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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/16/global-water-crisis-food-production-at-risk>
"More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within
the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet,
unless urgent action is taken to conserve water resources and end the
destruction of the ecosystems on which our fresh water depends, experts have
warned in a landmark review.
Half the world’s population already faces water scarcity, and that number is
set to rise as the climate crisis worsens, according to a report from the
Global Commission on the Economics of Water published on Thursday.
Demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40% by the end of the decade,
because the world’s water systems are being put under “unprecedented stress”,
the report found.
The commission found that governments and experts have vastly underestimated
the amount of water needed for people to have decent lives. While 50 to 100
litres a day are required for each person’s health and hygiene, in fact people
require about 4,000 litres a day in order to have adequate nutrition and a
dignified life. For most regions, that volume cannot be achieved locally, so
people are dependent on trade – in food, clothing and consumer goods – to meet
their needs.
Some countries benefit more than others from “green water”, which is soil
moisture that is necessary for food production, as opposed to “blue water” from
rivers and lakes. The report found that water moves around the world in
“atmospheric rivers” which transport moisture from one region to another.
About half the world’s rainfall over land comes from healthy vegetation in
ecosystems that transpires water back into the atmosphere and generates clouds
that then move downwind. China and Russia are the main beneficiaries of these
“atmospheric river” systems, while India and Brazil are the major exporters, as
their landmass supports the flow of green water to other regions. Between 40%
and 60% of the source of fresh water rainfall is generated from neighbouring
land use.
“The Chinese economy depends on sustainable forest management in Ukraine,
Kazakhstan and the Baltic region,” said Prof Johan Rockström, the director of
the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and one of the co-chairs of
the commission. “You can make the same case for Brazil supplying fresh water to
Argentina. This interconnectedness just shows that we have to place fresh water
in the global economy as a global common good.”
Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the president of Singapore and a co-chair of the
commission, said countries must start cooperating on the management of water
resources before it was too late.
“We have to think radically about how we are going to preserve the sources of
fresh water, how we are going to use it far more efficiently, and how we are
going to be able to have access to fresh water available to every community,
including the vulnerable – in other words, how we preserve equity [between rich
and poor],” Shanmugaratnam said."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
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mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
