processes and agriculture that doesn't really serve the actual purpose of feeding people is insane, for instance, growing GMO corn for ethanol,...a complete waste of trillions of gallons of water a year, maybe more, as well as being really bad for the earth because of the horrible poisons used on these crops. I know desalination is expensive, but with the discovery of zero point energy generators, it would be less expensive to distill. maybe we could start piping water like we have piped oil, from desalination plants near the ocean, inland. That would create millions of jobs.
The same people that have their hands on the energy controls are also laying hancs on water suplies around the world . Equador recently had riots caused by these energy people raising water prices . That is just one of the many places where this is happening .