Cracks in the dry bed of the Stevens Creek Reservoir in Cupertino, Calif.
Credit: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
The United Nations reports that we have 15 years to avert a full-blown water crisis and that, by 2030, demand for water will outstrip supply by 40 percent. Five hundred renowned scientists brought together by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that our collective abuse of water has caused the earth to enter a “new geologic age,” a “planetary transformation” akin to the retreat of the glaciers more than 11,000 years ago. Already, they reported, a majority of the world’s population lives within a 30-mile radius of water sources that are badly stressed or running out.
For a long time, we in the Global North, especially North America and Europe, have seen the growing water crisis as an issue of the Global South. Certainly, the grim UN statistics on those without access to water and sanitation have referred mostly to […]
Water is one of those INALIENABLE RIGHTS for everyone in the world and it’s privatization is not acceptable by any standard of moral justice. An equitable solution needs to be found and implemented throughout the world. I knew a man in Florida who had a plan to desalinize ocean water which was pear-reviewed and he even patented the technique (to my dismay, since that would make it profitable). If the governments could implement his idea, we could use the rising waters of the ocean to refill our water tables and possibly solve the water problems for humans and all living beings who need it; humans included. The time has come to utilize his solution, if it really can work.