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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (10470)	5/9/2010 11:40:03 AM
From: Wharf Rat	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24231

Water is the coming crisis Bob Doyle, Columnist Cumberland Times-News By now, many of us are getting jaded about the threats we face. For about a decade, some geologists and oil experts have cautioned that we are at peak oil, having harvested about half of the “easy” oil over the past 150 years. At the rate we are now extracting oil, there may be less than half of a century of available oil left. (Most oil wells when dry leave about half of their oil in the ground.) Then most recently, there have been the threat of global warming. The predictions coming out of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) suggest that in three or four decades, the ocean levels will rise, covering up many coastal cities and low lying areas of densely populated countries (such as Bangladesh and southern China). But there is a crisis coming even sooner involving the most precious resource, absolutely vital to life — water. And when water becomes scarce, there will be inadequate food as plants are pretty thirsty. How can this be, when about 70 percent of our planet is covered by ocean water? Most plants, animals and people can’t drink salt water, needing fresh water. 70 percent of the world’s fresh water is frozen on top of Antarctica. Most of the remaining fresh water is deep inside the Earth in huge underground lakes called aquifers. Only 0.3 percent of the world’s fresh water lies on the surface. Rivers and streams hold only 0.006 percent of the world’s fresh water. Lakes hold 40 times as much fresh water as the rivers. The big problem today is that the food we prefer to eat requires a lot of water to grow. For instance, to harvest a ton of wheat, we need 1,000 tons of water. In the U.S. about 36 percent of the grain we grow is used to feed farm livestock. Of the common livestock we eat, it takes seven pounds of grain to get one pound of beef, three pounds of grain for one pound of pork (now the world’s favorite meat), two pounds of grain for one pound of chicken and a little less than two pounds of grain for one pound of fish from a fish farm (aquaculture as opposed to agriculture on land). So as long as the water is available, we can eat as much meat as we like. (The average American consumes 900 kilograms (about 2,000 pounds) of grain a year through a varied diet of meat, dairy products, bread, fruits and vegetables.) The actual amount of grain we directly consume is about 200 kilograms a year in the form of bread, pastries, buns, pasta, etc. This is about the amount of grain consumed by an average Indian (Asia), who avoids eating meat. To grow this much grain, we need a lot of water, diverting river water for irrigation and pumping down a huge western aquifer that stretches from the Midwest into the western U.S. In some agricultural areas of California, the ground level has dropped 30 feet from excessive draining of aquifers. The Colorado River no longer empties into the Gulf of California (Mexico) as all of its water has been taken by irrigation. Decades from now, when there will be little snow pack in the Northwestern states, some large western rivers will have even less flow, and large U.S. hydroelectric facilities in the West will no longer supply much of their current electric power. Overseas, the water shortages are worse. Yemen’s aquifers around some of its cities are nearly gone. Saudi Arabia is phasing out its wheat crop as its large aquifer will be nearly exhausted in a decade. In upper China, the large fossil aquifer (which is not easily recharged) is being drawn down several meters a year. Near Beijing, water wells go down a kilometer (0.6 mile) to get water for the city’s inhabitants. It is even worse in India as many wells have gone dry and in some regions, half of the electricity is being used to pull up water for people and crops. Widespread shortages of water may lead to huge movements of many millions of people, even crossing international borders to quench their thirst. The moon will be reappearing as a slender crescent in the coming weekend. Venus is a splendid sight in the western dusk. Nearly overhead is the bright golden star Arcturus. Now featured at the Frostburg State Planetarium is “Are There Other Universes?”, a program covering the basics of our universe and the possibility of other universes. Our free public programs will be at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. this Sunday and next. The Planetarium is in Tawes 302, just off the front lobby of Tawes Hall. Please come a little early as it is awkward to seat late comers. Go to our FSU website (www.frostburg.edu) to view a campus map to see Tawes and nearby free parking areas. Bob Doyle invites any readers comments and questions. E-mail him at rdoyle@frostburg.edu . He is available as a speaker on his column topics. times-news.com