Peak Water: Water is the New Black (Oil)
Yet another study has come out warning of the seemingly inevitable water shortages of the future, and this time the study goes so far as to label it something dire like “peak water.”
Ok, water is not going to disappear, per se, but it does seem that fresh, potable, water that is sustainably managed will become scarcer in the future as we humans trash the water we are using today. And the study points out China as an example of exactly what not to do.
Other problems that the study’s authors bring up is the changing diet of many people around the world, in that we as consumers demand foods that just happen to use a disproportionate amount of water in their production. More meat eaters mean more water is required to raise cattle. But that is just the tip of that rapidly melting iceberg. Industry is using more and more water to manufacture the neat little electronic devices that we all love and have to own.
The study was part of the annual report of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, a non-partisan organization that researches environmental quality issues, in conjunction with economic development and social equity. The Pacific Institute has been publishing it’s annual report, The World’s Water for the last ten years, and works to evaluate the consequences of humankind’s water footprint.
Lead author and PI President Dr. Peter Gleick, a leading authority on global freshwater resources, feels that the key to averting this future when clean water becomes prohibitively expensive for most of the world is education and public understanding of how personal water consumption affects the total water supply. Every consumer choice made means that water is either used efficiently or wastefully, and the more people come to make decisions in order to use water wisely, perhaps we may yet avoid a disastrous future in which water is a luxury.
I’m sure new water infrastructure wouldn’t hurt either.
water, shortage, crisis, study, Pacific Institute, California, waste, water pollution, water footprint, usage, sustainable
January 25th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Excellent posts, thanks! Yes, the water shortage is imminent and I hope that a lot of research is going into the desalination of sea water and how to make it cheaper.
It’s quite a costly process and I am sure that some smart people can figure out ways to get fresh water from sea in a very simple and affordable way.
Dean Kamen’s Slingshot water purifier already does that but unfortunately doesn’t get enough exposure…