lørdag 28. april 2012

Climate change post


Thanks to guest blogger Schalk Cloete!

Check out this very cool animation about water and think a bit about how much we take this precious resource for granted.

Climate change has a massive impact on water security in regions which are dependent on glacial runoff water in the dry season. A large portion of China gets its dry season water from melting glaciers in the Tibetan plateau. Various other countries in Asia, South America and Africa are also dependent on glacial runoff. Unfortunately, due to global warming, vitally important glaciers around the world have already shrunk by 20-80%.

Then there is the effect of our rapid increases in consumption. Agriculture uses about 70% of the global freshwater supply. A juicy 500 g steak, for example, needs a whopping 8000 litres of water to produce. Due to the rapid increase in population and meat consumption, global water demand is projected to exceed supply in two decades' time. Wonder what we will do then…

There are some sound reasons why some doom prophets project WWIII to break out over water. We should do our best to prove them wrong.