Running out of water 2
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Posted on August 22, 2006
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality
Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:
So I’m back to my blog this late evening with a disturbing story in hand. A study conducted by 400 hydrologists, sponsored by the United Nations, has determined that we are headed for a serious water crisis. Demand for water will double over the next 50 years as population continues to grow, demand rises rapidly, while water scarcity grows acute.
Already 2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity. You can read about this in Tuesday’s NY Times.
One thing we cannot live without is water — but we are headed towards a world in which scarcity affects more and more people, especially if we continue to misappropriate it as we do. Certainly we cannot sustain the rate we currently use it, and certainly not at the rate that we affluent folks use (and waste) it.
Here’s a disturbing factoid for you. We US Americans use an average of 1,280 cubic meters of water per person every year. This compares to 186 cubic meters for Africans. There is a range in-between, but to give you an idea of what water hogs we are here, our per capita usage is nearly twice that of Europeans (694 cubic meters).
In a world where water will grow scarcer with rising population and demand, this is unconscionable. There is a huge amount of waste involved here, as well as overuse — or luxury use, to put it politely.
Think about developments like the city of Las Vegas, the purest symbol I can think of regarding arrogant, abusive use of water. Golf courses in the desert. Lawns in desert communities. Plans for a million more people in the exurban sprawl outside Phoenix. All of this is unsustainable, insane, and immoral.
Climate change in the new hot age will make all of this worse, with glaciers metling (a major water source in many parts of our earth community) and some regions drying up as a result of desertification. (Said the lead researcher in this study, David Molden, “To me, that’s quite frightenting.”)
Water wars will be part of our future. One thing we might do is practice living with less water, practice reducing our water usage to basic need. This is part of our future and we need to learn to live differently now. Remember the earth’s resources, the gifts that support all life including ours, are finite. We need water to live. Honor it. Reverence it. Imagine life without it — well, there is none.
[I’m still looking for a link to this study, so if you find one, please let me know.]
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