As my colleague Matt Mills [link url=”https://amuedge.com/edm-tuesday-briefing-water-shortages-rise-globally-air-strikes-continue-in-syria-severe-winter-storms-linger/” title=”noted yesterday“], the issue of water access and humanity is a serious one: As noted in the New York Times, [link url=”http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/13/science/two-thirds-of-the-world-faces-severe-water-shortages.html” title=”two-thirds of the world faces severe water shortages“]. The may enclosed in the article is truly frightening. There are two basic types of water that come into play, and in order to make quality public decisions, it’s important to understand the difference.
Fossil water
The first type of water is commonly called fossil water. It’s water that has been trapped deep in the earth millennia ago, and as civilization developed, we drilled wells to tap into the resource. Some very large cities across the globe are built over fossil water aquifers.
The issue that has never been really thought out is that of depletion vs. replenishment. It would in theory be possible to calculate the rate of replenishment and base the size of the city constructed overtop so that they balance. But we do not do, or even consider, population control for that purpose, and much of the red on the map is caused by this lack of foresight.
Replenishment water
The second type is commonly called replenishment water. That’s what fills our rivers and lakes, replenished by rainfall and flowing to the sea in an endless cycle. As before, in developing our civilization, we tried to make replenishment water more controllable, through construction of dams and levees.
However, as we’ve also discussed in these pages at length, we have not fully understood the consequences of our actions, resulting in destruction of valuable food-producing ecosystems. As before, the solution would be to right-size the communities built alongside rivers and lakes so that the ecosystem is minimally impacted, but we don’t think that way.
Drought, coming to a neighborhood near you
We are going to need to begin thinking like that. If you don’t believe, look at the map again. Drought is coming to a neighborhood near you. And if not drought, then depletion, pollution, etc., will also contribute to the seriousness of this issue. To help you begin to think through the process, the following TED talk is offered: [link url=”http://www.ted.com/talks/fahad_al_attiya_a_country_with_no_water” title=”A Country with no Water“]
There but for the grace of circumstance go we.
Check out TED talks on other subjects that we’ve discussed as well. They’re an awesome resource.
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