Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

We've been saying for months that freshwater for agriculture needs more 
conservation methods, such as building moisture-retentive soil with organic 
matter, mulching permanent beds, and so forth. Some have wondered why the 
concern, we've got plenty of water, why bother with these methods anyway. 
Guess what?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
-----------------------------------------

Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness

· General Electric aims to cut its own use by 20%
· Plan for heavy investment in recycling technologies

    * David Gow in Brussels
    * The Guardian,
    * Thursday May 29 2008

The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food 
prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, 
one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.

General Electric, the US industrial group, said it would cut its own use of 
water by 20% by 2012 and export water-saving and recycling technology to 
countries - often emerging economies - hit by shortages. Jeff Immelt, chief 
executive, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas 
emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for 
water."

Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president of GE's Ecomagination green technology 
division, added: "There is going to be a price on water that is going to 
reflect its scarcity in a way it doesn't today. We're going to see that 
change over time - certainly in emerging markets."

The move by GE comes as scientists are warning that 50% of the world's 
nations will be hit by water shortages by 2025 and 75% by 2050. Barcelona is 
already importing water from France.

Drought, already one source of surging food prices and water shortages could 
prompt fresh outbreaks of war and terrorism as global warming, if unchecked, 
spreads desertification around the world and causes increasing crop failures, 
they say. A billion of the world's poorest people drink unsafe water, 
according to Unicef. Senior UN officials warned MEPs this year that nuclear 
power plants in Europe and the US could face shutdown because of a lack of 
cooling water, while the switch to biofuels was proving a big drain on 
dwindling supplies.

A cabinet office report predicted that by 2050 half of arable land in the 
world might no longer be suitable for production because of water shortages 
and climate change. By then the global population is expected to have grown 
from today's 6.3 billion to 9 billion.

GE said its water reduction target would save 7.4m cubic metres of fresh 
water - enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

John Rice, GE vice-chairman and head of its infrastructure division, said in 
Brussels it was impossible to calculate cost-savings as the price of water 
was bound to rise over the next few years.

The group plans to employ water re-cycling technologies at more than 1,000 
plants around the world - mainly in the US, Europe and Asia. Rice said some 
of the sites would cut water usage by more than others. "We expect that we 
will be able to improve and continue improving technologies which we will 
then be offering to other companies in other countries."

Immelt added: "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, 
ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities 
around the world."

DuPont, the US chemicals group, has set itself a target of a 30% reduction in 
water consumption by 2015, while Coca-Cola has said it has achieved a cut of 
almost 20% since 2003.

The GE initiative is under the umbrella of Ecomagination, which includes 
energy-saving lighting and renewable energy. It boosted its sales to 8% of 
global turnover last year.

The group, which reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 8% last year, 
separately announced a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to 
develop clean coal technology.