The real environmental elephant in the room!

While the media and some politicians prattle on and on about climate change and how it's in everyone's interest to do something about it, no one seems to be addressing a problem that becomes more critical with each passing day and which will unhinge America and other nations in the near term.

While global warming is something the media likes to talk and talk about, and while Obama is pressing for his so-called 'carbon tax' (which is currently stalled in the Senate), there are bigger problems brewing... I'm talking about potable water and the lack of it on planet earth. Strangely enough, for a planet that is covered by some much of the wet stuff, it's sad to state that only about 1% is actually drinkable. And, of that portion, much of that small amount is tied up as ice on both poles! That leaves precious little for the some 7 billion souls now inhabiting mother earth to drink each day!

Here in America, the fresh water is already becoming scarce in some states. Of even more concern are the dropping water tables across the mid section of the country. Reservoirs that experts say will take something like ten thousand years to refill, assuming we all stopped using it today. Our government is now projecting that at least 36 states will soon face severe water shortages because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

Other continents, like Australia are even now in the midst of a critical shortage of water as wildfires burn up the parched land. (Sadly, Australia's longest river system, the Murray-Darling, which drains a basin the size of France and Spain combined, no longer carries enough water to carve its own path to the sea and must be dredged on a 24/7 basis). You think that will end well these folks? In fact, many of the world's rivers, including the Colorado in America, China's Yellow river and the Tagus, which flows through Spain and Portugal, are suffering a similar plight as increasingly thirsty hordes drain them faster than they can be refilled by rainfall. The truth of the matter is that there are just too many people, too many industries and animals to supply all their needs even today. If these trends continue, experts predict that shortages could become critical in just another decade or so....

Imagine a scenario where over a billion people are suddenly forced to move because they are slowly dying of thirst! Imagine, too, the effect on our world stability as they cross foreign borders in a tidal wave of wild desperation! It won't be a pretty sight and when it does begin to happen it will happen overnight. And yet, what is being done about this pending nightmare? Nothing. The media and the president would rather spend their time talking about global warming and how the CO2 might climb above 400 part per million! Heaven forbid!

Thoughts about water and plastics

America’s crumbling water distribution system

Back in the mid 1800’s heavy cast iron pipes with a life expectancy of 125 years were being laid. Then, around twenty five years later a newer process was developed that resulted in thinner pipes at cheaper cost. These had a life span of about one hundred years. Fast forward another twenty-five years and yet even better manufacturing processes resulted in even thinner pipes with a lifespan figured at 75 years. As you might guess, the end of the usefulness curve for all these millions of miles of water pipe will be occurring shortly. Over the next twenty years, repair and replacement could easily run in the trillions of dollars. My question is, how many politicians have you heard talking about this issue? Maybe none or less? The problem is the pipes run underground and no elected official will benefit if a pipe is named after them. Water distribution issues have about as much popularity as a foot with a fungus infection and as a result nothing has been or is being done to head off what could easily blossom into a National disaster overnight. (Just think how your life would be effected if your water was cut off and then you were told you’d have to get it out of a nearby river or stream)? Think about this happening to a whole city! I bet some heads would role. But, that’s just what is happening even as I write this.

Water Bottle Waste (WBW)

While the water distribution system crumbles underneath our feet, American’s are blithely adding millions of tons of waste daily to landfills. Empty plastic water bottles alone are added at the rate of 50 million per day! Other common items like beverage cans add another 200 million to the pile. TV dinners, even small ones as shown here contribute a third of their weight as landfill material. In addition, the plastic bottles and trays also consume million of gallons of oil to produce yearly. All of which ultimately contributes to toxic waste later on.

While much of the aluminum is thankfully recycled, the same cannot be said at this time for plastics. As a country and as a peoples, we must learn to conserve and to protect our environment if we hope to pass on a clean country to future generations.

The coming crisis over water!

This poem penned by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was written back in 1797, but is truer than ever today. Everything and everyone alive on the face of this planet depends on the availability of fresh water for survival. (Even fish that live in the sea need to filter the salty brine via specialized ‘chloride cells’ on their gills). But, with ever increasing population levels and the increasing use of technologies that require large amounts of fresh water, the question becomes, ‘are we on a collision course?’ Specifically, will America, land of plenty, come under increasing scrutiny as other parts of the world dry up?

For a planet that is mostly covered with water to a depth of miles, it might seem somewhat of a joke to be talking about a pending lack of it. The key term here is fresh as in drinkable, as opposed to most of the water in the oceans which would require expensive technologies to clean it to the point where it would be considered potable. Of all the water that is present, only about 1 to 2.5% is fit to drink.

Water Use in the United States

In order to keep one person not only watered, but fed, copious amounts of H2O and other resources must be used daily in the States. Among these is the growing of produce in the form of grains, vegetable and fruit. Poultry, swine and other livestock all require food and water in order to be brought to market. In the US alone we grow and slaughter over nine billion animals each year. As a matter of fact, food and agriculture are the largest consumers of water, requiring well over one hundred times more than we use for personal needs. Up to 70 % of the water we take from rivers and groundwater goes into irrigation, about 10% is used in domestic applications and 20% in industry. Currently, about 3600 km3 of freshwater are withdrawn for human use. Of these, roughly half is really consumed as a result of evaporation, incorporation into crops and transpiration from crops. The other half recharges groundwater or surface flows or is lost in unproductive evaporation. So, while much of this water is returned to the earth, it is returned in the form of wastewater that is not fit to drink. The sad truth is that we can still afford to be wasteful here in the US. In other countries, fresh water availability is already becoming much scarcer! Take China for instance. Most of her major rivers are now choked with runoff pollution. In one study it was reported that the Yangtze River (China’s longest) absorbed about 25 billion tons of waste water last year. This river system has now been deemed ‘cancerous’ by some scientists.

While Americans currently luxuriate in the copious use of fresh water (estimates run into the hundreds of gallons per day) much of the rest of the world subsists on 25 gallons per day. That situation will become only worst as the population of the rest of the world sky rockets in coming decades. For every person born, more and more water resources must be tapped. (In just the space of time that it took you to read this far, about four hundred new babies arrived in a world that is supporting over seven billion). Just as we have all experienced a wake up call on oil reserves, we need also to look to the future of how water can be effectively managed here at home and elsewhere. The question that remains is what will happen when shortages become severe in other parts of the globe. Unlike food which can be cut back on in lean times, water availability is crucial and immediate. A sudden shortfall anywhere in the world will result in the instant and dire relocation of large populations with dire results probable for the location they move to. It’s very possible that the next major World War will not be fought over oil after all, but rather a substance that almost covers the earth.

Update: 2018 - Iran citizens were rioting over the lack of clean water. Also see this 2019 article.