Put Your Bets on Water
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Martin Saffer
Oct 27, 2011
12:06 pm
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Put Your Bets on Water
(Reuters) - Like oil in the 20th century, water could well be the essential commodity on which the 21st century will turn. Human beings have depended on access to water since the earliest days of civilization, but with 7 billion people on the planet as of October 31, exponentially expanding urbanization and development are driving demand like never before. Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century, said Kirsty Jenkinson of the World Resources Institute, a Washington think tank. Water use is predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing countries and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries with more and more people moving from rural areas to cities, Jenkinson said in a telephone interview. Factor in the expected impacts of climate change this century -- more severe floods, droughts and shifts from past precipitation patterns -- that are likely to hit the poorest people first and worst "and we have a significant challenge on our hands," Jenkinson said. Will there be enough water for everyone, especially if population continues to rise, as predicted, to 9 billion by mid-century? "There's a lot of water on Earth, so we probably won't run out," said Rob Renner, executive director of the Colorado-based Water Research Foundation. "The problem is that 97.5 percent of it is salty and ... of the 2.5 percent that's fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen. So there's not a lot of fresh water to deal with in the world." |
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Martin Saffer
Oct 29, 2011
7:50 am
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Re: Put Your Bets on Water
World Running Out of Water Posted: October 28, 2011 at 6:30 am The world is low on water, from the standpoint of supply needed for human use, and the problem has grown rapidly. Worse still, the problem has no ready solution — and probably has no solution at all. The World Resources Institute predicts that “By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in water-scarce countries or regions, with alarming implications for human wellbeing and global security.” Much of this water will be needed to irrigate crops. That makes the problem a dual one — water for drinking and water for food. The institute blames developed nations for the overuse of water. That may be true, but a solution assumes that water is portable. It is not, at least not from continent to continent. Water in the U.S. cannot be transported in any significant amount to Africa. This lack of transportability, along with droughts that already ravaged some parts of the most populated nations, creates a problem that cannot be made better. It is tempting to say that all problems of poverty and famine can be solved, but that is not true from any practical standpoint. Parts of Africa and Asia will be nearly barren of crops in a decade and a half. The trend has already begun. China’s wheat crop failed last year because of drought. The southeastern U.S. has become close to a dust bowl. The portions of north African and impoverished central Africa are in the midst of water shortages that almost certainly will not improve. The World Resources Institute has raised a point, but it has not offered a solution to the problem. That is because there is no solution. Read more: World Running Out of Water - 24/7 Wall St. http://247wallst.com/2011/10/28/world-running-out-of-water/#ixzz1cAddBgMq |
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egad
Oct 29, 2011
2:54 pm
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Re: Put Your Bets on Water
And some people in Pocahontas County want to squander their most precious commidity, water, on the selfish hunch that they could make a killing on gas? More likely, squandering their water will end up killing us all and future generations. Better they should bet on water becoming the new gold, the new oil. We can all 'get rich' on that precious liquid simply by keeping it safe. |