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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] When will the water run out?
  • Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:05:15 -0700



When will the water run out?
Climate change, increased industrial demand and wanton wastefulness: is
'peak water' upon us?
22 January 2009 16.07 GMT
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2009/jan/22/water-climate-change

Peak oil may be the least of our problems, scientists warned today. Growing
industrial demand for water in developing countries such as China, rapidly
expanding urban populations and the efficiency with which we use water have
increased the risk of "peak water" – a resource that most of us presume
will be infinite – entering a terminal decline.

Of course, we already knew one of the big eco-bummers of our modern lives
is that products from beer to microchips use inordinate amounts of water.
Last August, the WWF revealed that each Brit effectively uses 4,645 litres
of water a day to produce the food on our tables and the T-shirts on our
backs; see our world map for an idea of where Britain's "borrowed water"
comes from.

Unsurprisingly, one of the solutions advocated by this new report is a
better use of the water we have. To that end, the authors have estimated
the water footprint of everyday food and drink, which encouragingly shows
that one litre of beer consumes less water (300 litres) than one litre of
orange juice (850 litres). One kilogram of coffee is reportedly more
thirsty (21,000 litres of water) than one kilogram of hamburger (16,000
litres). Take a look at our image gallery to see the hidden water cost of
everything from your daily cuppa to a glass of wine.

According to the report, this is adding up to a global crisis. "We are
facing a crisis of running out of sustainably managed water," says Peter
Gleick, the author of the sixth edition of the World Water report by
California's Pacific Institute. Despite human demand accounting for over
50% of the world's accessible freshwater, the report warns that billions of
people still lack access to basic water services. Developing countries, it
notes, will suffer worst from peak water because of supply problems
exacerbated by flooding, drought and water pollution. Developed countries
won't be entirely spared though, as Peter Preston discovered in Spain last
year.

The World Water report continues by singling out China as a country in
danger of water stress because of its inefficient water use and large
projects such as the Three Gorges Dam scheme. "[Chinese] Rivers and lakes
are dead and dying, groundwater aquifers are overpumped, uncounted species
of aquatic life have been driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts
on both human and ecosystem health are widespread and growing," warns
Gleick.

His team also highlights how climate change is adversely affecting water
global supplies and its impact on food production.

"The stress on global food production from temperatures alone is going to
be huge, and that doesn't take into account water supplies stressed by the
higher temperatures," said David Battisti, the lead author of another study
published earlier this month.

Gleick's report is keen to stress that the concept of peak water, or more
specifically "peak ecological water", isn't completely analogous to peak
oil. Unlike oil, some water supplies are infinitely renewable. But even
those regions with a water supply that could be exhausted are only likely
to suffer peak water locally – whereas peak oil will be a global issue.







  • [Livingontheland] When will the water run out?, Tradingpost, 01/22/2009

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