Climate Change: Water Shortages Will Affect 70% Of US Counties By 2050 Says New Study

Grist:

As global warming accelerates, the world will become not only hotter, flatter, and more crowded but also thirsty, according to a new study that finds 70 percent of counties in the United States may face climate change-related risks to their water supplies by 2050.

Read the whole story: Grist

Comments

[Kenz300]

11:43 AM on 08/17/2010

Limited world resources will come head to head with the ever expanding population growth.

Resources that were adequate for a world of 5 or 6 billion people will be scarce when the
world has 9 billion people.

Food, water and oil will all become scarce. Countries will hoard resources for their
own populations.

Wars will be fought over limited resources. Will economies collapse due to
lack of resources?

[StopGlobalWarmingBeVegan]

11:19 PM on 07/29/2010

Solution is to eat less meat or go veg..green energy is too slow.

[research]

08:55 PM on 07/28/2010

Save over half of our freash water.

Replace fossil nukes and fracking with green energy.

Save money, cut the deficit, employ everyone, cut energy dependence:

Immediately order energy retrofits for all gov buildings.

Rooftop PV Solar, Offshore wind, and Waste Bio char, can supply the worlds energy and fuel needs: cleanly, safely, Forever, within 12 years and cheaper in the long run 2-6 cents now, and 26$ per barrel bio oils.

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm
about 1$ per Wp solar panels, new.

install solar plants for about $1.30 per watt, compared with an industry average of about $1.75, according to Hardy." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20602099&sid=a7K1FZoNgJ0w

Wind: “between two and six cents today, depending on location.12 Wind power approaches competitiveness with conventional generation at this price point. “

http://www.repp.org/articles/static/1/binaries/wind%20issue%20brief_FINAL.pdf

http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/publ/BiofBioproBioref%203,%20547-562,%202009%20Laird.pdf

26$ per barrel bio oil from waste bio char.

Trouble is, Chu hates green energy. didn't even break it out of hydro in his report. Fossil and nukes have 100 times the money, so we will get more of the fossil and nukes.

[OSCPJ]

07:10 PM on 07/28/2010

Wow, the study didn't mention anything about the sharp increase of population, industrial BRIC nations and the new developing nations.

Wouldn't want to be objective. Lets just blame it what we want to.

So if they blame it all on Climate Change, can they predict what the climate will be. I would love to know what their baseline is. I mean you have to know the climate before any assumptions are made.

[The last sane American]

04:15 PM on 07/28/2010

BREAKING News

Harris County in Texas is about to break its all time record for July rainfall. 14 inches

Hate it when those Oil-dependent counties do not do what we tell them to do.

[StephenBP]

08:42 PM on 07/28/2010

Ever notice the difference between weather, and climate?



Obviously not,,,,,





.

[progressivegreg]

03:32 PM on 07/28/2010

Bring your Green business to Michigan! The Waters Fine!

[OSCPJ]

07:11 PM on 07/28/2010

Yeah but your housing market isn't.

[droog1]

01:27 PM on 07/28/2010

How will the world become flatter? Increased erosion? That would require more rain wouldn't it?

[coolaid8]

08:59 AM on 07/28/2010

Why do people move from the north to the desserts in Arizona and then cover them with sod and water them every day? If you want to live in the desert, live in the desert. It always amazes me how the grass in Scottsdale is so much richer and thicker than the grass in Chicago.

[dragonmaster]

08:26 AM on 07/28/2010

The American Southwest will see population exodus out starting by 2020 - increasing heat- and lack of water the primary reason.

The American heartland- the western corn belt & wheat belt will see precipitation fall - and the increased heat will exacerbate the problems. This region by mid century will revert back to the desert it was in the Pliocene epoch.

Even in areas with ample precipitation- the quality of water will decline- causing shortages and increasing scarcity after 2040.

[MInchau]

06:54 AM on 07/28/2010

Us humans always talk about our big brains like it's a good thing. I've been doubting that for years.

[MajorKong]

06:11 AM on 07/28/2010

That's when the Great Lakes states will become the OPEC of water.

[coolaid8]

08:55 AM on 07/28/2010

We will be sorry we ran Blago out of office, he could probably get a higher price for our water than anyone else.

[ontariogirl]

11:56 AM on 07/28/2010

It will be interesting to see how that would work out........

[progressivegreg]

03:33 PM on 07/28/2010

We have to defend them!

[Mum]

05:45 AM on 07/28/2010

More than twenty years ago, Marc Reisner wrote a prophetic book titled: "Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water." Read it and weep. And catch your tears, especially if you live in the southwest. You are going to need them.

[Vlad Tepes]

02:34 AM on 07/28/2010

People must have smaller families. You got many immigrants from the third world coming here and having 6-8 kids.

[Rickfors]

05:01 AM on 07/28/2010

H-1B has to be changed drastically if you don't want immigrants from other
countries coming here.
They abuse the H-1B loophole then get their grandparents on
Supplemental Social Security. They've never even worked a day in their
lives here in the U.S. to pay into the system, then get $700 a month till
they take their last breath!

[Vlad Tepes]

05:12 AM on 07/28/2010

Yeah, I noticed how once a minimum wage dishwasher gets his papers, he will bring over twenty members of his extended family. I see all these old crippled people limping around, speaking no english, but clearly getting all the benfits they can. It's like there is an underground informational network whereby these people learn all the shortcuts and tricks to manipulate the system.
I have also had a couple women (from the poor side of town) tell me they have had illegals offer them thousands of dollars to marry them.

[The Dude67]

12:08 AM on 07/28/2010

Any rationally thinking person can see that major cooperation and real change is needed with respect to how we view our responsibility to Mother Earth.

I am not talking about cap and trade or putting a bandage on our use of fossil fuels, I'm talking about sustainability.

Gone are the days where we can willfully declare that all humans are free to procreate at whatever rate they see fit, that we can waste precious resources so long as it is profitable to do so, and we can ignore the bounty of clean renewable energy and food sources again in favor of profit.

"And the men who hold high places must be the ones to start. To mold a new reality, closer to the heart" - Neil Peart.

We must stop rewarding amoral exploitative behavior and elevate those who wish to elevate us all to the positions of power and adoration.

[GroovyTimes]

11:54 PM on 07/27/2010

I'm waiting to see if any of the BP oil spill eventually works it's way into the underground aquifers or forces desalination plants on the gulf to shut down.

[Mum]

05:47 AM on 07/28/2010

I was under the impression there was only one desalination plant on the Gulf, in Tampa Bay. Are there more? Where are they located?

The oil mostly likely can't work it's way into any underground aquifers.