Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis. This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing. Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore. Without fresh water, we simply cannot function. Just imagine what would happen if the water got cut off in your house and you were not able to go out and buy any. Just think about it. How long would you be able to last? Well, as sources of fresh water all over the globe dry up, we are seeing drought conditions spread. We are starting to see massive "dust storms" in areas where we have never seem them before. Every single year, most of the major deserts around the world are getting bigger and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is becoming smaller. Whether you are aware of this or not, the truth is that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point.
If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas. As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water. We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water. When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.
And yes, it will even happen in the United States too. For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.
Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.
But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.
That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming. The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....
#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have. Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years. Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country. In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie". Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet. If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. We need to start listening to the experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....
"Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."
#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.
#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.
#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen. Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
To learn more about the coming global water crisis, check out the short video posted below....
Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.
That number is going to keep increasing.
Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food. Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.
A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon. The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.
A horrific global water crisis is coming.
You better get ready.
Remember the movie Tank Girl , fighting the evil Water & Power
Long, long ago… around the year 1138 or so, Native Americans called the Hohokam Indians, inhabited the valley where the city of Phoenix, Arizona is located today.
They built extravagant canals and water systems. Pretty primitive stuff for today – (hey, they were extravagant for 1138!)
And then suddenly, they all left. These native peoples just packed up and moved. They left behind a few ruins (Montezuma Castle National Monument in Camp Verde, Arizona, among several others.)
Makes you wonder if our modern 2011-era population will suffer the same fate?
Some future archeologist will come upon the ruins of Circus Circus in Las Vegas, Nevada.
They will look at each other, and say:
“What do you suppose this was? Was it a circus?
“Oh yes! They called it Circus Circus!”
“But a few feet down this pathway.. there is this area called “Circus Maximus”, at a place called “Caesars Palace”.”
“Well, why didn’t they call this place “Circus Circus Circus Maximus”?
“Who knows. 20th Century humans were crazy.”
I have heard people say that the student loan bubble may be imploding soon. This would be catastrophic. Here is an article on this matter:
http://www.mybudget360.com/one-trillion-dollar-student-loan-market-begins-to-implode-student-college-debt-for-profit-debt-lower-wages-higher-costs/
Desalination, though attractive as a proposal to the fresh water supply issue, has its issues. One of them is brine which can be environmentally destructive.
There is also the issue of our oceans turning increasingly acidific as the by-products of our civilization flow into this water system. How do we filter the salt out of the water and how do we reduce the acid in the water?
In case you people are’nt picking up on it, the news is’nt getting any better and it’s about to get a whole lot worse, and sooner than you think. YOUR NORMALCY BIAS IS GOING TO BE THE END OF YOU. Never mind your political views, ask yourselves the more pressing questions of the day, ” Is there a God? And if so what’s he expect of me? You better know what you believe is the truth, and why it is that you believe what you believe because you are about to stand or fall on it. ” Multitudes, Multitudes, in the valley of decision! “….. Joel ch.3
Let’s try the “Gary Solution”: take water away from the rich and redistribute it. Problem solved! Yay!
I am happy to see you are coming around to my way of thinking. I like top believe I am having a positive influence on this site. Given your agreement in principal of taxing the rich and spreading the wealth I am succeeding.
It’s amazing a friend of mine from Texas came here last week where drought is beyond belief he said there are no water restrictions as to rationing the water supply this leads me to believe that a water shortage is something that the elite want. A few years ago the goverment re-wrote the Water Consevation laws they own every drop of water in the US and that includes the ocean and even a mud-hole in your yard, a time will come when you can not even hunt did you know that it was against the law to hunt during the Great Depression. And laws have been in place to put and end to fishing.
I’ve seen stories about China being the largest buyer of water rights in the Western United States, over the past 2 or 3 years. It’s more than just buying up resources. It has everything to do with balance of power. Without water, there is no life.
I guess that’s good, less water, less people.
Good article – also, don’t forget about the situation in Somalia and Djibouti. As Paul pointed out, the ever rising world population certainly doesn’t help. American mainstream media talks about how horrible China’s “One Child Policy” is, even as there’s tremendous pollution in many parts of Asia and millions of Indians have little food or water.
Good reads on the subject of water are Laurence Smith, 2050. Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert. Blue Gold and anything written by Jared Diamond. Wars will be fought over water in less than 2 decades.
The largest body of fresh water in the world is the Antarctic Ice Cap.
What? No mention of the fact that the Northern hemisphere’s rainwater is being contaminated by Japan’s Fukushima? That means crops and animals being contaminated as well. And people.
The article closes by saying “A horrific global water crisis is coming. You better get ready.”
So how do we get ready? Buy desalinators? Seriously.
Move to Paraguay? (The Bush family bought thosands of acres of property over the largest remaing aquafir in the world in Paraguay.)
Times are going to continue to
get harder and harder.
Love your website, read it a few times a week when I see updates. Normally I click on links and they are relevant, but the link provided in #6 is 4 yrs old. The video shows a very low lake, presently, lake lanier is only 4ft below full pool: link, not a drastic amount, esp considering the path hurricanes have been taking this year.
Back in 1998 and 1999 Pennsylvania had a severe drought and a number of people had to have some older water wells re-drilled to a deeper depth. Our drought ended in Sept of 1999 when hurricane flloyd came around and dumped a boatload of rain on us. Our 2 yr drought ended in 1 day. Since then we have had the normal amounts of preciptiation and we haven’t really had any issues.
I think making assumptions based on current weather is not a very smart idea. Look at the monster snowpack in the rockies and sierra this year as an example, many said we wouldn’t see snow like that again. Just a quck search of news produced these 2 items:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_18898152
http://www.expatica.com/ch/news/swiss-news/record-snowfall-in-switzerland-45-cm-in-st-moritz_176497.html
snippet:
Snow fell in the Swiss Alps overnight Sunday to levels unseen for the month of September, Swiss weather agency Meteosuisse reported on Monday.
We are facing global crises from multiple directions… water, food, finance, jobs, energy, bad governments, etc. There is no easy answer. We have to get back to living off what we can produce ourselves, and tread as lightly as we can on the Earth. It won’t be easy, but we are coming to a tipping point. Unless we change and become ready to truly support our own needs – food, water, shelter, clothing, energy – I believe we won’t be able to survive. Life as we have known it is rapidly coming to an end. We have consumed ourselves nearly to death. It is merely a question of are we going to consume ourselves the rest of the way?
Start saving and planting seeds. Make sure you have a high quality water filter that does not require unlimited replacements. Go green whenever you can – especially your energy sources. The time to get ready is now. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Many blessings to you ~ and may peace prevail over all the Earth.
Yes one pretty simple answer is stop the over-population… At the basis of all these problems, we have that fact that we live on a planet with limited resources, and every human uses a certain amount of resources. So if people could just use common sense and limit themselves to maximum one child per individual, we have a balance.
Tell that to the Pakistani gvnmt. 10 kids per woman is far above your minimum.
global change is here and accepted. the point is..yes we are doing something about it- is it enough? will it answer our water crisis as fast as it dries up? save earth and save water.
please conserve water.
Why? It does not make sense.
The only thing which would make a difference is if we stopped spitting _ toxic_ waste everywhere we go.
The coming water crisis was also talked about on a History program “Prophets Of Doom”. How long could current civilization last if it did happen?
Scary stuff!
Well, there are 1 billion more people on the planet every 12 years. And the population of the USA has about the same growth rate as a third world country.
(Data from http://www.cia.gov)
The catholic church in the Philippines is still prohibiting the use of birth control in the country. But they don’t do anything to feed the rapidly growing population.
#2 is FOUR-year-old information. Got anything more up-to-date?
We can’t control the weather, only Mother Nature and HAARP can do that.
And in the case of an economic collapse or EMP attack, municipal water systems may shut down.
So I purchased a Katadyn Expedition Group Filter which can filter 1 gallon per minute from streams, lakes, etc., to have safe drinking water for my family.
I also purchased the Katadyn Pocket Filter as a more portable option.
http://moneycrisisgameplan.com/nitro-pak-water-filters/
Also, the versatile Berkey water filters are the ideal system for use at home, as they effectively remove bacteria, cysts and parasites; chlorine, VOCs and harmful chemicals.
And they’re a must in emergency situations where electricity, water pressure, or treated water may not be available; to clean untreated water from a lake, river, stagnant ponds, etc.
http://moneycrisisgameplan.com/berkey/
It is not that we have too little water, it is the fact we pollute nearly half of it making it unusable. It is not about conservation. It is about stopping the unregulated countries like China from destroying their water and then wanting to buy ours, too. Clean it or lose it. That is the real choice.
And an other ‘right now-er’. What a stupid phrase! Is right now more now than now?
In Sept. 2002 I wrote a 2-page account of the problems of over-population/fresh water. It covers all the important points in the article, but goes beyond. How many people are aware that the 1% of fresh water available on this planet (the rest is ocean water and 10,000 feet of compressed ice on Antartica) comes from the only source of heat for evaporation of ocean water into fresh water – and that is the Sun!! Artificial heat from solar panels to evapaorate sea water, for example, is totally limited.
Thw world is facing a problem of which very, very, few are aware.
It won’t be easy, but we are coming to a tipping point. Unless we change and become ready to truly support our own needs – food, water, shelter, clothing, energy – I believe we won’t be able to survive. Life as we have known it is rapidly coming to an end. We have consumed ourselves nearly to death. It is merely a question of are we going to consume ourselves the rest of the way?
Start saving and planting seeds. Make sure you have a high quality water filter that does not require unlimited replacements. Go green whenever you can – especially your energy sources.
Water wars, its happened before, but ending GOLF courses in the western and southwestern areas of the USA would be a serious start to saving water. Switching from lawns to decorative plants and pebbles ALL over TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, Nevada, Utah and ARIZONA, might also help, car washes in the same areas need to be reserved for special times and at higher costs.
MOVE BACK TO THE GREAT LAKE REGION before the new border wall is built!
WILL EVERYONE P L E A S E WAKE UP – N O W ! THIS IS NOT A JOKE,
FOLKS – this is serious !
Population control is a MUST,NOW and forthwith.No MORE SWIMMING POOLS full of water;no more WASTING WATER ANYWHERE,if you can
help it – PLEASE ! Be VERY SPARTAN in your usages…and DID YOU
KNOW THAT THE ICECAPS R E AL L L Y ARE MELTING ?????CHECK WITH
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY – AND READ,READ AND GET
EDUCATED
The time for blasé life IS OVER,folks.Safe the planet for your grandkids…
VEGAS is still filling those swimming pools. Vegas needs to go away. That would save alot of people in the long run. Oh , but what’s that you say? You love money more than people.