The following 25 signs indicate a global water catastrophe is occurring and increasiengly, water wars will be seen unless polluting corporations are stopped from their destruction and resources, including renewable and education resources are used for humanitarian needs. Water rights are worthy of consideration.
The first 12 water facts are about the United States. The last 13 are about the world.
#1Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states already face water shortages or will be within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, water level of Lake Mead has plunged over 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of water used in Las Vegas. Today, the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have and is falling so fast, that some believe Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years, a disaster for that entire region of the country. If things continue at current pace, it is estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, a massive underground lake stretching from South Dakota to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now, it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. It now covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s, it has been drained of enough water “to half-fill Lake Erie." At one time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today that average is 80 feet. If something is not done, Dust Bowl days of the 1930s will return. We need to start listening to experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service said when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer….
#6 A federal judge ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier,. the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, creating a nightmare for city officials.
#7 California only has an estimated 20-year supply of fresh water left.
#8 New Mexico only has an estimated 10-year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Arizona already has giant “dust storms” blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas has experienced one of the driest stretches in recorded history. Today, approximately 81 percent of the state is experiencing “exceptional drought” conditions, and wildfires have burned 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 Projections are that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, most live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities.
#17 An estimated 75 percent of surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 According to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percentof all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world, a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 A new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
Corporate greed vs Peoples of goodwill and education
"Wars are the outcomes of cultures and mores. Not every casus belli leads to belligerence. Not every conflict, however severe, ends in battle," writes Dr. Sam Vaknin, author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East as well as many other books and ebooks about topics in psychology, relationships, philosophy, economics, and international affairs..
In his article, "The Emerging Water Wars," Dr. Vaknin states, "Mankind has invented numerous other conflict-resolution mechanisms. There is no reason to assume that water would cause more warfare than oil or national pride."
"But water scarcity sure causes dislocation, ethnic tension, impoverishment, social anomy, and a host of other ills.
"It is in fending off these pernicious, all-pervasive, and slow-acting social processes that we should concentrate our efforts."
Sources
Economic Collapse Blog
Sam Vaknin, PhD
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