NASA says the world's aquifers are drying up .

Happyflowerlady

Happyflowerlady

Vagabond Flowerchild
Location
Northern Alabama
Over half of the aquifers in the world are going dry, according to the latest NASA report. The world has 37 major underground aquifers, and at least 21 of those are drying up, and are now past the point of no return.
Many of the aquifers are in heavily-populated areas of the world, and the aquifers are their only pure supply of water in many cases, because so many of the rivers and lakes have become too polluted to provide drinkable water.
As the water supplies diminish, famine will become even more widespread, and less crops will be able to be grown to feed people.
Even drinking water will be scarce, and what little is left, will probably be expensive and regulated by the local governments of the areas that get water from the aquifers.


Due to the longtime drought in California, they are now relying on the aquifers for about 60% of their drinking water, where it used to be only about 40%, so this is a pretty dramatic increase.
California has already started water rationing, and other places may soon be following suit as the water supplies in the aquifers continue to dwindle.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...s-show-how-the-world-is-running-out-of-water/
 

Last edited:
If present conditions continue to exist, it will not be many more years before Fresh Water will be the New Gold. Just a few days ago, there was an article on the Internet that said that in some places in Central California, so much water has been drawn out of the aquifers that the ground has sunk almost 30 feet. In the Central US, the grain belt, from Nebraska to Northern Texas, is fed by the Ogallala Aquifer, and so much water has been drawn out of it for the corn and wheat crops that it may be dry in another 20 years. Couple that with the disappearing glaciers which supply water to 100's of millions, and it is easy to see that a water crisis is not that far into the future.
 
From the sounds of it, a water and a food crisis. See, this is why I was so annoyed when my daughter first told me she was pregnant with the first one! Took six months to get over being annoyed. I've always been a worrier although I am better now than I used to be.

But my youngest decided very early to never have kids (she liked her freedom too much even back then) and the older daughter was always awful with kids of every age. Couldn't stand them. So I was glad because even back then and before climate change and water shortages because topics of routine conversation, that I wouldn't have to 'worry' about grandkids and their futures. And now here we are, actual fears and concerns about water failure and food scarcity even on this continent now, not just Africa.

Hard to not worry when you hear things like that.
 
It's not the lack of rainfall...rather it is the extremes in the abundance/lack of precipitation...depending upon which area. In the U.S., the Western states are drying up, while the Midwest and Eastern States are being flooded. The long term answer lies in capturing the excessive precipitation, and moving it, somehow, to areas where it is sorely needed. Perhaps we need a WPA type project to build pipelines, etc., to get this water to areas where it is needed. Something that massive would certainly help our unemployment picture....and money better spent than trying to police the world.

Here, in the center of the country, we are usually in pretty good shape insofar as water is concerned. This month, we have had almost 8 inches of rain, and Tropical storm Bill is due to move through tonight/tomorrow, and drop another 2 to 5 inches. Most of that water will eventually find its way to the Mississippi River, and into the Gulf. One days worth of water down the Mississippi would probably take care of California for a year.
 
seems to me.. with 3/4 of the earth covered with water... this shouldn't be a problem. They need to figure out how to get the water from where it is to where they need it.
 
QuickSilver said:
seems to me.. with 3/4 of the earth covered with water... this shouldn't be a problem. They need to figure out how to get the water from where it is to where they need it.
Click to expand...

That's Exactly what we should be working on. Everyone knows that parts of the country are drying up, while others are soaking. A major Push on rebuilding our infrastructure...with water relocation as part of the equation...would go a long way towards insuring the well being of future generations. At the same time, these massive projects would created vast numbers of good paying jobs, and improve our overall economy. Things like this would certainly be a far better use of taxpayer dollars than funding our War Machine.
 
Don M. said:
That's Exactly what we should be working on. Everyone knows that parts of the country are drying up, while others are soaking. A major Push on rebuilding our infrastructure...with water relocation as part of the equation...would go a long way towards insuring the well being of future generations. At the same time, these massive projects would created vast numbers of good paying jobs, and improve our overall economy. Things like this would certainly be a far better use of taxpayer dollars than funding our War Machine.
Click to expand...


But that costs money.... and we wouldn't be able to give tax cuts to the top 1% if we start spending money to help the average American.. would we..
 
Major projects like this would Certainly cost money....but the long term benfits would more than pay for any such "investments". The First thing we need to do is start "firing" these career politicians who are only interested in serving the needs of their wealthy campaign financiers. Our leaders, in years past, seemed to have the ability to look towards the future....now, all these clowns can do is plan for their next election.
 
Don M. said:
Major projects like this would Certainly cost money....but the long term benfits would more than pay for any such "investments". The First thing we need to do is start "firing" these career politicians who are only interested in serving the needs of their wealthy campaign financiers. Our leaders, in years past, seemed to have the ability to look towards the future....now, all these clowns can do is plan for their next election.
Click to expand...


Very true, Don, and as the years go by I think your idea of moving water is very likely, as are many more drastic changes we'll have to deal with due to climate change.
 
I think that the moving water to where it is needed could be done here in the United States, and would definitely help solve the water problem. California is drying up, while nearby Texas was flooding. Even though that flood water is not drinkable, it would certainly have worked for irrigation if it could somehow be moved to where the drought is.
It looks like some of the other places where they have the shortages of good water are in countries where it might be hard to get water piped in to, some of the ones on the map seem to be drying up all around, unline what our portion of the map shows. There are really large areas where there is not much water.
Sadly, California has also started forced shutdown of water now. Places where they have had water rights for over 100 years are having their water cut off, and this includes communities, not just the farmers. One town near Tracy, has about two days supply of water for the whole development of upper class homes there.
The farmers are in an even worse position. they have planted their crops, and are now having the water shut off; so much of the crops will be lost. If they had known this spring, they could have jut not planted the crops, and saved at least some of the money.
Even worse, the United States visa system is shut down because of a serious computer problem; so migrant workers who usually come up from Mexico to harvest these crops can not come across the border, even though they have a visa. That means that any crops which are already mature and ready for harvest are also going to waste for lack of workers to harvest them.
I think this is going to be a bad year for food, what with all of the chickens being destroyed, and thus no more eggs being produced in those areas, and now the possible loss of fruit and vegetable crops in California as well.
We are already importing eggs from the Netherlands; and will soon have to be importing vegetables from somewhere , too, if this cannot be fixed in time.
 
An estimated 35 TRILLION gallons of rain water has been dumped on the state of Texas in the Month of May!!!! Ending our 5 year drought..
 
Are Californians still watering lawns, washing down cemented areas, taking baths and showers every single day, refilling their swimming pools, carefully rationing water usage every day?
Also are they saving every drop of rain water in water tanks? (as is done in Australia.)
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top