What To Do About Water Consumption

At an open forum discussion recently, the topic of global warming and the drought were addressed.  Believe it or not, not all people at the meeting were in agreement that there was global warming.  There was one man who said it was just a climate trend, and that it was temporary.  I told him he needs to look at an aerial map of the world and see the mountains without snow, the rivers without water, and glaciers without ice.  What more proof does one need?  What or who is causing it still somewhat debatable (to some) but I think most scientists agree that our problems are man made.  The current drought is a result of global warming, and what we are going to do about it needs to debated and acted on.

In the United States, 80%  of our water usage is for food and agriculture, and in the dry western states, as much as 90% of water usage is for food an agriculture.  World wide, 70% of water usage is for food and agriculture, 23% is used by industry, and a mere 8% is used for municipal use.  So having us cut our water usage by 15%, which is what is now being recommended, is not going to put a dent in the water shortage.  We need to be addressing the use of water for crops and irrigation, and for feeding livestock.  This is where most of the water goes.  It is estimated that as much as 50% of water used for irrigation is wasted due to evaporation or runoff.  We can all take shorter showers, change our landscape to include more drought tolerant plants and less grass, but unless we address the use of water for the growing of crops and raising of agriculture, we're never going to solve the problem.

There are many programs being developed and already in use that recycle water.  This is a good start.  Livestock must have water, and solving that problem seems to be the biggest issue.  If we're going to be a meat eating society, we're going to have to use a lot of water.  I don't think America is going vegetarian any time soon.  We will soon have a desalinization plant in Carlsbad, which will turn salt water into fresh water.  That will help, but right now it's very expensive.  What a project for young, enthusiastic scientists to work on.  We've got lots of smart people out there, and hopefully they will find a solution to our water problem.  In the next decade, water may become as precious as oil unless we find another way to save water and create fresh water for agricultural use.