*
5:58 PM
*
* *
THE IMPENDING
*
END OF DAYS CRISIS
*
YOU CHOOSE TO IGNORE
*
DROUGHTS IN ONCE*
FERTILE LANDS
*
A RIVER IN CALIFORNIA
*
DWINDLING WATER WELLS
THIRD WORLD CHILDREN
A RIVER IN CALIFORNIA*
DWINDLING WATER WELLS*
IN POOR COUNTRIES
*
THIRD WORLD CHILDREN*
BATHING IN POLLUTED WATER
*
POLLUTED STREAMS
POLLUTED STREAMS*
RAIN WATER
RAIN WATER*
CATCHER TANK
*
IN AUSTRALIA
*
YOUR LOCAL
YOUR LOCAL*
WATER TREATMENT PLANT
*
WATER RECYCLING PLANT
WATER RECYCLING PLANT*
**
*
*
*
Which is the one thing, the one resource on earth you and I could not live without, other than oxygen?
*
Food?
*
We can plant it. Even if the distribution system stops operating we can still grow food if we are forced to.
*
Gas?
*
We can walk or ride a horse, or a bike.
*
Money?
*
We can barter, exchange goods or services we have for someone else's goods or services.
*
Electricity, sources of energy?
*
We can still survive without electricity, by building fires for cooking, and doing without the creature comforts we have come to depend on for the last 100 plus years. Electricity was not necessary that long ago, it is really not necessary now.
*
Please do not say TV, the Internet, cell phones, etc. Get serious.
*
*
*
Which is the one thing, the one resource on earth you and I could not live without, other than oxygen?
*
Food?
*
We can plant it. Even if the distribution system stops operating we can still grow food if we are forced to.
*
Gas?
*
We can walk or ride a horse, or a bike.
*
Money?
*
We can barter, exchange goods or services we have for someone else's goods or services.
*
Electricity, sources of energy?
*
We can still survive without electricity, by building fires for cooking, and doing without the creature comforts we have come to depend on for the last 100 plus years. Electricity was not necessary that long ago, it is really not necessary now.
*
Please do not say TV, the Internet, cell phones, etc. Get serious.
*
The fact is that humans lived for thousands of years without most of the resources we now take for granted.
*
We even managed to live for millions of years without fire.
*
We managed to live for millions of years without tools.
*
For thousands, if not millions of years there were only three constants:
*
Air, our will to live,...............and
*
The one resource we take for granted and were it to disappear we would die in no time is water.
*
Not just water, as 70% of our planet is covered with ocean water.
*
Clean, unpolluted, drinkable water.
*
Water we drink to quench our thirst and have no fear of being contaminated.
*
Were you aware that we are rapidly running out of fresh, clean, drinkable water?
*
Were you aware that most of the planet has no access to clean water and thus become sick and die from all the diseases, the excrement and chemicals they find in the water at their disposal?
*
Were you aware that millions of acres of farm land are becoming wastelands because of lack of water to keep them fertile? Even here in the US we have serious droughts in places like California, one, or the one state that produces more food than any other?
*
Were you aware that there are nations that depend on the same source for their water, thus creating a serious problem for them once that source becomes scarce, and/or they stop willing to share that water?
*
Even here in the US some states depend on water sources located in other states. Nevada's Hoover dam not only provides water, (and electricity) for Nevada, but for Southern California as well.
*
If Lake Meade, an artificial lake formed when the Hoover Dam was built suddenly starts running dry, you are sure to see serious quarreling between California, Nevada and the federal government.
*
Actually, large farms have died, or are dying in California for lack of water for irrigation. That is happening right now at this moment.
*
The fact of the matter is that we are running out of clean water really fast.
*
On one hand the water reservoirs are dwindling, while the world's population continues to increase, a population that consumes more and more water. And in places like China and India, where hundreds of millions used to live in squalor bathing in and drinking excrement-filled and bacteria infested water a large percentage of those people are escaping their once miserable lives and are increasingly becoming part of a rapidly growing middle class that demands pure, clean water for drinking, for cooking, for bathing, etc.
*
As our water reserves decrease, and hundreds of millions of people are added to the other hundreds of millions already depending on this water there has to be a breaking point down the road, don't you think so?
*
It is not a question to ponder, it is a fact we must face now, as in today, right now, as this is a crisis ready to explode at any moment.
*
They talk and report about nations going to war over oil, over land, over religion, and over so many other causes.
*
Friends, those wars, regionalized fights and worldwide disturbances are nothing compared to what we are facing once we all realize that the one resource we need the most is running out.
*
Face it. The world will go to war over water rights. Simple as that.
*
China needs clean water for its 1.3 billion people. India needs clean water for its 1.1 billion people. The US needs clean water for its 310 million people, and on and on.
*
Governments will stop being diplomatic and playing nice with each other over current problems, like oil, ethnic conflicts, religious conflicts, the race to be the most powerful economies and most powerful military powers.
*
When it comes to the survival of its own people, all bets are off, no more being niece, no more meeting at the UN. No more empty threats.
*
When it comes to the survival of its own people the nations of the world will do what they must do to survive, and that is to fight for the one resource they cannot live without, water.
*
Damned be the consequences of a nuclear war, or hyper-conventional ground war over conquering lands with water reservoirs. What does the world have to lose? It will be a matter of life and death.
*
If you succeed in conquering a nation that has water you will live. If you do not, then you will die, simple as that.
*
So at this point in my article you think I am only dealing with hypotheses and possible far-off future scenarios, right?
*
You think I am a scare monger just using up space to post an article to my blog?
*
Well, if you still do not believe we have a crisis after reading the following, then I can only say that I warned you.
*
Or you will say, 'So what am I supposed to do?' and just go on with your business, just hoping for the best.
*
Well, there are things you can do. I mean, you will not avert this crisis from happening. It is here already. It will engulf us within a few short years. No escaping it. But you can do some things to help yourself,....................to an extent.
*
It is like me telling you to go hide up in the Andes mountains once a nuclear war is unleashed upon the world, as you will live the longest, since the radioactive cloud will perhaps reach you last.
*
But it will reach you nevertheless. Just as you may buy yourself some time once 'the water wars' commence, but eventually the water you saved for yourself will also run out. No escaping it.
*
You may also say that technology will make it possible for us to have clean water, be it by creating it, desalinating ocean water, recycling it, etc.
*
Yes, yes and yes. But the technology is at its infancy and we do not have the other necessary resources, much less the time to create the necessary technological infrastructure to avert a water crisis.
*
Pay attention to the following.
*
The water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago.
*
While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.
*
Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.
*
Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet.
*
Again, while nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
*
And even if you live in a Western, or 'First World' society, do not be so sure that the water you drink is suitable.
*
Water treatment plant technology has not advanced at the necessary pace.
*
While water treatment plants do remove 'most' sewage from the water, and most bacteria, they do not remove some of the chemicals dumped into our reservoirs by factories and plants, and they do not remove some of the pharmaceutical components of drugs, which are dumped by humans into the water. The modern filters are just not modern enough, as they cannot remove all of these chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals are created at a much faster rate than the water treatment industry can catch up with them before they reach your drinking water supply.
*
Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution.
*
In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant economic resources to obtain.
*
Wherever they are, people need water to survive. Not only is the human body 60 percent water, the resource is also essential for producing food, clothing, and computers, moving our waste stream, and keeping us and the environment healthy.
*
Unfortunately, humans have proved to be inefficient water users, as we take it for granted and do not protect it as we should.
*
According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.
*
By 2025, if we get there, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.
*
The challenge we face now is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have.
*
The History Channel, recently presented “Prophets of Doom,” highlighting five scholars who discussed possible sources of a coming Apocalypse:
*
1) Shrinking oil and natural gas supplies upon which growing world populations depend;
*
2) Insolvent global financial systems;
*
3) Nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists;
*
4) Artificial Intelligent Robots advanced enough to enslave human beings;
*
(This is the one 'apocalyptic event' I do not necessarily disbelief, but think it is so far off that the world might not exist by then anyway.)
*
5) The shrinking supply of fresh water.
*
The experts include: Michael Ruppert, Nathan Hagens, John Cronin, James Howard Kunstler, Professor Hugo De Garis and Robert Gleason, all internationally known experts in their fields.
*
The problem, of course, is that all of these warnings could converge on the earth at one time.
*
But the experts agreed that the coming shortage of fresh water around the world threatens the element most essential for human life.
*
Well-published scholar, John Cronin is both Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries and the Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University.
*
Cronin stresses three areas in his report as one of the Prophets of Doom:
*
Not only is fresh water running low, its quality is getting worse, and as shortages increase, diseases from bad waters will also increase.
*
Co-author of The Riverkeepers with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Cronin insists that this problem can be solved:
*
“One billion people are without safe water. We have the know-how and compassion to correct that tragedy, and harmonize forever the human and natural worlds. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”
*
Cronin has a website, http://www.johncronin.net/, which publishes “The Blue Times: News From a Blue Planet.” It includes links to articles on: declining water supplies; raw sewage and radioactive debris in drinking water; industrial dumping of millions of pounds of toxic waste into these waters; and failures of national and local government agencies to warn citizens of these poisons or to cleanse the water.
*
This website writes often about the slow death of fresh water around the world.
*
When most U.S. citizens think about water shortages — if they think about them at all — they think about a local problem, possibly in their town or city, maybe their state or region. We don't usually regard such problems as particularly worrisome, sharing confidence that the situation will be readily handled by investment in infrastructure, conservation, or other management strategies. Whatever water feuds arise, e.g., between Arizona and California, we expect to be resolved through negotiations or in the courtroom.
*
But shift from a local to a global water perspective, and the terms dramatically change. The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages that threaten health and economies while 40 percent of the world — more than 2 billion people — have no access to clean water or sanitation. In this context, we cannot expect water conflicts to always be amenably resolved.
*
Consider: More than a dozen nations receive most of their water from rivers that cross borders of neighboring countries viewed as hostile. These include Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Congo, Gambia, the Sudan, and Syria, all of whom receive 75 percent or more of their fresh water from the river flow of often hostile upstream neighbors.
*
In the Middle East, a region marked by hostility between nations, obtaining adequate water supplies is a high political priority. For example, water has been a contentious issue in recent negotiations between Israel and Syria. In recent years, Iraq, Syria and Turkey have exchanged verbal threats over their use of shared rivers. (It should come as no surprise to learn that the words "river" and "rival" share the same Latin root; a rival is "someone who shares the same stream.")
*
More frequently water is being likened to another resource that quickened global tensions when its supplies were threatened. A story in The Financial Times of London began: "Water, like energy in the late 1970s, will probably become the most critical natural resource issue facing most parts of the world by the start of the next century." This analogy is also reflected in the oft-repeated observation that water will likely replace oil as a future cause of war between nations.
*
Global water problems are attracting increasing attention, not just at the international level, but also within the United States, in its popular press, in natural resource journals and as the subject of books.
*
Former Sen. Paul Simon from Illinois recently authored Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About it. A book for the general, non-specialized audience, Simon's publication sounds an alarm about the approaching crisis. "Within a few years, a water crisis of catastrophic proportions will explode upon us — unless aroused citizens ... demand of their leadership actions reflecting vision, understanding and courage."
*
A prime cause of the global water concern is the ever-increasing world population. As populations grow, industrial, agricultural and individual water demands escalate. According to the World Bank, world-wide demand for water is doubling every 21 years, more in some regions. Water supply cannot remotely keep pace with demand, as populations soar and cities explode.
*
Population growth alone does not account for increased water demand. Since 1900, there has been a six-fold increase in water use for only a two-fold increase in population size. This reflects greater water usage associated with rising standards of living (e.g., diets containing less grain and more meat). It also reflects potentially unsustainable levels of irrigated agriculture. (See sidebar.) World population has recently reached six billion and United Nation's projections indicate nine billion by 2050. What water supplies will be available for this expanding population?
*
Meanwhile many countries suffer accelerating desertification. Water quality is deteriorating in many areas of the developing world as population increases and salinity caused by industrial farming and over-extraction rises. About 95 percent of the world's cities still dump raw sewage into their waters.
*
A technological solution that some believe would provide ample supplies of additional water resources is desalination. Some researchers fault the United States for not providing more support for desalination research. Once the world leader in such research, this country has abdicated its role, to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Japan. There are approximately 11,000 desalination plants in 120 nations in the world, 60 percent of them in the Middle East.
*
I now remember mentioning this to a friend that worked at the local water treatment facility and he matter-of-factly shot down my desalination answer to the crisis by saying the plants would have to be humongous, scattered all over the coastline and the cost would be prohibitive. So there goes that solution. I still believe it is a sound one, but if those in charge of procuring our fresh water do not believe in it, there is not much I can do, either.
*
Others argue that a market approach to water management would help resolve the situation by putting matters on a businesslike footing. They say such an approach would help mitigate the political and security tensions that exacerbate international affairs. For example, the Harvard Middle East Water Project wants to assign a value to water, rather than treat rivers and streams as some kind of free natural commodity, like air.
*
Other strategies to confront the growing global water problem include slowing population growth, reducing pollution, better management of present supply and demand and, of course, not to be overlooked, water conservation. As Sandra Postel writes in her book, Last Oasis, "Doing more with less is the first and easiest step along the path toward water security."
*
Then there is the issue of facing the hard facts head on.
*
In Singapore they have successfully created a water treatment system that recycles all water, including waste water, water filled with our own human excrement.
*
*
Singapore:
*
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2011-03-03-1Apurewater03_CV_N.htm?csp=hf
*
*
If such a solution were presented to Americans I can tell what they would say:
*
Yes, it is a great idea for Africa, India and underdeveloped countries to avoid disease, epidemics, etc., but don't you dare build one in my backyard! "I'm not going to drink someone else's crap," they will say.
*
Like the late US Senator Ted Kennedy supporting wind mill energy, but when the locals proposed building a wind mill farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, where the Kennedy compound is Senator Kennedy was the first to veto it, as it would block the beautiful view from his back porch.
*
They call that 'NIMBY!", or 'Not In My Back Yard!'
*
I was watching the Home Channel recently about I believe an American couple moving to Australia and looking to buy a home. In Australia nowadays many homes have a huge 'water catcher' tank in their back yard. A huge aluminum tank that stores rainwater for use for irrigation, and even washing, etc. The Americans nixed every home that included such a tank, as they said they looked terrible, an eyesore, not thinking about how it would help them conserve water and be eco-conscious.
*
But I repeat, this crisis will envelop us sooner or later nevertheless, no matter the many clever ideas we come up with to save or sanitize our water. These ideas, like the one in Singapore and the one in Australia (I think they have these tanks in New Zealand as well) will only extend the inevitable for just a bit.
*
I bet there will soon be individual home-sized recycling mini plants you may be able to install. Perhaps also home deslination mini plants for coastal regions. You can also borrow the ideas from Singapore and Australia. You may dig deep and find natural water wells, (with an expiration date).
*
They may come up with a feasible, practical way to convert hydrogen into water. Who knows?
*
No, you cannot go to your local market and buy all their stock of bottled water. As I understand it it has an expiration date. Why, I do not know.
*
But the idea is that this is a crisis we must be aware of. We will not solve this crisis, at least not with the technology we presently have. And if there is a technology to be invented, I do not know if it will be invented soon enough to avert this crisis.
*
I am afraid sooner or later we will all die from thirst, or perhaps fighting so that we do not die of thirst. One of the two.
*
Meantime, I will have a cool glass of your crap, please!
*
60's Child
*
*
*
The one resource we take for granted and were it to disappear we would die in no time is water.
*
Not just water, as 70% of our planet is covered with ocean water.
*
Clean, unpolluted, drinkable water.
*
Water we drink to quench our thirst and have no fear of being contaminated.
*
Were you aware that we are rapidly running out of fresh, clean, drinkable water?
*
Were you aware that most of the planet has no access to clean water and thus become sick and die from all the diseases, the excrement and chemicals they find in the water at their disposal?
*
Were you aware that millions of acres of farm land are becoming wastelands because of lack of water to keep them fertile? Even here in the US we have serious droughts in places like California, one, or the one state that produces more food than any other?
*
Were you aware that there are nations that depend on the same source for their water, thus creating a serious problem for them once that source becomes scarce, and/or they stop willing to share that water?
*
Even here in the US some states depend on water sources located in other states. Nevada's Hoover dam not only provides water, (and electricity) for Nevada, but for Southern California as well.
*
If Lake Meade, an artificial lake formed when the Hoover Dam was built suddenly starts running dry, you are sure to see serious quarreling between California, Nevada and the federal government.
*
Actually, large farms have died, or are dying in California for lack of water for irrigation. That is happening right now at this moment.
*
The fact of the matter is that we are running out of clean water really fast.
*
On one hand the water reservoirs are dwindling, while the world's population continues to increase, a population that consumes more and more water. And in places like China and India, where hundreds of millions used to live in squalor bathing in and drinking excrement-filled and bacteria infested water a large percentage of those people are escaping their once miserable lives and are increasingly becoming part of a rapidly growing middle class that demands pure, clean water for drinking, for cooking, for bathing, etc.
*
As our water reserves decrease, and hundreds of millions of people are added to the other hundreds of millions already depending on this water there has to be a breaking point down the road, don't you think so?
*
It is not a question to ponder, it is a fact we must face now, as in today, right now, as this is a crisis ready to explode at any moment.
*
They talk and report about nations going to war over oil, over land, over religion, and over so many other causes.
*
Friends, those wars, regionalized fights and worldwide disturbances are nothing compared to what we are facing once we all realize that the one resource we need the most is running out.
*
Face it. The world will go to war over water rights. Simple as that.
*
China needs clean water for its 1.3 billion people. India needs clean water for its 1.1 billion people. The US needs clean water for its 310 million people, and on and on.
*
Governments will stop being diplomatic and playing nice with each other over current problems, like oil, ethnic conflicts, religious conflicts, the race to be the most powerful economies and most powerful military powers.
*
When it comes to the survival of its own people, all bets are off, no more being niece, no more meeting at the UN. No more empty threats.
*
When it comes to the survival of its own people the nations of the world will do what they must do to survive, and that is to fight for the one resource they cannot live without, water.
*
Damned be the consequences of a nuclear war, or hyper-conventional ground war over conquering lands with water reservoirs. What does the world have to lose? It will be a matter of life and death.
*
If you succeed in conquering a nation that has water you will live. If you do not, then you will die, simple as that.
*
So at this point in my article you think I am only dealing with hypotheses and possible far-off future scenarios, right?
*
You think I am a scare monger just using up space to post an article to my blog?
*
Well, if you still do not believe we have a crisis after reading the following, then I can only say that I warned you.
*
Or you will say, 'So what am I supposed to do?' and just go on with your business, just hoping for the best.
*
Well, there are things you can do. I mean, you will not avert this crisis from happening. It is here already. It will engulf us within a few short years. No escaping it. But you can do some things to help yourself,....................to an extent.
*
It is like me telling you to go hide up in the Andes mountains once a nuclear war is unleashed upon the world, as you will live the longest, since the radioactive cloud will perhaps reach you last.
*
But it will reach you nevertheless. Just as you may buy yourself some time once 'the water wars' commence, but eventually the water you saved for yourself will also run out. No escaping it.
*
You may also say that technology will make it possible for us to have clean water, be it by creating it, desalinating ocean water, recycling it, etc.
*
Yes, yes and yes. But the technology is at its infancy and we do not have the other necessary resources, much less the time to create the necessary technological infrastructure to avert a water crisis.
*
Pay attention to the following.
*
The water you drink today has likely been around in one form or another since dinosaurs roamed the Earth, hundreds of millions of years ago.
*
While the amount of freshwater on the planet has remained fairly constant over time—continually recycled through the atmosphere and back into our cups—the population has exploded. This means that every year competition for a clean, copious supply of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and sustaining life intensifies.
*
Water scarcity is an abstract concept to many and a stark reality for others. It is the result of myriad environmental, political, economic, and social forces.
*
Freshwater makes up a very small fraction of all water on the planet.
*
Again, while nearly 70 percent of the world is covered by water, only 2.5 percent of it is fresh. The rest is saline and ocean-based. Even then, just 1 percent of our freshwater is easily accessible, with much of it trapped in glaciers and snowfields. In essence, only 0.007 percent of the planet's water is available to fuel and feed its 6.8 billion people.
*
And even if you live in a Western, or 'First World' society, do not be so sure that the water you drink is suitable.
*
Water treatment plant technology has not advanced at the necessary pace.
*
While water treatment plants do remove 'most' sewage from the water, and most bacteria, they do not remove some of the chemicals dumped into our reservoirs by factories and plants, and they do not remove some of the pharmaceutical components of drugs, which are dumped by humans into the water. The modern filters are just not modern enough, as they cannot remove all of these chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals are created at a much faster rate than the water treatment industry can catch up with them before they reach your drinking water supply.
*
Due to geography, climate, engineering, regulation, and competition for resources, some regions seem relatively flush with freshwater, while others face drought and debilitating pollution.
*
In much of the developing world, clean water is either hard to come by or a commodity that requires laborious work or significant economic resources to obtain.
*
Wherever they are, people need water to survive. Not only is the human body 60 percent water, the resource is also essential for producing food, clothing, and computers, moving our waste stream, and keeping us and the environment healthy.
*
Unfortunately, humans have proved to be inefficient water users, as we take it for granted and do not protect it as we should.
*
According to the United Nations, water use has grown at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century.
*
By 2025, if we get there, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.
*
The challenge we face now is how to effectively conserve, manage, and distribute the water we have.
*
The History Channel, recently presented “Prophets of Doom,” highlighting five scholars who discussed possible sources of a coming Apocalypse:
*
1) Shrinking oil and natural gas supplies upon which growing world populations depend;
*
2) Insolvent global financial systems;
*
3) Nuclear weapons falling into the hands of terrorists;
*
4) Artificial Intelligent Robots advanced enough to enslave human beings;
*
(This is the one 'apocalyptic event' I do not necessarily disbelief, but think it is so far off that the world might not exist by then anyway.)
*
5) The shrinking supply of fresh water.
*
The experts include: Michael Ruppert, Nathan Hagens, John Cronin, James Howard Kunstler, Professor Hugo De Garis and Robert Gleason, all internationally known experts in their fields.
*
The problem, of course, is that all of these warnings could converge on the earth at one time.
*
But the experts agreed that the coming shortage of fresh water around the world threatens the element most essential for human life.
*
Well-published scholar, John Cronin is both Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries and the Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies at Pace University.
*
Cronin stresses three areas in his report as one of the Prophets of Doom:
*
Not only is fresh water running low, its quality is getting worse, and as shortages increase, diseases from bad waters will also increase.
*
Co-author of The Riverkeepers with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Cronin insists that this problem can be solved:
*
“One billion people are without safe water. We have the know-how and compassion to correct that tragedy, and harmonize forever the human and natural worlds. This is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.”
*
Cronin has a website, http://www.johncronin.net/, which publishes “The Blue Times: News From a Blue Planet.” It includes links to articles on: declining water supplies; raw sewage and radioactive debris in drinking water; industrial dumping of millions of pounds of toxic waste into these waters; and failures of national and local government agencies to warn citizens of these poisons or to cleanse the water.
*
This website writes often about the slow death of fresh water around the world.
*
When most U.S. citizens think about water shortages — if they think about them at all — they think about a local problem, possibly in their town or city, maybe their state or region. We don't usually regard such problems as particularly worrisome, sharing confidence that the situation will be readily handled by investment in infrastructure, conservation, or other management strategies. Whatever water feuds arise, e.g., between Arizona and California, we expect to be resolved through negotiations or in the courtroom.
*
But shift from a local to a global water perspective, and the terms dramatically change. The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages that threaten health and economies while 40 percent of the world — more than 2 billion people — have no access to clean water or sanitation. In this context, we cannot expect water conflicts to always be amenably resolved.
*
Consider: More than a dozen nations receive most of their water from rivers that cross borders of neighboring countries viewed as hostile. These include Botswana, Bulgaria, Cambodia, the Congo, Gambia, the Sudan, and Syria, all of whom receive 75 percent or more of their fresh water from the river flow of often hostile upstream neighbors.
*
In the Middle East, a region marked by hostility between nations, obtaining adequate water supplies is a high political priority. For example, water has been a contentious issue in recent negotiations between Israel and Syria. In recent years, Iraq, Syria and Turkey have exchanged verbal threats over their use of shared rivers. (It should come as no surprise to learn that the words "river" and "rival" share the same Latin root; a rival is "someone who shares the same stream.")
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More frequently water is being likened to another resource that quickened global tensions when its supplies were threatened. A story in The Financial Times of London began: "Water, like energy in the late 1970s, will probably become the most critical natural resource issue facing most parts of the world by the start of the next century." This analogy is also reflected in the oft-repeated observation that water will likely replace oil as a future cause of war between nations.
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Global water problems are attracting increasing attention, not just at the international level, but also within the United States, in its popular press, in natural resource journals and as the subject of books.
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Former Sen. Paul Simon from Illinois recently authored Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About it. A book for the general, non-specialized audience, Simon's publication sounds an alarm about the approaching crisis. "Within a few years, a water crisis of catastrophic proportions will explode upon us — unless aroused citizens ... demand of their leadership actions reflecting vision, understanding and courage."
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A prime cause of the global water concern is the ever-increasing world population. As populations grow, industrial, agricultural and individual water demands escalate. According to the World Bank, world-wide demand for water is doubling every 21 years, more in some regions. Water supply cannot remotely keep pace with demand, as populations soar and cities explode.
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Population growth alone does not account for increased water demand. Since 1900, there has been a six-fold increase in water use for only a two-fold increase in population size. This reflects greater water usage associated with rising standards of living (e.g., diets containing less grain and more meat). It also reflects potentially unsustainable levels of irrigated agriculture. (See sidebar.) World population has recently reached six billion and United Nation's projections indicate nine billion by 2050. What water supplies will be available for this expanding population?
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Meanwhile many countries suffer accelerating desertification. Water quality is deteriorating in many areas of the developing world as population increases and salinity caused by industrial farming and over-extraction rises. About 95 percent of the world's cities still dump raw sewage into their waters.
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A technological solution that some believe would provide ample supplies of additional water resources is desalination. Some researchers fault the United States for not providing more support for desalination research. Once the world leader in such research, this country has abdicated its role, to Saudi Arabia, Israel and Japan. There are approximately 11,000 desalination plants in 120 nations in the world, 60 percent of them in the Middle East.
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I now remember mentioning this to a friend that worked at the local water treatment facility and he matter-of-factly shot down my desalination answer to the crisis by saying the plants would have to be humongous, scattered all over the coastline and the cost would be prohibitive. So there goes that solution. I still believe it is a sound one, but if those in charge of procuring our fresh water do not believe in it, there is not much I can do, either.
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Others argue that a market approach to water management would help resolve the situation by putting matters on a businesslike footing. They say such an approach would help mitigate the political and security tensions that exacerbate international affairs. For example, the Harvard Middle East Water Project wants to assign a value to water, rather than treat rivers and streams as some kind of free natural commodity, like air.
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Other strategies to confront the growing global water problem include slowing population growth, reducing pollution, better management of present supply and demand and, of course, not to be overlooked, water conservation. As Sandra Postel writes in her book, Last Oasis, "Doing more with less is the first and easiest step along the path toward water security."
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Then there is the issue of facing the hard facts head on.
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In Singapore they have successfully created a water treatment system that recycles all water, including waste water, water filled with our own human excrement.
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Singapore:
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http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2011-03-03-1Apurewater03_CV_N.htm?csp=hf
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If such a solution were presented to Americans I can tell what they would say:
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Yes, it is a great idea for Africa, India and underdeveloped countries to avoid disease, epidemics, etc., but don't you dare build one in my backyard! "I'm not going to drink someone else's crap," they will say.
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Like the late US Senator Ted Kennedy supporting wind mill energy, but when the locals proposed building a wind mill farm off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, where the Kennedy compound is Senator Kennedy was the first to veto it, as it would block the beautiful view from his back porch.
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They call that 'NIMBY!", or 'Not In My Back Yard!'
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I was watching the Home Channel recently about I believe an American couple moving to Australia and looking to buy a home. In Australia nowadays many homes have a huge 'water catcher' tank in their back yard. A huge aluminum tank that stores rainwater for use for irrigation, and even washing, etc. The Americans nixed every home that included such a tank, as they said they looked terrible, an eyesore, not thinking about how it would help them conserve water and be eco-conscious.
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But I repeat, this crisis will envelop us sooner or later nevertheless, no matter the many clever ideas we come up with to save or sanitize our water. These ideas, like the one in Singapore and the one in Australia (I think they have these tanks in New Zealand as well) will only extend the inevitable for just a bit.
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I bet there will soon be individual home-sized recycling mini plants you may be able to install. Perhaps also home deslination mini plants for coastal regions. You can also borrow the ideas from Singapore and Australia. You may dig deep and find natural water wells, (with an expiration date).
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They may come up with a feasible, practical way to convert hydrogen into water. Who knows?
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No, you cannot go to your local market and buy all their stock of bottled water. As I understand it it has an expiration date. Why, I do not know.
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But the idea is that this is a crisis we must be aware of. We will not solve this crisis, at least not with the technology we presently have. And if there is a technology to be invented, I do not know if it will be invented soon enough to avert this crisis.
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I am afraid sooner or later we will all die from thirst, or perhaps fighting so that we do not die of thirst. One of the two.
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Meantime, I will have a cool glass of your crap, please!
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60's Child
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