If the earth is running out of water, can't we make more?

The earth isn't running out of water, it's running out of DRINKABLE water in places where it's needed.

A large part of the problem is population growth in places where water is scarce, Los Angeles and Las Vegas for example.

The other reason is climate change. The Gobi desert is expanding and threatening Beijing, small changes in ocean levels are affecting shore lines and river salinity, and aquifers (underground rivers) are drying up.

The earth has almost as much water now as it did a million years ago, the problem is where ice forms and where rain falls, that changes.

Another problem is that farms, especially near watersheds, are over fertilized and contaminating water supplies for cities. This exaserbates changing rain patterns

We need to learn how to protect our natural resources.

The Earth is not running out of water, and if it were, we would no more be able to make enough to matter, than we can change the mythological global warming.

The earth will never have a water shortage as long as the oceans prevail.

Even if the rivers ran dry, the oceans will provide.

Turning salt water into drinkable water for humans, is not a problem.

Aruba has one of the most elaborate sea water transformation systems in the world.

And, the water tastes great.

The earth isn't running out of anything. It may seem like it, but all water simply goes through the cycle.

The earth is not running out of water. Where do you think it goes, after all?

Three quarters of the planet is covered with water. We're NOT running out of water.

What we're doing is trying to sustain a growing population, now approaching seven BILLION people, without properly caring for and managing what fresh water resources we have.

That, and dealing with such natural occurances as "droughts" and what-not.

Dawn of a thirsty century


By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

The amount of water in the world is limited. The human race, and the other species which share the planet, cannot expect an infinite supply.

Water covers about two-thirds of the Earth's surface, admittedly. But most is too salty for use.

Dry riverbeds border dangerously low water levels at the Shihmen reservoir in Taiwan
Population is rising, but water supplies are not
Only 2.5% of the world's water is not salty, and two-thirds of that is locked up in the icecaps and glaciers.

Of what is left, about 20% is in remote areas, and much of the rest arrives at the wrong time and place, as monsoons and floods.

Humans have available less than 0.08% of all the Earth's water. Yet over the next two decades our use is estimated to increase by about 40%.

Water shortages set to grow

In 1999 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reported that 200 scientists in 50 countries had identified water shortage as one of the two most worrying problems for the new millennium (the other was global warming).

We use about 70% of the water we have in agriculture. But the World Water Council believes that by 2020 we shall need 17% more water than is available if we are to feed the world.

GETTING WORSE
Growing populations
Inefficient irrigation
Pollution
So if we go on as we are, millions more will go to bed hungry and thirsty each night than do so already.

Today, one person in five across the world has no access to safe drinking water, and one in two lacks safe sanitation.

Today, and every day, more than 30,000 children die before reaching their fifth birthdays, killed either by hunger or by easily-preventable diseases.

And adequate safe water is key to good health and a proper diet. In China, for example, it takes 1,000 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of wheat.

Inefficiency behind water crisis

There are several reasons for the water crisis. One is the simple rise in population, and the desire for better living standards.

In China it takes 1,000 tonnes of water to produce one tonne of wheat
Another is the inefficiency of the way we use much of our water. Irrigation allows wastage on a prodigal scale, with the water trickling away or simply evaporating before it can do any good.

And pollution is making more of the water that is available to us unfit for use. The Aral Sea in central Asia is one of the starkest examples of what pollution can do, to the land as well as the water.

Increasingly, governments are seeking to solve their water problems by turning away from reliance on rainfall and surface water, and using subterranean supplies of groundwater instead.

But that is like making constant withdrawals from a bank account without ever paying anything into it.

Looking for solutions

And using up irreplaceable groundwater does not simply mean the depletion of a once-and-for-all resource.

Rivers, wetlands and lakes that depend on it can dry out. Saline seawater can flow in to replace the fresh water that has been pumped out.

Pumping groundwater is like making constant withdrawals from a bank account without ever paying anything into it
And the emptied underground aquifers can be compressed, causing surface subsidence - a problem familiar in Bangkok, Mexico City and Venice.

There are some ways to begin to tackle the problem. Irrigation systems which drip water directly onto plants are one, precision sprinklers another.

There will be scope to plant less water-intensive crops, and perhaps desalination may play a part - though it is energy-hungry and leaves quantities of brine for disposal.

Climate change will probably bring more rain to some regions and less to others, and its overall impact remains uncertain.

But if we are to get through the water crisis, we should heed the UNEP report's reminder that we have only one interdependent planet to share.

It said: "The environment remains largely outside the mainstream of everyday human consciousness, and is still considered an add-on to the fabric of life."

There is always the same amount of water. It recycles.

The world cannot run out of water. The problem is that it's not always in the right place at the right time and it's also often polluted.

The only reason more countries don't make use of desalination of seawater is the cost. At the point where the need outweighs the cost, that is what will be done.

You can drink your urine.

There are desalinization projects on the go for ocean water. But if we poison the environment to a point acid rain will not just be a local problem like in the great lakes mining areas.

The earth is not running out of water, it is running out of fresh water in the right places. Ans water is used in vary large volumes - one common measure is the acre-foot, the amount needed to flood an acre one foot deep. It is very expensive to make clean water out of dirty or salty water, and it is very expensive move water in the quantities needed.

It's not that the Earth is running out of water (or even "fresh water", or even more exclusively "potable water"). After all, rain is fresh and potable, wherever it falls.

The problem is that we are running out of potable water (for humans and animals to drink directly) and fresh water (whether or not potable by humans, but still usable for agriculture, recreation and wildlife and fish habitat) in the AMOUNTS, PLACES and TIMES when and where we would like it.

That is, we are draining aquifers, such as the Oglallala Aquifer that waters the entire US Midwest and the aquifers that serve the western states, notably California, and most especially Southern California. When those are drained to levels that make "mining" water there impractical, then we'll have to find other sources ... or move to where the other sources are.

Those other sources can be existing lakes and rivers (Canada has no real fresh water shortage, after all, and the Great Lakes should never dry up). They can also include storage of the vast amounts of rainwater that fall on the planet EVERY DAY and run nearly unimpeded to the sea. India, for example, is working on civil engineering projects to capture rainwater that has always been allowed to run off during the monsoon season, so that the water can be conserved and used throughout the year. Desalinization is another option for coastal regions.

The water is there; it has always been "there". It's just not always going to be in the same place it has always been, or in the same form.

It's clean fresh water that is becoming scarce. Desalinization and reverse osmosis are options. +3

With enough energy input we can. Desalinization or cleanup by filtration and reverse osmosis. +5

For people with money this will NEVER be a problem, but ordinary working stiiffs will someday pay out the ass for a glass of plain water and forget watering your lawn. That will someday be completely outlawed punishable by death if caught unless you're rich then it's fine.
I live in Texas where you can get fined watering your lawn, but rich people always have lush green lawns. Money talks and fuck everyone else.