An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization

If you think peak oil is a big deal, then just wait until the peak water crisis is in full swing. Experts say that in many areas aquifers and rivers are starting to run dry as human consumption and other factors are straining one of our most essential resources: fresh water.

In highly populated developing nations, water shortages and poor access to clean water has been a common concern. Currently 1.1 billion people living without access to safe drinking water. Even so, the problem seems far away in the minds of many who are living in more privileged circumstances. However, that may be about to change.

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 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.

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Comments

[Saudi]

Technology and manufactured substances have never been more available today to make us able.

[Alkhemist]

It's amazing to me that anyone can think in terms of "our water." As usual, most people are still thinking only of themselves. Not only is it necessary to find a way to desalinate water efficiently, but we should be concerned about those who have already gone quite some time without clean drinking water in other parts of the globe. This should not be an "us vs. them" problem, but rather "our [humanity's] problem."

[Saudi]

Abundant sea water + Abundant sun heat + abundant sea cooling energy + available technology and means = fresh water
http://www.saudisolutions.org/

http://saudisolutions.org/Drinkingwater.htm

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-235324

[simon]

Our lab´s Head of Research, a Yale scientist with a huge CV, has invented a simple, cheap, filterless seawater desalinating system; but we haven´t been able to finance the prototype.
Very little money is required, but since the lab is in financial trouble, nobody even wants to have a look at it; it looks too good to be true.

Crazy world...

Simon says

[ricky]

I think this is a great topic to be discussed on Funnel Ideas website. Also there is a company called ERII energy recovery that does this.

P.S. feel free to check out my garage sales site: http://www.garagesalestracker.com

[aaron]

could you email me the link of the wired article referenced above? i'm writing a paper on water shortages..... THANKS!

[Sarah]

Its hard to imagine with all the water on Earth that there would ever be a problem. But with far less fresh water and an abundance of ocean water, i am sure solutions will present themselves for turning the ocean water into drinking water.

[Allie]

I'd honestly rather our governments and corporations struggling to find a way to preserve fresh water rather than oil.

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[Wilson da Silva]

The person who posted this - Rebecca Sato, I believe? - has taken an image from a news website in Australia without permission. Not only that, she has failed to credit its origin. A poor show on both counts.

The original can be found at http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/811

The name of the image file on this page is exactly the same as the stolen one on the COSMOS site: 20061031_watercrisis_2_3.jpg

Please take down the image.