This is the first of several papers I'm writing for a class on Global Politics of Environmental Policy. The subsequent papers may vary slightly in the amount of attention to specific topics as my professor may require more or less information on different aspects of global water supply. The papers presented here are for your enjoyment and learning as well as discussion on the topic.
Earth is dominated by water. 71 percent of the surface is covered by the substance. Oceans and other saline bodies of water account for about 97 percent of the water on the planet. Water coverage also takes the form of rivers and lakes, as icecaps and glaciers, in the atmosphere as water vapor and beneath the surface as groundwater and in aquifers. The 3 percent of water that is not found in the oceans accounts for the entirety of Earth’s freshwater supply. About two-thirds of all freshwater is locked away in ice sheets. The other third is contained under the surface as ground water. Only 1 percent of freshwater is available in the form of surface freshwater. Ground and ice permafrost account for 70 percent of all surface freshwater, lakes make up 21 percent and rivers make up only 0.5 percent (USGS 1, 2014).
Human bodies need only a few glasses of water per day to survive, but our modern day industrial and agricultural sectors require very large quantities of water to operate. The water that we require for our public utilities, commercial organizations, and livelihood is called the water supply. We depend almost entirely on the water from rivers and groundwater to provide the water we require (USGS 3, 2014). This means that we can only make use of one-third of the 3 percent of the Earth’s total amount of water to sustain our activities. According to research presented by the United States Geological Survey in 2005, about 77 percent of the freshwater used came from surface-water sources; the other 23 percent came from groundwater. Recognizing how little water is available to us will help us understand the importance of addressing current overconsumption trends and future climate change risks to our water supply.
The water cycle is what moves water in its variety of forms around the Earth. Explained basically, the water cycle operates as follows: energy from the sun evaporates water off the oceans. The water rises into the atmosphere where it forms clouds. Precipitation falls from the clouds either back into the oceans or onto land. When precipitation falls over land, it either adds water to lakes and rivers becoming part of that tiny fraction of surface water we see; or, it seeps into the ground becoming aquifer and ground water. Regardless of where the precipitation falls on land, the water ultimately ends up back in the oceans to be evaporated again (USGS 3, 2014).
It may seem obvious but it is worth pointing out that different consumption activities can have different effects on different regions. The practice of growing crops in regions where the crops themselves damage the water supply is not at all uncommon. California’s almond orchards once accounted for 80 percent of the world’s almond production. Almond trees require large amounts of water as they are indigenous to the wet climate of the Mediterranean. Maintaining the almond orchards costs California 10 percent of the state’s total water supply. A current and ongoing drought, which many experts attribute to climate change (a concept we will visit in more detail later), is currently preventing California’s ground water from replenishing faster than it is depleted. The water for the orchards is mostly drawn from the Sacramento River, which is where many salmon migrate for reproduction. As the water level depletes, almond farmers find themselves in competition with local salmon populations. As large amounts of groundwater are pumped out of the ground, the water table is lowered and water is pulled from nearby rivers to replenish ground water. Surface water and ground water are connected even though their linkage is not perceptible from the surface (Bland, 2014). This is just one type of crop exacerbating California’s drought issues.
Arizona pistachio farm irrigated by water from the Colorado River
Building large communities and farms with high water demands in places where water is already scarce has troubling consequences on the surrounding environment. The Colorado River no longer flows into the ocean, a journey which it had been perpetually undertaking for the past 6 million years, as 70 percent of its water is used to irrigate 3.5 million acres of desert farmland or is redirected to other large cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Diego (Russo, 2014). Completed in 1936, The Hoover Dam is responsible for halting the Colorado River enough to create Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the United States. Or at least it would be the largest reservoir if it were at full capacity which it hasn’t been since 1983. The City of Las Vegas is home to 2 million people who receive 90 percent of their water supply from Lake Mead. The lake is drying up at an alarming rate. Lake Mead saw record water level lows of under 1,080 feet last year. When the reservoir level reaches 1,000 feet the city will have no drinking water and will be all but dry. Despite this worrying trend, the city is currently growing in size and population. In an attempt to delay the inevitable, a new water intake costing over 800 million dollars which will provide water to city residents until the level reaches close to 900 feet is set to be complete near the end of 2015 (Brean, 2014).
Bathtub rings along the Colorado River show the levels of depletion.
The industrial sector, like the agricultural, uses water in a number of environmentally irresponsible ways. Using the production of cotton as an example will help make this apparent. Only 2.4 percent of the world's fertile land is planted with cotton, yet cotton accounts for 24 percent of the world's insecticide use and 11 percent of the sale of global pesticides (WWF, 2003). About 80 percent of these nitrate rich compounds are taken up by the plant. The remaining 20 percent leaves the field by leaching into the groundwater, surface runoff, or denitrification (a process by which microbial bacteria break down the nitrates into N2 gas) into the atmosphere. The leaching nitrates and surface runoff pose their own troubles to the water supply, as high nitrogen concentrations can lead to problems of algae growth and increased cost of purification in case of water used for drinking. The water requirement to produce 1 ton of cotton textiles after bleaching, dyeing, printing and finishing is over 132,000 gallons of water. In other words, the equivalent of a pair of jeans and a t-shirt can use around 5,300 gallons of water to produce. The estimated water requirements for processing cotton are rough averages as the actual water requirements vary among different techniques. Freshwater used in the dyeing process becomes highly polluted and cannot be reused or safely returned to the water cycle. Millions of gallons of wastewater discharged by mills each year contain chemicals such as formaldehyde and chlorine, and heavy metals such as lead and mercury. These chemicals are proven to cause both environmental damage and human disease. Liquid waste discharged by these mills is often at a high temperature and pH, which worsens its effects. The textile industry is one of the largest polluters in the world (Chapagain, 2006). Cotton production accounts for 2.6% of annual global water usage, but The World Bank estimates that a disproportionate 20% of global industrial water pollution comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles (Kant, 2012).
Human activity is directly impacting the amount of freshwater and the quality of water available. Our activities are also influencing the chemical composition of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans which is causing global and regional changes in weather patterns. The Earth’s average temperature is rising, thereby melting the polar ice caps, which in turn is causing the average sea level to rise. Rising sea levels will push saltwater further up rivers and into groundwater and aquifers, decreasing the available amount of freshwater. Rising temperatures will also increase the amount of water we need and cause a shift in precipitation patterns. Areas that once saw frequent rain may see little to none. Normally dry areas could be frequented by thunderstorms. When carbon emissions make contact with the surface of the ocean they dissolve into the water as an acid increases the pH of the water. This changes the chemical composition of the oceans, making them increasingly similar to soda. As the composition of the oceans change so will their currents. Ocean currents are the largest drivers of weather pattern on the Earth. Couple this effect with the changes in weather that rising temperatures will induce and our ability to predict future precipitation patterns become largely guesswork (IPCC, 2014 & NOAA, 2014).
As the amount of available fresh water decreases and the need for it rises, there will be an increased risk of friction between or within nations due to increased competition. The continued drying of large parts of the American southwest will require water be to piped in from areas that contain easily accessible freshwater. Water from the Great Lakes has been proposed as a solution to the American southwest’s problematic drying, but this water also belongs to Canada and they will likely require the water as well (Henry, 2014). In Syria, a severe drought that began in 2006 ultimately displaced 1 million farmers and destroyed the crops of 2 million more. This is now considered by many experts to be the largest contributing force to the current Syrian civil war as famine and high food costs made for a very volatile social environment (De Chatel, 2014).
Overconsumption and future scarcity of water poses a threat to our livelihood and the environment. No single action will correct all water supply concerns. Many simple solutions can be taken to curb overconsumption and pollution but economic concerns will arise that must be addressed (NOAA, 2014). Abandoning almond crops for less consumptive crops will conserve large amounts of water but also alter food trade. Modern technological advances and implementations will be needed to improve the water supply to cities in drying regions and to prevent further contamination by industrial processes. While scientific knowledge and technology will certainly improve our ability to mange water, political infighting and corporate pursuits to private water supplies may delay or prevent necessary actions to protect freshwater from further damage.
Work Cited
Bland, A. 2014. "California Drought Has Wild Salmon Competing With Almonds For Water.” The Salt - What's on your plate. (August) http://www.npr.org/... (February 20, 2015).
Brean, H. 2014. “Water official: Vegas Not Running Dry.” Las Vegas Review-Journal. http://www.reviewjournal.com/... (February 20, 2015)
Chapagain, A., Hoekstra, A., Savenije, H. & et. al. 2006. “The Water Footprint of Cotton Consumption: An Assessment of the Impact of Worldwide Consumption of Cotton Products on the Water Resources in the Cotton Producing Countries.” Ecological Economics, 60, 186 – 203. http://www.waterfootprint.org/... (February 20, 2015)
De Chatel, Francesca. 2014. “The Role of Drought and Climate Change in the Syrian Uprising:Untangling the Triggers of the Revolution”. Middle Eastern Studies, 50 (4), 521–535. http://www.tandfonline.com/... (February 20, 2015)
Henry, T. 2014. “Canada’s Great Lakes Water Worries.” Pittsburg Post-Gazette. (March) http://www.post-gazette.com/... (February 20, 2014)
Kant, R. 2012. “Textile dyeing industry an environmental hazard.” Natural Science, 4 (1), 22-26.
Pachauri, R., et. al. (IPCC) 2014. “Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report.” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. http://www.ipcc.ch/... (February 20, 2015)
Russo, T. Lall, U. Wen, H., & et. al. 2014. "Assessment of trends in groundwater levels across the United States.” Columbia Water Center White Paper (March): 8-12. http://water.columbia.edu/... (February 20, 2015).
United States Geological Survey (USGS) (1). 2014. “How much water is there on, in, and above the Earth?" The USGS Water Science School. (March) http://water.usgs.gov/... (February 20, 2015).
United States Geological Survey (2). 2014. "Summary of the Water Cycle" The USGS Water Science School. (March) http://water.usgs.gov/... (February 20, 2015).
United States Geological Survey (3). 2014. "Water Questions & Answers What is most of the freshwater in the U.S. used for?" The USGS Water Science School. (March) http://water.usgs.gov/... (February 20, 2015).
U.S. Global Change Research Program (NOAA), 2009. “Climate Literacy The Essential Principles of Climate Science: A Guide for Individuals and Communities.” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration & the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2. http://downloads.globalchange.gov/... (February 20, 2015)
World Wildlife Fund (WWF). 1999. “The Impact of Cotton on Fresh Water Resources and Ecosystems: A Preliminary Synthesis.” Background Paper. World Wildlife Fund.