Water Shortage and Population Crisis

Two reoccurring, interrelated topics that I have come across are the water shortage and population crisis. It started a few months ago with conversations I had with one of my former Zio's customer Bob W. and my mentor Jason R., then two weeks ago when my friend, Lauren, who went to a conference on Water Supplies in Toronto, then during my BB class meeting in TWC, and then in a Globe and Mail (GAM)(http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090311.wwater0312/BNStory/International/home)article & Population International Growth (PIG)article(http://www.populationaction.org/Publications/Reports/Mapping_the_Future_of_World_Population/Summary.shtml).
The overall concern is that the population is growing too rapidly and the result will be a shortage of water, although there are other factors involved. Consequently, there will be world conflicts over the scarce water supply. Specifically the GAM states that the world population is estimated to grow by 80 million people per year and the UN (in the PIG article) estimates that there will be approx. 7.5 billion - 8.3 billion people worldwide by 2025. This takes into account the predicted population decline in parts of the world, such as Eastern Europe (which is already experiencing decreases), sub-Saharan Africa and South America. It also considers the current, rapid population growth in northern South Asia and eastern Asia. These states take into account the worldwide increase of life expectancy. Moreover, the statistics are the lower-median estimates for the population grown. (Refer to the PIG website for charts projecting this information). The GAM sheds some hard truths about affects the interrelated topics will have on the world. The World Water Development Report notes that it is "[predicted] that by 2030, nearly half of the world's population will be living in areas of high water stress." Thus, new conflict resolution strategies MUST be designed to control global tensions that will arise. (Some of the countries that will be significantly affected are "Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Haiti, Sri Lanka and Colombia". As well, people living on the coast and in urban areas will be greatly affected. Interestingly, a water shortage might also have a negative effect on the economy in "in parts of China, India and Indonesia, and commercial centers in Australia and the western United States". These shortages are linked back to the population and urban growth. An additional cause of the water shortage is agricultural uses. According to the GAM article, 70% of water use by people is linked to raising crops and growing livestock. This is a partial result of our current lifestyle diets that require us to eat a lot of meat, eggs and dairy products. Besides an increase in potential, global conflicts, the water shortage will create more "climate-change refugees"- people displaced due to climate change- and an increase of world disease since ~10% of diseases come from unsanitary water.

This summary is NOT meant to scare you, overwhelm you, or make you pessimistic. I just ask that you merely use this as a learning tool, and that the article will help you become a more aware global citizen. I hope that my BB classmates will reflect on this post and perhaps come up with questions they can pose/ask locals during their placements. From there, I hope that they will be able voice their findings to myself and their blog followers so that we can all increase our knowledge on these topics.

Some additional information and thoughts:

http://www.overpopulation.org/solutions.html brings up some interesting ideas and facts. First of all, it compares the finite resource crisis with sharing a pie: an increasing amount of consumers will put limits on the amount of pie (resources) each person can have. The problem, besides overpopulation, is overconsumption and exploitation. This reminds me of The Pedagody of the Opressed. The developed countries consume/produce an exponential and unnecessary amount of water/emission, while developed countries suffer the most. The moral of the story is that we need to become more efficient when using these resources. This is something that we MUST do as individuals and encourage corporations and our society to do. As discussed during our recent BB class in TWC these goals can be achieved by changing our own live style, i.e., taking alternative trasportation, turning off the water while brushing our teeth, taking shorter and or less frequent showers, unpluging appliances between uses, pouring less chemicals and food down our sinks, etc. By changing our habits, we can lead by example. We can start to encourage others. This can either be done vocally or by simply and silently living our lives. Remember that actions speak louder than words. For those closeted activists, you can attempt to write articles in local newspapers, start facebook groups, or talk to local organizations, i.e., oncampus environmental groups or faculties, churches, schools. My mentor at the school I'm volunteering initiated/founded a composting program last year. Now there are composts in every class in the school. Just like creating new clubs, environmental and or social issues and initiatives can be brought up and acted upon. You just been a little support, a lot of confident, perseverance and "passion" (refering to our last BB meeting at TWC). (Personal or secondary connections also help.) I hope that this has been informative, if not a tad inspirational.

~Georgie