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The
Role of Water in our Planet's Future
Alan Burns
February 3, 2009
We have always taken water for
granted, perhaps until recently. While
there is a
finite supply, two things have changed in the world. Population
increase
reduces the amount available to everyone. Also climate change has
altered where
that rainfall goes - some regions will be experiencing more flooding,
others
greater drought. That is already happening.
While
drought has for decades been in news headlines related to Africa, today major
developed cities such
as Adelaide, Barcelona, Las Vegas and New Delhi are beginning
to learn what water
shortages mean. Already the first two are buying and importing water
for their
citizens. (Though it sounds bizarre, some people in Spain are facing a
$13,000 fine if found
watering their flowers. Is this in our future?) The likelihood is that
more
areas will gradually be added as greenhouse gas emissions continue to
affect
the planet. Indeed, the southeastern US is threatened, witness the
crisis Atlanta faced in
summer 2007.
What we
need to know. There
are pages of factoids about water, which I will refrain from
duplicating here,
but there will be a few to give you an idea of how we (in the USA) use this
essential product which
sustains life itself. From the Dec. 15 2008 issue of “Time” we learn the following: Agriculture
uses two-thirds of the
water we use in the world. To produce a pound of wheat requires 150
gallons. A
pound of rice requires up to 650 gallons. Now consider that a
quarter-pounder
(of beef) requires the equivalent of 3,000 gallons, and you’ll see that
the
movement towards vegetarianism is becoming very attractive to those who
love
the planet.
Moving
on,
in the US nearly half
the water used goes
towards energy production – water to turn the steam turbines in coal
plants for
instance. (Progress’s Harris nuclear reactor in N.C. for example, sucks
up 33
million gallons of water a day, with 17 million gallons lost to
evaporation via
its big cooling towers.)
Final
statistic –
bottled water is often no different from tap water (which is
essentially free).
But to put one liter of bottled water on the shelf requires another 3
liters of
water in the manufacture of that bottle.
So, what
can we do?
Obviously, this could be seen as a thinly-veiled argument for
vegetarianism.
Though it’s not only valuable food (grain) being used to produce our
hamburgers
etc., the demand on water supply is enormous. For those who are unable
to make
such a major shift in habits, at least consider reducing meals
comprised of
meat by half – that would make a significant difference (and avoid beef
if at
all possible). Also you can refuse bottled water. You can get much
better
quality water from the tap – filter if preferred. (You’ll save tons of
money
too.) Finally consider that as we move our energy supply away from
coal, oil
and nuclear towards wind and solar, that much more water is now
released for
our use. Meanwhile cut back the kilowatts and reduce the need for more
coal
plants. It’s all about changing our habits and not taking everything we
have
for granted. ______________________________________________
Water scarcity 'now bigger threat than financial crisis' - Humanity is facing "water bankruptcy", a crisis even greater than
the financial meltdown now destabilising the global economy . .there will be no way of bailing the earth out of water scarcity. March 2009 More
information: Dying
for A Drink –
Bryan Walsh – TIME: link
WaterAid's key facts and
statistics - link
Domestic water use -
link
[see the editorial
archive]
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