Some numbers
At the beginning of this decade the WHO estimated that 1.1 billion people did not have access to clean water. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells us that by 2050 that number will climb to 2 billion, and 3.2 billion in 2080. That’s roughly half the people on Earth. A recent article in Inc. magazine claims that “by 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will face periodic and often severe water shortages,” and that water managers in 36 U.S. states are “predicting significant shortfalls within the next decade.”
Here in Las Vegas those shortages could come as soon as 2010 as the Southern Nevada Water Authority rushes to build a third intake in Lake Mead (which has a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021) while they simultaneously try to get water pumping from the northern part of the state.
If you don’t think global warming is an issue now, just wait fifteen years, turn on your kitchen sink, and see what comes out.
Category: Environment