The World's Freshwater Shortage
As though there are not more than enough problems facing the world. There was a time (was it all that long ago?), when we felt that overpopulation was a looming threat. That as the world population continued to grow exponentially, there would be an ever-increasing shortage of sustenance and space. The most heavily populated countries in the world like India and China undertook energetic measures to educate, cajole, entice and finally bully their citizens to reconsider their intent to produce large families.That was difficult. Agrarian societies have always depended on large families to produce those badly-needed extra hands to work the farm, bring in the harvest, look after their elders, since the state certainly did not and would not. First there were incentives to sterilization, and when that proved less than successful there were forced sterilizations. Something must have worked; the birth rates in both countries did drop.
But the world is now focused on another issue, that of environmental degradation, where poverty-stricken populations needing fuel take it from their jungles and forests, enabling deserts to overtake their geographies. Where affluent societies burn fossil fuels at an alarming rate polluting their air and wreaking havoc in the general environment. In fact, effluent from coal-fired furnaces in India and China send their particulate matter remarkable distances across the Pacific into North America.
Mankind dirties its nest in the most incredible ways. Now we learn that about 41% of the world's population live in threatened river systems and already 20% of the 10,000 species of fresh-water animals and plants are extinct. Upsetting the delicate balance of nature, that very same nature that seems to most of us to be so alarmingly robust when it sends us catastrophic storm systems that wreak havoc with delta areas which no human habitation should depend upon.
A report just issued by the World Wildlife Fund tells us that "In the last 50 years, we have altered ecosystems more rapidly and extensively than in any other period in history. Physical alteration, habitat loss and degradation, water extraction, over-exploitation, pollution and the introduction of invasive species threaten the planet's freshwater ecosystems". The report lists ten of the most threatened river systems in the world, flowing across six continents.
The lives of people and the wildlife that inhabit those regions are vulnerable to the lack of freshwater availability. The ten most endangered river basins are the Danube, Yangtze, Rio Grande, Salween, Nile, Indus, Ganges, Plata, Mekong and Murray-Darling. These represent river systems that have suffered extensive damage, and freshwater networks likely to be dramatically altered over the coming decade.
Many of them have already lost a major portion of their wetlands and floodplains. In some of these systems large dams are being planned for; the resulting landscape alteration proving potentially disastrous for wildlife. Water extraction for agriculture, industry and domestic use is such a problem for the Rio Grande and the Ganges that shortages occur downstream. The disappearance of Himalayan glaciers will further deleteriously affect the Ganges and the Indus.
In Australia, introduced species outcompeting native fish place its Murray and Darling river systems under pressure. That island country is currently undergoing a dreadful drought and large herds of camels are going berserk with the dying pain of lack of water. Their native fish stock have seen a 90% reduction in numbers over the past two centuries. Overfishing in the Mekong delta is cited as another problem; and Canada has already reaped the harvest of its collapsed cod stock.
Economic development at an ever increasing scale has been blamed for the deterioration of the Yangtze which was once so clear that details at the bottom were readily visible. It is now so degraded that it cannot be used for drinking. Nature has been strained to the point where it can no longer recover as readily as it was once able to do. A colossal freshwater crisis is developing around the world, a catastrophic event that nations must face and deal with for critical remediation.
"Conservation of rivers and wetlands and security of water flows must be seen as part and parcel of national security, health and economic success."
Labels: Realities
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 20, 2007
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