How we can avoid a world without water

I was just listening to a news report from Singapore and the investor they were interviewing named Roger, was talking about what his strategy has been as global market values plunge. He says that until now everything to do with the food business has been about shuffling paper, either paper as in the office, or paper as in money. It hasn't been about the growers for a very long, long time.

He says that due to the global recession, farming is going to become the huge business of the future, growing food to meet the growing demands of the population is going to be the focus and owning land and farming operations is where the profits of the future are going to be found. Farming, if properly managed, can produce food year after year and with food resources and stockpiles dwindling world wide and demand increasing, we are surely to see huge spikes in food prices over the next year.

This is the time to get close to the land and learn to live with it. Water is of paramount importance in dealing with this crisis and to make smaller community farms more accessible and productive. Protecting the sources of water are also very important.

I am glad that we continue to care about this subject and to speak about it.

Well, catching it beforehand I wouldn't think would harm tables as it would eventually be put back into the cycle. This is going to be a problem as well in areas where rainfall patterns are changing due to climate change. Those areas that get more rain will have water to grow food if used efficiently, while other areas will find themselves short or devoid of it. So what do we do if the areas short of it are areas traditionally used to grow food? Such is the case with Kenya regarding corn, and China regarding rice. We will have to either change how and what is planted and where it is planted (if there is even arable land in areas getting increased rainfall now to do so) and will have to find answers for areas traditionally agricultural that may not now be getting enough rain to grow food due to changing weather patterns. How would those people survive, and would they need to migrate to other areas?

This is such an immense problem that needs addressing, and to see little to no interest in our future regarding water resources on the whole is very disappointing. Just as with California, the drought there had to get to the point where farms are being denied water and rationing is being considered before people finally get up in arms.

Why were the other posts (one of mine as well in response to lucidstone) that were actually discussing the topic (which my first post was responding to) removed from this thread and not the one baiting in here?

To those who posted in this thread about desalination: I may not agree with you about it but I appreciated your comments here. Please post them again if you feel so inclined. Censorship is something I did not think Current stood for if the rules of the site had not been broken which they were not in this case.

it`s time to do something now,if this world without water,how can the human live?

From the article:

TL: Right now an enormous amount of attention is focused on energy issues. You mentioned at a recent talk in Berkeley that some of the cheapest ways to save energy are actually through water efficiency. Can you explain the interconnection?

PG: It takes a lot of water to produce certain kinds of energy -- oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear. Thermal plants, in general, all require a lot of water for cooling. And in the US probably the single largest use of water is for power plant cooling. Whereas, solar and wind and other energy systems require very little or no water. If energy is an issue and water is an issue, let's think about the two together.
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Desalination is not the entire issue either. It is now switching to alternate energy sources like solar and wind that use very little to no water. Energy uses much water in its processes and if we can streamline that, provide ways for homes to use reclaimed water for toilets, and generally clamp down on industrial water waste and refine agricultural methods that conserve more water for planting through sustainable agriculture we would be on our way to mitigating this global water crisis. VISION is what we need now, not the same knee jerk reactions put forth by companies like Nestle and DOW just looking for a way to make a quick buck off of other peoples' misfortune.

And not to be whiny, but could whoever keeps removing the News tag on this entry please stop it. Current Vanguard did a report a few months ago on this same topic and I am sure it was considered NEWS then. Matter of fact, the continued sustainability of this planet regarding management of water is BIG NEWS. Just ask the people of Australia and California. Thank you.

Hey guys,

I know everyone is has strong opinions and we want you all to express them, but please remember to keep your comments focused on the item and not the people discussing it.

Also, posting extra links and information that is relevant to the item being discussed is a great way to provide and condense information all in one place, as well as update a story without having to create a new one. Thanks JanforGore!

Who holds the record for the most posts followed by the most response entries of their own? I wonder.................

I will bash it, because on a global scale it is not necessary. And it won't be if humans stop looking for the easy way out and start getting serious about being human beings who care about their water and this planet. If you don't care enough about this planet to take care of what you have now and simply expect to suck everything dry to meet your needs which come first, then you deserve the consequences of your actions.

This world is not at the point "yet" of needing desalination, except in the Middle East, and perhaps parts of Africa. Cyprus/Greece are experiencing huge droughts as well and have built a small plant, but again, this is not something we can or should do on a huge scale either. The Southwest US MAY get there in a few years if again, people continue to water their golf courses because playing games are more important than growing food. The choices are ours to make NOW, and sucking the oceans of their water is not only not an environmental solution (since desalination is also a CO2 intensive process) it is most certainly a sign that on the whole all we care about as humans is our own satisfaction.

Those who think they can live in a world dotted with nothing but huge desalination plants and nuclear/ "clean coal" plants that will waste most of that water in my view have a very pessimistic outlook on the future. Desalination is not an answer, it is an admission of the failure of moral will.

cont.

Tara Lohan: From what I've read in the newest edition of your book, The World's Water 2008-2009, (Island Press, 2008) it seems that China faces some of the most difficult water challenges on earth, and the trends are only growing worse as climate change intensifies. For example, the glaciers that supply much of China's (and other Asian nations') drinking and irrigation water are melting fast and some portion of them will be lost forever. What is China doing to prepare for the impacts of these and other developments?

Peter Gleick: Nothing. The glaciers are melting. In China, and in general, nobody is doing anything different.

TL: Since the Tibetan Plateau is a source of drinking and irrigation water for an estimated one billion people -- one out of every six people on earth -- how will this impact other Asian nations?

PG: For China, the international ramifications of their water policies are vast and under-appreciated. Just about every major Asian river originates in the Tibetan plateau -- the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra -- there are almost no major rivers that don't derive some of their flow from water that comes out of Tibet. That means whatever happens in Tibet doesn't just affect China, or the Tibetans. And yet there is very little public discussion about the international nature of those water resources. With climate change it will be a growing source of tension in the future.

TL: What should they be doing?

PG: The same as everyone else. We need to do two things, broadly. We need first to slow the rate of climate change. The second thing is that we need to start adapting to the climate changes we can't avoid. And the best way to say it is that we need to avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable. We need to avoid the kinds of climate changes that will, in the long run, be catastrophic. And we need to start managing those climate changes that we know we aren't going to be able to avoid because of the gases in the atmosphere and the inability of policy-makers to deal with the problem.
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The operative word here is 'we." Yet, as carbon emissions continue to climb even with us knowing what that is doing to contribute to the melting glaciers that threaten the water supply for billions of people, water waste (primarily from agriculture) is still as prevalent as ever. And that contrary to denialists' claims regarding the cause of climate change IS due to human actions.

From the linked article:

If you've read anything about the global water crisis, you've likely read a quote from Dr. Peter Gleick, founder and president of the Pacific Institute, and one of the world's leading water experts. His name has become as ubiquitous as drought itself, which is suddenly making major headlines. A report from the World Economic Forum warned that in only twenty years our civilization may be facing "water bankruptcy" -- shortfalls of fresh water so large and pervasive that global food production could crater, meaning that we'd lose the equivalent of the entire grain production of the US and India combined.

But we don't have to wait twenty years to see what this would look like. Australia, reeling from twelve years of drought in the Murray-Darling River Basin, has seen agriculture grind to a halt, with tens of billions of dollars in losses. The region has been rendered a tinderbox, with the deadliest fires in the country's history claiming over 160 lives so far. And all this may begin to hit closer to home soon. California's water manager said that the state is bracing for its worst drought in modern history. Stephen Chu, the new US secretary of energy, warns that the effects of climate change on California's water supplies could put an end to agriculture in the state by 2100 and imperil major cities.

The bad news is that these droughts are not just characteristic of a few hot spots around the world. Climate change is liable to affect already stressed drinking water in countless places, including much of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and parts of the Americas and Europe. Water is the essence of life, vital not just for drinking and sanitation but for agriculture and industry. If we don't change our ways, and fast, we are courting global economic collapse, the World Economic Forum warned.

But there is good news, according to Gleick. For years he has advocated for a fundamental change in policy, infrastructure and thinking that he calls the "soft path" for water. I first met Gleick when I edited Water Consciousness, the newest book from AlterNet, which takes a comprehensive look at solutions to the global water crisis. With the flurry of drought related headlines recently and the release of Gleick's newest edition of his biennial book, The World's Water, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up with him again and see how we can begin to put his thinking into practice -- before it's too late.