Our world will hit 7 billion people by the end of October. Yep, 7 billion living souls! The seven billionth baby is likely to be delivered in India, which accounts for a fifth of all global births, on October 31 (according to the UN's Dr Babatunde Osotimehin).
That means a serious strain on natural resources, like water, to feed agricultural needs at a time when droughts are being felt all over the globe and desertification spreads its scorched tentacles at a rapid pace. To make matters worse, austerity programs among developed nations are likely to cut the meagre funds available that could be used to contribute food to the poorest nations.
According to the most recent "Global Wealth Report" by Credit Suisse, the wealthiest 0.5% control over 35% of the wealth of the world (if you'd like to read about divergence of wealth distribution and bang your collective heads, open up the link, it's a telling pdf)
We could very well take care of ourselves were it not for the lack of vision from ossified politicians and the sclerotic, rapacious greed from the money changers of this world.
If I were President of the world, my first priority would be: education and empowering women. Investing in the rights of women and the health of young people should be main driving force for a sustainable future, not spending more on defense and waging dubious, foreign wars ad nauseam. Climate change is of course intertwined with water scarcity and has been clearly identified - and undeniably - as the premier issue of our time; it has been written about relentlessly, as it should, by prominent posters on these boards, and it's even making inroads on the front page (MB, LL). But this piece is about us, the seven billion of us and the water we're going to have to find as I keep repeating in my water diaries: no water, no life.
Let's have the incontrovertible facts (this is only a sample of the sites I have visited in the last 48 hours):
Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 20 years (Circle of Blue)
According to USAID, one-third of all humans will face severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every single year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished slums and shanty-towns with no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
It is estimated that 75 percent of India's surface water is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste (and to add insult to injury, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet).
In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter per year due to overpumping.
But there are few places where the water shortage is as severe as it is in the Middle East and North Africa: the hardest hit are nations in the Gulf, including Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabian authorities made a nasty discovery in 2008: the non-replenishable aquifer they had been pumping for irrigation purposes was nearly depleted. So in response Saudi Arabia made the decision to reduce their wheat harvest by one-eighth every year thereafter. Wheat production in Saudi Arabia is scheduled to cease entirely in 2016.
In war-torn Iraq the Tigris and the Euphrates are 50% to 70% lower than they were 10 years ago. Jordan, according to a recent study by the Amman-based Royal Society for Conservation of Nature is likely to witness significant increase in drought conditions and increased incidence of fire during the 21st century. Jordan, one of the top ten driest countries in the world, has a population expanding by 3.5% a year and every drop of water is needed.
Though Israel is on the cutting edge of water management including reuse for irrigation, desalinization, innovation in pipe materials, sensors, control devices and efficient use of water, every citizen knows what the Sea of Galilee’s (a main source of Israel’s drinking water) red line means. It’s dire: it means Israel is running out of water.
South Africa faces a water crisis and could start having critical shortages as early as 2020, experts told the inaugural South African Water and Energy Forum in Johannesburg. We already know how parched the north of Africa is.
Climate Change skeptics have gorged on the recent flood news, pointing to the abundant rains. Yes, in Australia, Pakistan and Brazil, flooding of Biblical proportions has absolutely devastated crops but some of China's most important agricultural areas are experiencing the worst droughts that they have seen in 200 years. Authorities are warning that two-thirds of China's wheat crop could be in danger. That means less food to go around.
Closer to you in North America (info taken from 8020 Vision):
By 2020, California will face a shortfall of fresh water as great as the amount that all of its cities and towns together are consuming today.
21 percent of irrigation is achieved by pumping groundwater at rates that exceed the water’s ability to recharge (to grow a ton of wheat uses 1,000 tons of water. The US is the largest exporter of wheat to the world. When you export a ton of your wheat, you are effectively including 100 tons of water in the bargain.)
There are 66 golf courses in Palm Springs. On average, they each consume over a million gallons of water per day. I bet the national data on golf courses is horrendous!
Lake Meade (the source of 95% of water for Las Vegas) will be dry in the next 4 to 10 years (see picture below).
Although desertification is not new (we know that both the Sumerian and Babylonian empires are among several ancient civilizations thought to have declined more rapidly after their agricultural output fell because of prolonged desiccation and water scarcity), roughly 1.2 billion people are at risk from desertification as deserts expand and degraded dry lands now cover close to a third of the world's land surface area, the United Nations estimates.
And finally, Weeden & Co. oil analyst Charles Maxwell recently stated that he believes that the price of oil will eventually hit $300 a barrel by the end of this decade, a price Jerome a Paris does not dispute.
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