Over Population is a Threat To Our Global Water System

Written by Adam Shake

We’ve discussed four Strategic Threats to our Global Water System

1. Redistribution of fresh water supplies (here)
2. Rise of sea levels and loss of low-lying coastal areas (here)
3. Deforestation (here)
4. World-wide contamination of water resources (here)

The fifth is worldwide overpopulation. Some of the following information is written by Al Gore from his book “Earth In The Balance” and proper attribution and referencing will be enforced. The following bullet points are direct references from this source.

• In many parts of the world, groundwater is being extracted from aquifers at rates that far exceed the ability of nature to refill, or recharge, them.
• The Ogallala Aquifer in the High Plains states is being drained so rapidly that many thousands of agricultural jobs will soon be at risk.
• In 1989, the Iowa National Guard was called out to deliver water supplies.
• In Mexico City, the water level of the main aquifer is now dropping by as much as eleven feet each year. Of all the fresh water used by humans, almost three quarters or 73 percent) is used for irrigation and three fifths of all that water is wasted due to inefficient techniques.
• In this century alone, the amount of irrigated farmland in the world has increased by 500 percent.
• Lack of water can also be used as a weapon. During the Persian Gulf crisis, there was open speculation about whether Turkey might cut off the flow of the Tigris to Iraq as a weapon of war. At the same time, Iraq sought to foul the pipes carrying drinking water to Saudi Arabia with the massive oil spill it released into the gulf.
• These geopolitical conflicts over water will be greatly exacerbated if global climate change alters the pattern of water distribution to which nations have adjusted.

Through redistribution, pollution, deforestation, rising sea levels and overpopulation, there is not only less fresh water to drink, but the little we have is being drunk faster than the earth can replenish it.

We tend to talk a lot about our dependency on oil, and I’m glad we are. We need to talk about it even more. But the fact is, we need water to survive. It is a necessity. If you’re thirsty and you are given a choice between a gallon of fresh water and a gallon of Oil, which are you going to take?

Am I saying that you will see a point in your lifetime when you have to worry about not having drinking water? No. But even in affluent America, there will come a time in our children’s lives when there is no more oil. That is a fact, and there may be a point in our grand-children’s lives when like billions of people right now, they may not have access to healthy drinking water.

We can’t make change as individuals, but that does not mean that we have to join a group, club, society or political movement either. All we need to do, each one of us, is make individual choices based on knowledge. If we all start to make small changes in our ways of thinking, discussing, purchasing and consuming, those around us will do the same, and the planet will begin to heal.

The problems are too big for us to tackle them all. So instead of becoming overwhelmed and giving up, just make the changes that you feel comfortable with and that you are capable of. Some will do more, others less, but all should do some. Just like our bodies, this earth is the only one we have. When we treat it badly it gets sick. But unlike our bodies, we must share it. Perhaps we should demand that other people don’t abuse our earth, because it is just as much ours as it is theirs. It is just as much yours as it is mine.

Alter the Eco and keep up the good fight,

Adam


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Related posts:

1. Strategic Threat to the Earths Water System – Deforestation
2. Migratory Birds Threatened by Global Warming (Video)
3. Halting Global Food Wastage