Our Global Water Crisis
By
John Scales Avery, New Age Islam
25 March
2023
A Few
Facts
In its
home-page on World Water Day, 2021, the United Nations pointed out the
following facts:
Today, 1 in
3 people live without safe drinking water.
By 2050, up
to 5.7 billion people could be living in areas where water is scarce for at
least one month a year.
Climate-resilient
water supply and sanitation could save the lives of more than 360,000 infants
every year.
If we limit
global warming to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, we could cut
climate-induced water stress by up to 50%.
Extreme
weather has caused more than 90% of major disasters over the last decade.
By 2040,
global energy demand is projected to increase by over 25% and water demand is
expected to increase by more than 50%.
Clearly,
water is a crucial resource, and the future well-being of human society depends
on how well we manage our global supply of fresh water. This will require a
high level of international cooperation and social justice.
Maude
Barlow: Water As A Human Right
In many
countries, large corporations have taken control of water supplies, and are now
selling water at prices that poor citizens cannot afford. Maude Barlow, born in
1947 in Canada, is leading the struggle against the commodification of water.
As the result of her campaign, the United Nations has declared water to be a
human right. This is particularly important at a time when fresh water is
becoming increasingly scarce.
Here are a
few things that Maud Barlow has said:
“Do not
listen to those who say there is nothing you can do to the very real and large
social and environmental issues of our time.”
“Everything
is now for sale. Even those areas of life that we once considered sacred like
health and education, food and water and air and seeds and genes and a
heritage. It is all now for sale.”
“There is
simply no way to overstate the water crisis of the planet today.”
“We are
committed with our lives to building a different model and a different future
for humanity, the Earth, and other species. We have envisaged a moral
alternative to economic globalization and we will not rest until we see it
realized.”
“No
piecemeal solution is going to prevent the collapse of whole societies and
ecosystems ... a radical re-thinking of our values, priorities and political
systems is urgent.”
Falling Water
Tables In China May Cause Famine In Africa
After a
lecture at the University of Copenhagen, Lester R. Brown of the Earth Policy
Institute was asked which resource would be the first to become critically
scarce. Everyone in the audience expected him to say “oil”, but instead he said
“fresh water'”. He went on to explain that falling water tables in China would
soon make China unable to feed its population. This would not cause famine in
China itself because of the strength of the Chinese economy, which would allow
the Chinese to purchase grain on the world market. However, shortages of fresh
water in China would indeed cause famine, for example in Africa, because
Chinese demand for grain would raise prices on the world market beyond the
ability of poor countries to pay.
The Threat
Of A Large-Scale Global Famine
Unless
efforts are made to stabilize and ultimately reduce global population, there is
a serious threat that climate change, population growth, and the end of the
fossil fuel era could combine to produce a large-scale famine by Uthe middle of
the 21st century.
As glaciers
melt in the Himalayas and the Andes, depriving India, China and South America
of summer water supplies; as sea levels rise, drowning fertile rice-growing
regions of Southeast Asia; as droughts reduce the food production of North
America and Southern Europe; as groundwater levels fall in China, India, the
Middle East and the United States; and as high-yield modern agriculture becomes
less possible because fossil fuel inputs are lacking, there is a danger that a
famine involving billions of people, rather than millions, may occur.
------
https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-report-drinking-water
https://countercurrents.org/2023/03/accelerating-change-on-united-nations-world-water-day-2023/?swcfpc=1
My Own
Book On Water
Interested
readers may download and circulate my book on water free of charge from the
following link:
http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Water-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf
Other books
on global problems
Other books
on global problems, and on cultural history may be downloaded free of charge
from the following links:
https://www.johnavery.info/
http://eacpe.org/about-john-scales-avery/
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/global-water-crisis/d/129396
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