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[Michaelangelica]

Lighter Footstep: Five Things that are Worse than Global Warming

The Coming Water Crisis


The Coming Water Crisis

From the oceans we turn our attention to an even rarer resource: fresh water. Of all the water on earth, less than 3% is fresh.
Of this, some 70% is locked in glaciers and polar ice. Our survival depends on the tiny bit which is left.
Over a billion people already lack access to a safe supply of adequate drinking water.
These numbers will increase with world population. Here, again, is a clear link to climate change: as rainfall patters shift, so does the availability of fresh water.
But the real crisis is this: right now, our largest cities depend heavily on groundwater. Beijing, Buenos Aires, Mexico City -- and perhaps your own community -- draws its water from underground aquifers.
These aquifers take centuries to replenish, so it's unlikely their use on this scale is sustainable. The recent corporatization of drinking water is no accident: investors recognize the trends of shrinking supply and increasing demand.
This is the reason multinational companies are snapping up neglected municipal water infrastructures and throwing themselves into the bottled water business. Water is the Blue Gold of the 21st century.
How will we replace shrinking fresh water supplies? Desalinization of sea water is an obvious answer, but desalinization is expensive energy intensive. It would require the development of a distribution system that dwarfs the one by which we currently bring petroleum to market. We will have to seek out new ways to reprocess wastewater and reduce our current demand on groundwater supplies.
While changes will necessarily trickle down to the household level and will be neither cheap nor convenient, they are unavoidable if we wish to sustain our current rate of population growth.
There are no equivalents to carbon credits when it comes to water: you can't pay someone not to consume water on your behalf.
When it comes to dwindling fresh water supplies, there can be no smoke and mirrors. Stop drinking for a day, and you'll realize the pressing nature of thirst. The recent drought in the American Southwest and the threat of water rationing in places like Los Angeles are a preview of things to come.

Lighter Footstep: Five Things that are Worse than Global Warming | Green Options