Archive
30 Reasons A Global Water Crisis Is Approaching
The world is rapidly running out of clean water. Some of the largest lakes and rivers on the globe are being depleted at a very frightening pace, and many of the most important underground aquifers that we depend on to irrigate our crops will soon be gone. At this point, approximately 40 percent of the entire population of the planet has little or no access to clean water, and it is being projected that by 2025 two-thirds of humanity will live in “water-stressed” areas. But most Americans are not too concerned about all of this because they assume that North America has more fresh water than anyone else does. And actually they would be right about that, but the truth is that even North America is rapidly running out of water and it is going to change all of our lives. Today, the most important underground water source in America, the Ogallala Aquifer, is rapidly running dry. The most important lake in the western United States, Lake Mead, is rapidly running dry. The most important river in the western United States, the Colorado River, is rapidly running dry. Putting our heads in the Read more…
Water wars: Shortages may destroy entire nations, warns government report
(NaturalNews) The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) recently released a report entitled Global Water Security that claims water supply issues around the globe will lead to economic instability, civil and international wars, and even the use of water as a weapon in the next several decades. In typical shock-and-awe fashion, the U.S. government paints a grim picture of so-called global warming, water shortages, and other water problems as the causes of major global destabilization, which it also says may be mitigated if certain steps are taken to offset them.
What are these steps, you may ask? As expected, getting the U.S. government involved in water supply issues around the globe is presented as a primary solution. This measure implies, of course, that U.S. models of water management, which include price-gouging the public in the name of water conservation, will also be implemented across the Read more…
Water supplies may run out by 2030 in India: Study
Palmer Drought Severity Index, which assigns positive numbers when conditions are unusually wet for a particular region, and negative numbers when conditions are unusually dry. A reading of -4 or below is considered extreme drought. Regions that are blue or green will likely be at lower risk of drought, while those in the red and purple spectrum could face more unusually extreme drought conditions. (Courtesy Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews, redrawn by UCAR. This image is freely available for media use.
Water supplies will begin running out in critical regions where they support cities, industries and food production — including in India, China and the Middle East — by 2030 due to over-extraction of groundwater, a scientist has warned.
“The world has experienced a boom in groundwater use, more than doubling the rate of extraction between 1960 and 2000 — with usage continuing to soar up to the present,” says Craig Simmons, director of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT).
A recent satellite study has revealed falling groundwater tables in the US, India, China, Middle East and North Africa, where expanding agriculture and cities have increased water demand.
“Groundwater currently makes up about Read more…
Why is George Soros selling gold and buying farmland?
(NaturalNews) Food prices are skyrocketing all across the globe, and there’s no end in sight. The United Nations says food inflation is currently at 30% a year, and the fast-eroding value of the dollar is causing food prices to appear even higher (in contrast to a weakening currency). As the dollar drops in value due to runaway money printing at the Federal Reserve, the cost to import foods from other nations looks to double in just the next two years — and possibly every two years thereafter.
That’s probably why investors around the globe are flocking to farmland as the new growth industry. “Investors are pouring into farmland in the U.S. and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar,” reports Bloomberg magazine (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-…). “A fund controlled by George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, owns 23.4 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA.”
Jim Rogers is also quoted in the same story, saying, “I have frequently told people that one of the best investments in the world will be farmland.”
That’s because demand for food is accelerating even as Read more…
Europe is heading towards a severe water crisis
Image by flaum (source: stock.xchng)A recent study by Matthias Huss, glacier expert at the University of Fribourg, confirms that glaciers play a mayor part in providing water for the major rivers in the Alps.
Although we are not really aware of it, as many other regions of the world, Europe depends greatly on melt water from glaciers for fresh water. The Swiss Alps for example are often called the “water towers of Europe”. With sixty billion of cubic meters of water, Switzerland holds an important part of European fresh water, essential for large rivers and overall water management.
Glaciers store water during wet, cold winters in the form of ice and release that ice during hot summer months in the form of fresh melt water.
With the rise of temperatures the glaciers grow smaller every year and the water shortages in Europe during hot summer months are steadily increasing. Between 1996 and 2006 each year Read more…
Grains Wilt in Dry Europe as England Posts Its Hottest April in 352 Years
Dry, warm weather in Europe may reduce global wheat stockpiles already expected to fall 7.6 percent in the year that ends on May 31, the biggest decline since 2007. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Dry weather in France and Germany and England’s hottest April in at least 352 years are threatening crops across the European Union, producer of a fifth of the world’s wheat.
About 20 percent of average rain fell in the U.K. in April after a dry March, further reducing soil moisture, the Home- Grown Cereals Authority, an industry group, said in an e-mailed report. European wheat and rapeseed crops are “in jeopardy” after an “incredibly dry” April, according to agricultural weather forecaster Martell Crop Projections.
Dry, warm weather in Europe may reduce global wheat stockpiles already expected to fall 7.6 percent in the year that ends on May 31, the biggest decline since 2007. Food prices reached a record in February, driving 44 million people into poverty, and wheat consumption may rise to an all-time high this year. The world “cannot afford” for Europe’s crop to be diminished, Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, said last month.
“The world needs a bumper crop in all grains from the U.S. and from Europe and from Canada or we are in trouble,” Dennis Gartman, an economist and author of The Gartman Letter, said today by e-mail. “The winter wheat crop here is in trouble, and the spring wheat crop in the Dakotas and the Canadian prairies may be very badly delayed and therefore in Read more…
Prepare for the Next Conflict: Water Wars
Every minute, 15 children die from drinking dirty water. Every time you eat a hamburger, you consume 2400 liters of the planet’s fresh water resources — that is the amount of water needed to produce one hamburger. Today poor people are dying from lack of water, while rich people are consuming enormous amounts of water. This water paradox illustrates that we are currently looking at a global water conflict in the making.
We are terrifyingly fast consuming one of the most important and perishable resources of the planet — our water. Global water use has tripled over the last 50 years. The World Bank reports that 80 countries now have water shortages with more than 2.8 billion people living in areas of high water stress. This is expected to rise to 3.9 billion — more than half of Read more…
Billion-plus people to lack water in 2050: study
(AFP)
WASHINGTON – More than one billion urban residents will face serious water shortages by 2050 as climate change worsens effects of urbanization, with Indian cities among the worst hit, a study said Monday.
The shortage threatens sanitation in some of the world’s fastest-growing cities but also poses risks for wildlife if cities pump in water from outside, said the article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study found that under current urbanization trends, by mid-century some 993 million city dwellers will live with less than 100 liters (26 gallons) each day of water each — roughly the amount that fills a personal bathtub — which authors considered the daily minimum.
Adding on the impact of climate change, an additional 100 million people will lack what they Read more…
China spends $1 billion to tackle drought
Beijing (CNN) — China’s government will invest $1 billion to combat a three month drought crippling the country’s north.
The worst drought in six decades threatens to ruin China’s winter harvest, the world’s largest producer of wheat.
To combat it, China’s government plans to spend around 6.7 billion yuan ($1.02 billion) to divert water to affected areas and irrigation facilities according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
Some 2.57 million people and 2.79 million livestock are suffering from drinking water shortages, Xinhua said.
The main affected provinces include Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi, which together account for about 60% of the wheat planted this winter.
The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) issued an alert Tuesday, warning of severe wheat shortages, saying “the ongoing drought is potentially a serious problem.”
According to the FAO the drought is now affecting an area of around 5.16 million hectares, representing two-thirds of China’s wheat production.
Meanwhile the country’s capital Beijing got it first snowfall in more than three months overnight on Wednesday. But the precipitation is unlikely to end the area’s drought, reported Xinhua.
The precipitation followed cloud seeding by the municipal artificial weather intervention office, the agency said.
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
crisisboom
CRISISBOOM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.