World Without Water
Adam Yamaguchi is a correspondent and producer for the award-winning Vanguard unit of Current journalists. Vanguard's special presentation "World Without Water" airs Wednesday, September 10th at 7 p.m. PST/10 p.m. EST. The show will also be available on Current.com.
If you've been paying any attention to gas prices this summer, you know all about the growing demand and dwindling supply of the planet's resources. The presidential candidates love to talk about the economy, oil and gas prices at every campaign stop. But not water - no one likes to talk about water, perhaps because the problem is a much larger one.
Yes, it would suck to run out of oil, gas or minerals, but civilization would end if we ran out of fresh water - the stuff that's essential for development, industry, agriculture...and life. There's simply no substitute. The demand for water rises as the population booms; drought is becoming more frequent and severe, and the supply of fresh water is dwindling.
While we're not going to run out of fresh water tomorrow, we're facing an impending crisis (at least until we develop the technology to desalinate the Pacific Ocean).
Current's Vanguard team of journalists scours the globe, looking at the dynamic changes taking place around the world. This week, we look at the manifestations and causes of water scarcity. As part of my report, I sat down to discuss the issue with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who says the water crisis is as critical an issue as climate change itself.
Recently I traveled to China, which is experiencing a dramatic water crisis that could be the greatest developmental challenge to this rising superpower. If you watched the Beijing Olympics, chances are you saw the impressive Water Cube, the swimming venue that had an outer shell filled with tons of water. However, if you traveled just outside of Beijing, you would've seen how much of the rest of the North China Plain is drying up, literally running out of water. Where there is water, it's often polluted beyond belief.
China has conquered all our expectations and stunned the world with monumental economic progress. But can it conquer nature, or will it be destroyed by it?
On the other side of the globe, Vanguard Correspondent Adrian Baschuk went to his home state of Florida where a recent drought has exacerbated the plight of the Everglades. Arguably one of the most treasured wildlife habitats in the entire continental U.S., the Everglades are under attack from all corners. Massive urban development is quickly encroaching on the once-pristine wildlife preserve, and a growing Miami is sucking up more and more water - taking the wet out of wetland. And if this proverbial chokehold isn't enough, there are questions about whether global warming may mean more drought in the future.
Finally, my colleague Laura Ling documents the drop in the water level in Lake Mead, an essential reservoir that supplies much of the water that's eventually diverted to the mega-megalopolis of Southern California. The drop is so pronounced, you can see it - a massive bathtub ring effect is visible on the canyon walls that once held the large body of water in place. Now, it's safe to say that drought can come and go, and water levels can rise and fall, but a combination of climatic change and overuse of water in the region may very well mean bodies of water such as Lake Mead could eventually dry up for good.
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If you knew what was in your drinking water, tap water that is, you would not drink. And IF you believe that bottled water is safe and better, think again. Research it. Google it. Not good.
A few observations:
Much of Southern California's water now comes from Central California. The water in Lake Mead and the Lower Colorado River has to be shared with Nevada, Arizona, and Mexico, with California entitled to less than 50% of this resource.
In all of California, only 20% of the water is used residentially.
80% of water usage is agricultural, and of that, 1/4, (which is equal to the total amount of water used residentially in all of the State), is used to farm tropical rice, in flooded fields, at subsidised prices for water that are below cost. As long as there is water flowing from the Sierra Nevada mountains down toward the San Francisco Bay, that water could be used for people instead of given away to rice farmers. I think it is important to address the issue of water conservation not only in the cities, but also on the farms, where small percentage gains in conservation will have much greater results than small percentage gains in the cities.
On the pessimistic side, there are estimates that a rise in sea level of only one meter will cause a vast expansion of the San Francisco Bay, and a rise of two meters will cause ocean flooding of much of the Central Valley. This will not only remove much land from cultivation, but will play havoc with the system for moving fresh water to the cities of Central and Southern California.
Thank you for touching on the worlds #1 issue. Clean drinking water is now an issue for over 1 billion people. The UN lists it as a top issue. The most conservative estimates show that 4200 children die each DAY due to poor drinking water. More liberal estimates place it in the 10's of millions each year.
However, as some of the comments show, the Malthusians don't want to talk about clean water. Their objective is not human life nor quality of human life. Their objective is to reduce the world population to below 2 billion. I wonder who will choose? Who gets to play god?
Ya have to limit human population growth to avert a water crisis, but of course no one will talk about this, the elephant in the room.
It's the draconian solution.
Strictly last resort, and if implemented after a lot of war.
If we could stabilise the human population, it would be easier to solve a lot of our other problems. The Earth's population has more than doubled in the last 50 years, and that type of increase is part of why it is so hard to solve water, power, pollution, global warming, food, and poverty problems.
Soo, who do we eliminate?
Even as you are on your way to being a water covered world, fresh water is already a crisis that will grow rapidly.
There is no water crisis. What there is, though, is a water waste crisis. Just as in the case of oil we are running into trouble because we are wasting too much of something that exists only in limited quantities.
Well, there is a water crisis. We have not yet felt the total effects of it.. Secondly, mans greed and abuses will not stop.
if Big Renewables keep forcing us into their sinister, destructive plans, we will see billions of gallons of precious water wasted on Concentrating Solar Plants, when all that power could be generated on our properties with PV and microwind. this technology is extremely destructive and wasteful - please think hard before broadly supporting "solar power." only certain solar - local point of use projects - don't harm the planet more than they help!
true, bit not inclusive. All central thermal power plants use billions of gallons of water per year. Nukes, coal and concentrating solar thermal.
"All central thermal power plants use billions of gallons of water per year."
That would be as false as they come. Concentrating solar needs some water to clean the concentrators, and that's it. Nuclear/coal fired power plants need almost no water at all if they are run with dry coolers. The reason to use wet cooling is cost because one can build a much smaller cooling structure. Nowhere in engineering text books does it say that one has to build a much smaller wet cooling structure, it's just one of many options. That option is usually exercised after the accountants had their say. Change the regulations and wet cooling goes the way of the Dodo.
In other words: if you are cheap, you waste water. If you are not, you don't.
In any case, the water problems in the US stem from agriculture, not energy generation.
more water use by thermal power plants links:
http://www
Water use is we go Hydrogen for storage.
http://www
it's a lot.
Several companies have reduced the energy requirements for purifying water by 90% or more.
One recycles the heat used in distillation, another reuses the pressure in reverse osmosis desalination.
As long as we have energy, we have water.
Several companies have reduced the energy requirements for purifying water by 90% or more.
That's cool. But reduced energy cost does not mean sufficiently reduced cost for desalinated water. You are till talking about paying dollars for something that is needed at the cost of a few cents.
"As long as we have energy, we have water."
You did notice that we do have an energy problem, right?
The Segway guy invented the distiller:
http://blo
I think this guy invented the reverse osmosis pressure energy recovery system:
http://www
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