Author Topic: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization  (Read 2707 times)

Offline woodyear99

  • Global Moderator
  • Akatsuki
  • *
  • Posts: 5788
  • Country: 00
  • Chakra 113
    • PS3, Wii
  • Referrals: 1
    • View Profile
  • CPU: Q6600
  • RAM: 4 Gigabytes
  • Broadband: Flow
  • PSN: wodyer
Water like oil is a scarce resource which may one day lead to conflict....

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/03/the-crisis-is-c.html

If you think peak oil is a big deal, then just wait until the peak water crisis is in full swing. Experts say that in many areas aquifers and rivers are starting to run dry as human consumption and other factors are straining one of our most essential resources: fresh water.

In highly populated developing nations, water shortages and poor access to clean water has been a common concern. Currently 1.1 billion people living without access to safe drinking water. Even so, the problem seems far away in the minds of many who are living in more privileged circumstances. However, that may be about to change.

Milton Clark, a senior health and science adviser for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says he worries that these water issues that are currently emerging will eventually develop into bitter conflicts in the not too distant future when these dry states become increasingly desperate.

"We will, in fact, get into major water wars," Clark said. "You will see water wars coming in every way, shape or form. In the U.S., there are some leading politicians who have said the Great Lakes do, in fact, belong (to everyone) and all water should be nationalized and this certainly is a concern."

Ohio Lt.-Gov. Lee Fisher recently stirred up controversy when he told an economic development summit that the Great Lakes region may be only a few years away from selling water to other U.S. states in need.

"I think it's fair to say that we're going to see in the next decade states and other countries looking for ways to get access to our fresh water supply, and we're going to have to make some tough decisions about whether we want that to happen and, if so, how," Fisher said.

Last year the US government issued a report stating that the heavy growth in the American Southwest region "will inevitably result in increasingly costly, controversial, and unavoidable trade-off choices."

Of course, we’re not actually running out of H20 from a macro perspective. It’s still around like it was millions of years ago. What we’re running out of it the right kind of water in the right places. Humans haven’t always wisely built civilizations close to vast fresh water supplies, but vast fresh water supplies are exactly what large populations require. Nearly all of Earth’s water is in the ocean (97%) where it does us little good as drinking water unless it is desalinated—an expensive and energy intensive process. But people, plants and animals all need fresh water to thrive, and as we’ve seen with oil, when resources dwindle—or are even just perceived to be dwindling whether or not they actually are—things can get nasty.

Wired magazine’s Mathew Powers points out that “like oil, water is not equitably distributed or respectful of political boundaries; about 50 percent of the world's freshwater lies in a half-dozen lucky countries.”

He notes that “freshwater is the ultimate renewable resource, but humanity is extracting and polluting it faster than it can be replenished. Rampant economic growth — more homes, more businesses, more water-intensive products and processes, a rising standard of living — has simply outstripped the ready supply, especially in historically dry regions. Compounding the problem, the hydrologic cycle is growing less predictable as climate change alters established temperature patterns around the globe.”

But with all of this pessimism is there any good news? Well, the good news is that as people become more aware of the need for water conservation, the more wasteful habits are curbed. Americans are using 20 percent less water per capita than they did just a generation ago, so conservation education appear to be working to some extent.

With advanced technologies and more prudent water usage, the majority of Earth’s inhabitants will be able to continue to enjoy the luxury of clean water for a long time to come. Yes, we need to fundamentally rethink water usage and plenty of bigger changes are needed, but at least we’re heading in the right direction. With better stewardship and improved city planning, humans will likely be able to avert a good portion of the more disastrous scenarios. 

Carigamers


Offline W1nTry

  • Administrator
  • Akatsuki
  • *****
  • Posts: 11329
  • Country: tt
  • Chakra 109
  • Referrals: 3
    • View Profile
  • CPU: Intel Core i7 3770
  • GPU: Gigabyte GTX 1070
  • RAM: 2x8GB HyperX DDR3 2166MHz
  • Broadband: FLOW
  • Steam: W1nTry
  • XBL: W1nTry
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #1 on: March 26, 2009, 02:16:49 PM »
And here I thought it was an evaluation of how much MORE of the planet will be covered by water when all the ice caps are gone... my take on this... POPULATION CONTROL... hey it's the chinese blood in me XD

Again we're fighting the symptoms NOT the cause.. less humans, less NEEDS, less strain on mother earth, better for the survivors XD

Offline woodyear99

  • Global Moderator
  • Akatsuki
  • *
  • Posts: 5788
  • Country: 00
  • Chakra 113
    • PS3, Wii
  • Referrals: 1
    • View Profile
  • CPU: Q6600
  • RAM: 4 Gigabytes
  • Broadband: Flow
  • PSN: wodyer
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #2 on: March 26, 2009, 02:20:42 PM »
And here I thought it was an evaluation of how much MORE of the planet will be covered by water when all the ice caps are gone... my take on this... POPULATION CONTROL... hey it's the chinese blood in me XD

Again we're fighting the symptoms NOT the cause.. less humans, less NEEDS, less strain on mother earth, better for the survivors XD

Oh don't you worry the Ice caps are melting as well. Funny you mention it I was watching this documentary earlier.....a very interesting look at the current state of ice...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/extremeice/

Remarkable time-lapse footage by one of the world's foremost nature photographers reveals massive glaciers and ice sheets splitting apart, collapsing, and disappearing at a rate that has more and more scientists alarmed. This NOVA-National Geographic Television special investigates the latest evidence of a radically warming planet.

"Extreme Ice" follows National Geographic-funded photojournalist James Balog to some of the most dangerous places on Earth as he documents the disappearance of an icy landscape that took thousands of years to form. An artist, scientist, explorer, and former mountain guide, Balog braved treacherous terrain to site his cameras in ideal locations to record the unfolding frozen drama. (Watch an audio slide show with Balog's narration and striking images.)

The program charts the progress of Balog's Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), the largest photographic study ever attempted of the cryosphere, the mantle of ice that covers large portions of the Earth and that plays a critical role in weather. The effort involves deploying 26 time-lapse cameras in alpine and arctic locations across the Northern Hemisphere and programming them to shoot a frame every daylight hour for three years.

As the program shows, the resulting time-lapse movies give breathtaking evidence of geology in action. Ominously, the proverbial glacial pace of large masses of ice is no longer as slow as it once was, due to the warming of the planet that is accelerating the break-up of these titanic structures, including the separation of a Rhode Island-sized piece of the Antarctic ice sheet in 2002. Scientists are overwhelmingly convinced that the temperature increase is tied to the rise in greenhouse-gas emissions caused by burning fossil fuels.

A NOVA-Nat Geo film crew accompanies Balog to EIS locations around the world. In Alaska, Balog records the rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier, one of the largest ocean-feeding glaciers in North America (see photo at right). Amazingly, the calving of such glaciers is so frequent that wetsuit-clad surfers sometimes paddle nearby, waiting for an avalanche of ice to generate massive waves for a wild ride. Later, in Iceland, Balog photographs exquisitely sculpted icebergs on the beach, the last stop in their natural journey from the interior out to sea.

Most dramatically of all, in Greenland the award-winning photographer explores a landscape as magnificent as the canyon country of Utah—except carved in solid ice. Lowering himself by rope into a giant hole in the ice sheet bored out by a torrent of meltwater, Balog finds himself in a world of surpassing beauty, scientific mystery, and maximum peril.

Among the scientists featured in "Extreme Ice" are Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University, along with Tad Pfeffer and Jim White, both of the University of Colorado at Boulder. (In Ask the Expert, White answers viewer questions about the big melt and its potential consequences worldwide.)

Richard Alley tells NOVA that the shrinking of glaciers has long been clear to anyone who lives near them. But "the ice sheets surprised us," he says. "We thought the little glaciers would melt when it got warmer and that the big ice sheets wouldn't do much. And all of a sudden the big ice sheets started rumbling faster ... and we said, whoa, that wasn't supposed to happen!"

No one knows what will happen next. The ultimate doomsday scenario—the melting of all the ice on Greenland and Antarctica and the subsequent raising of sea level by some 200 feet—seems out of the question anytime soon. (In our visual thought experiment, see some of the coastal areas around the world that would vanish if they did.)

But even the current consensus estimate of a three-foot sea-level rise in the next century would wreak havoc in coastal regions, displacing millions of people, from Florida to Bangladesh. The lesson is that the big melt-off now under way holds a potential for changes of far-reaching and as yet unknown extent. (Watch a series of video podcasts on the impact that arctic melting is already having on Yupik people living on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea.)

Offline Crixx_Creww

  • Akatsuki
  • *****
  • Posts: 9057
  • Country: 00
  • Chakra -12
  • ANBU OF THE HIDDEN VILLAGE FOAK
    • Atari 2600.
  • Referrals: 11
    • View Profile
    • www.crixxcrew.com
  • CPU: Intel Q6600 @3.2 Ghz
  • GPU: Nvidia Xfx geforce 9800GTX+
  • RAM: 8 Gigs Mixed kingston and corsair ddr2
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #3 on: March 26, 2009, 02:23:59 PM »
^_^
once again, the universe does that rare alignment thing and i totally agree with winny

Offline TriniXaeno

  • Administrator
  • Akatsuki
  • *****
  • Posts: 18836
  • Country: tt
  • Chakra 14
    • :ps3::wii::xbox360:
  • Referrals: 35
    • View Profile
    • http://www.carigamers.com
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-2600K
  • GPU: Geforce GTX 680 2GB
  • RAM: 16GB
  • Broadband: :flow:
  • MBL: Nexus 5x
  • PSN: TriniXaeno
  • XBL: TriniXaeno
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2009, 10:56:42 PM »
Brings back memories of madmax.

Carigamers

Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #4 on: March 26, 2009, 10:56:42 PM »

Offline woodyear99

  • Global Moderator
  • Akatsuki
  • *
  • Posts: 5788
  • Country: 00
  • Chakra 113
    • PS3, Wii
  • Referrals: 1
    • View Profile
  • CPU: Q6600
  • RAM: 4 Gigabytes
  • Broadband: Flow
  • PSN: wodyer
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #5 on: March 27, 2009, 12:41:52 AM »
Waterworld........

Offline Crixx_Creww

  • Akatsuki
  • *****
  • Posts: 9057
  • Country: 00
  • Chakra -12
  • ANBU OF THE HIDDEN VILLAGE FOAK
    • Atari 2600.
  • Referrals: 11
    • View Profile
    • www.crixxcrew.com
  • CPU: Intel Q6600 @3.2 Ghz
  • GPU: Nvidia Xfx geforce 9800GTX+
  • RAM: 8 Gigs Mixed kingston and corsair ddr2
Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2009, 08:40:40 AM »
lol whats funny is baego's banner under his sig
ps3 wii blink, even though flow is isp

Carigamers

Re: An Impending Crisis? How Peak Water Would Reshape Civilization
« Reply #6 on: March 27, 2009, 08:40:40 AM »

 


* ShoutBox

Refresh History
  • Crimson609: yea everything cool how are you?
    August 10, 2022, 07:26:15 AM
  • Pain_Killer: Good day, what's going on with you guys? Is everything Ok?
    February 21, 2021, 05:30:10 PM
  • Crimson609: BOOM covid-19
    August 15, 2020, 01:07:30 PM
  • Shinsoo: bwda 2020 shoutboxing. omg we are in the future and in the past at the same time!
    March 03, 2020, 06:42:47 AM
  • TriniXjin: Watch Black Clover Everyone!
    February 01, 2020, 06:30:00 PM
  • Crimson609: lol
    February 01, 2020, 05:05:53 PM
  • Skitz: So fellas how we go include listing for all dem parts for pc on we profile but doh have any place for motherboard?
    January 24, 2020, 09:11:33 PM
  • Crimson609: :ph34r:
    January 20, 2019, 09:23:28 PM
  • Crimson609: Big up ya whole slef
    January 20, 2019, 09:23:17 PM
  • protomanex: Gyul like Link
    January 20, 2019, 09:23:14 PM
  • protomanex: Man like Kitana
    January 20, 2019, 09:22:39 PM
  • protomanex: Man like Chappy
    January 20, 2019, 09:21:53 PM
  • protomanex: Gyul Like Minato
    January 20, 2019, 09:21:48 PM
  • protomanex: Gyul like XJin
    January 20, 2019, 09:19:53 PM
  • protomanex: Shout out to man like Crimson
    January 20, 2019, 09:19:44 PM
  • Crimson609: shout out to gyal like Corbie Gonta
    January 20, 2019, 09:19:06 PM
  • cold_187: Why allur don't make a discord or something?
    December 03, 2018, 06:17:38 PM
  • Red Paradox: https://www.twitch.tv/flippay1985 everyday from 6:00pm
    May 29, 2018, 09:40:09 AM
  • Red Paradox: anyone play EA Sports UFC 3.. Looking for a challenge. PSN: Flippay1985 :)
    May 09, 2018, 11:00:52 PM
  • cold_187: @TriniXjin not really, I may have something they need (ssd/ram/mb etc.), hence why I also said "trade" ;)
    February 05, 2018, 10:22:14 AM

SimplePortal 2.3.3 © 2008-2010, SimplePortal