Is fresh water ending in the World? No, but we've got problems

Published in Linkedit: Is fresh water ending in the World? No, but we've got problems

Current humanity has got enough knowledge and technical to convert salt water into fresh water. Global water doesn’t change its amount, and sea water we can convert in continental water as we want. But there is a little problem: is expensive.

Water is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust, as I said in “Water”, which is the why that life is based on it, summarize to have other physic-chemical properties that make it unique, which makes it invaluable; although its abundance relegates it to have a residual value. Brazil somewhat smaller than Europe, and it has a patchwork of climates, however its position in Ecuador it has got a rainforest in main part of its territory, yet there are also deserts. The Brazilian population lives mainly on the coast with high densities of population, but they haven't water problems because they live so close to a forest. Until today, the Sao Paolo region is experiencing an unprecedented drought in the area, which begins to put the capital supply problems. Most alarming is that the culture of the area with respect to water's total disregard for the drought, make it go to waste as stocks continue to decline.

The causes of this drought are several. On one side Brazil is literally devastating their rainforest, this is starting to show in the rainfall pattern. But there is something more alarming and no tractate question which is playing, however nobody sees or wants to see. Brazil now has 200 million habitants, but in 1990 was less than 160 million, this is a 25% of increase in just two decades, and in that time the infrastructure hasn’t time to adapt. How neither does the climate, both Brazilian and global population grows exponentially but the average annual rainfall on the planet has not grown in the last century as one would expect if the climate doesn't change.

J. S. Famiglietti et alt. have been published in Nature ("The overall groundwater crisis" 29/10/2014) work about the collapse of the natural sources of water. We are predators of natural fresh water. Drought doesn’t make problems to the humans and their economic interests, but nature is also without the precious mineral to live. Today not only suffer from drought areas traditionally its rains are irregular and scanty, but areas that never suffered this problem are facing it. The causes that produce it are diverse, as I mentioned, being among them Climate Change. Although Climate Change as such is often more consequence than a cause. For example Lake Chad disappears as it happens at the Aral Sea, both cases are the result of man's hand; people improved collection techniques and improved water use crops, thereby improved life expectancy and accelerating population growth. Both cases water from these two lakes has become part of people, livestock and crops in the region; without evaporation of water from these lakes no rain.

To have fresh water is only a technical problem and also economic. If we want to desalinate sea water, we need a great amount of energy in any kind of method that we use. Cost for supply all the human needs is unattainable; better don’t think what is cost of supply whole nature. Luckily Sun is the main machine of generate fresh water, but if we continue to increase the consumption of water in nature, nature will can’t give scope, as it begins to happen. We often forget that we couldn’t survive without nature. Just as an example bee crisis in Europe, it not only is ruining beekeepers, without bees there is no pollination and crops. Desalinating water is an option, but not the solution.

The world population reached 7,000 million in 2011, in 2014 only three years later we are already 7,300 million; considering that in 1970 there were only 3,600 million, the half of current, and world had reached 1,000 million in the first half of the nineteenth century, governments and any kind of global agencies are taking conscience the size of problem. The water crisis has much related with the population that an area can support than Climate Change or other environment trouble, but when the territory is the whole planet the situation becomes dramatic. It’s true that there are still many empty areas and territories that have plenty of fresh water, although the rates that we grow these are becoming less. Urgently address the problem of overpopulation, whether for religious or economic reasons always they look to other site.