A rare herd of desert elephants in Mali is being ravaged by one of the
worst droughts in living memory, which has left water sources at lowest
level in the past quarter of a century. Could this haunting event be a harbinger of a wider, unfolding global crisis?
Water scarcity resulting from climate change is the number one issue the world will have to grapple with in the future, according to chief climate scientist and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri.
Speaking at the 2009 Nobel Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, Pachauri said: "At one level the world's water is like the world's wealth. Globally, there is more than enough to go round. The problem is that some countries get a lot more than others."
Pachauri went on to describe the global imbalances in short detail. "With 31 percent of global freshwater resources, Latin America has 12 times more water per person than South Asia. Some places, such as Brazil and Canada, get far more water than they can use; others, such as countries in the Middle East, get much less than they need."
One and a half billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America may be exposed to increased water stress as a result of this. Additionally, I reported previously that much of the western United States might face a similar situation, since there is a 50% chance Colorado River reservoirs will run dry by 2057 under current climate change and water management scenario.
Countries around the world share water resources. As these resources disappear, huge peace and security problems could arise. Pachauri said: "Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to trans-boundary tensions."
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"Global emissions of greenhouse gases will have to decline by 2015. If we can achieve that, we may be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The costs of this are not high. A major mitigation would only postpone growth domestic product growth by one year at most over the medium term. That's not a high price to pay for the world."The World's Water — Imbalanced "At one level the world's water is like the world's wealth. Globally, there is more than enough to go round. The problem is that some countries get a lot more than others."
Pachauri went on to describe the global imbalances in short detail. "With 31 percent of global freshwater resources, Latin America has 12 times more water per person than South Asia. Some places, such as Brazil and Canada, get far more water than they can use; others, such as countries in the Middle East, get much less than they need."
One and a half billion people in Asia, Africa and Latin America may be exposed to increased water stress as a result of this. Additionally, much of the western United States might face a similar situation, since there is a 50% chance Colorado River reservoirs will run dry by 2057 under current climate change and water management scenario.
Countries around the world share water resources. As these resources disappear, huge peace and security problems could arise. Pachauri said: "Over 260 river basins are shared by two or more countries. As the resource is becoming scarce, tensions among different users may intensify, both at the national and international level. In the absence of strong institutions and agreements, changes within a basin can lead to trans-boundary tensions."
.
"Global emissions of greenhouse gases will have to decline by 2015. If we can achieve that, we may be able to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The costs of this are not high. A major mitigation would only postpone growth domestic product growth by one year at most over the medium term. That's not a high price to pay for the world."
Milton Clark, a senior health and science adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says he worries that these water issues that are currently emerging will eventually develop into bitter conflicts in the not too distant future when these dry states in the U.S. become increasingly desperate.
“We will, in fact, get into major water wars,” Clark said. “You will see water wars coming in every way, shape or form. In the U.S., there are some leading politicians who have said the Great Lakes do, in fact, belong (to everyone) and all water should be nationalized and this certainly is a concern.”
Ohio Lt.-Gov. Lee Fisher recently stirred up controversy when he told an economic development summit that the Great Lakes region may be only a few years away from selling water to other U.S. states in need.
“I think it’s fair to say that we’re going to see in the next decade states and other countries looking for ways to get access to our fresh water supply, and we’re going to have to make some tough decisions about whether we want that to happen and, if so, how,” Fisher said.
Last year the US government issued a report stating that the heavy growth in the American Southwest region “will inevitably result in increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-off choices.”
Of course, we're not actually running out of H20 from a macro perspective. It's still around like it was millions of years ago. What we're running out of it the right kind of water in the right places. Humans haven't always wisely built civilizations close to vast fresh water supplies, but vast fresh water supplies are exactly what large populations require. Nearly all of Earth's water is in the ocean (97%) where it does us little good as drinking water unless it is desalinated—an expensive and energy intensive process. But people, plants and animals all need fresh water to thrive, and as we've seen with oil, when resources dwindle—or are even just perceived to be dwindling whether or not they actually are—things can get nasty.
Wired magazine's Mathew Powers points out that "like oil, water is not equitably distributed or respectful of political boundaries; about 50 percent of the world’s freshwater lies in a half-dozen lucky countries."
He notes that "freshwater is the ultimate renewable resource, but humanity is extracting and polluting it faster than it can be replenished. Rampant economic growth — more homes, more businesses, more water-intensive products and processes, a rising standard of living — has simply outstripped the ready supply, especially in historically dry regions. Compounding the problem, the hydrologic cycle is growing less predictable as climate change alters established temperature patterns around the globe."
But with all of this pessimism is there any good news? Well, the good news is that as people become more aware of the need for water conservation, the more wasteful habits are curbed. Americans are using 20 percent less water per capita than they did just a generation ago, so conservation education appear to be working to some extent.
With advanced technologies and more prudent water usage, the majority of Earth's inhabitants will be able to continue to enjoy the luxury of clean water for a long time to come. Yes, we need to fundamentally rethink water usage and plenty of bigger changes are needed, but at least we're heading in the right direction. With better stewardship and improved city planning, humans will likely be able to avert a good portion of the more disastrous scenarios.
Posted by Rebecca Sato with Casey Kazan
Source: EurekAlert!
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