The Global Crisis of Vanishing Groundwater

[GMDino]

http://www.usatoday.com/pages/interactives/groundwater/

Quote:Much of the planet relies on groundwater. And in places around the world – from the United States to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America – so much water is pumped from the ground that aquifers are being rapidly depleted and wells are going dry.

Groundwater is disappearing beneath cornfields in Kansas, rice paddies in India, asparagus farms in Peru and orange groves in Morocco. As these critical water reserves are pumped beyond their limits, the threats are mounting for people who depend on aquifers to supply agriculture, sustain economies and provide drinking water. In some areas, fields have already turned to dust and farmers are struggling.

Climate change is projected to increase the stresses on water supplies, and heated disputes are erupting in places where those with deep wells can keep pumping and leave others with dry wells. Even as satellite measurements have revealed the problem’s severity on a global scale, many regions have failed to adequately address the problem. Aquifers largely remain unmanaged and unregulated, and water that seeped underground over tens of thousands of years is being gradually used up.

In this project, USA TODAY and The Desert Sun investigate the consequences of this emerging crisis in several of the world’s hotspots of groundwater depletion. These are stories about people on four continents confronting questions of how to safeguard their aquifers for the future – and in some cases, how to cope as the water runs out.

Much more at the link.

[Benton]

It's been a looming problem for a while. And it will only get worse as we continue to have more and more people, which all require more water and more food.

[Mike M (the other one)]

Nothing that a good all out World War can't solve.

[*michaelsean*]

I was thinking all those hurricanes from global warming woukd replenish it.

Actually I have no idea about this.

[Rotobeast]

(12-10-2015, 11:01 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I was thinking all those hurricanes from global warming woukd replenish it.  

Actually I have no idea about this.

I would have thought that all the liberal tears from the Bush era would have done the trick.

[SunsetBengal]

The groundwater isn't "vanquishing", It's just being used in a faster fashion, than is being cycled back into the aquafers. Water never goes away, it is either being used, or it is cycling back into the ground.

The Earth's ecosystem is finite.

[JustWinBaby]

So we're running out of fresh water and the oceans are rising. Solution: desalinization.

Give me something difficult.

[Benton]

(12-11-2015, 01:17 AM)JustWinBaby Wrote: So we're running out of fresh water and the oceans are rising.  Solution: desalinization.

Give me something difficult.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_25859513/nations-largest-ocean-desalination-plant-goes-up-near

Quote:Desalinated water typically costs about $2,000 an acre foot -- roughly the amount of water a family of five uses in a year. The cost is about double that of water obtained from building a new reservoir or recycling wastewater, according to a 2013 study from the state Department of Water Resources.

In the end, like with anything, it boils down to money. $2,000 a year isn't a lot to a lot of people. On the other hand, about 3 billion people exist on about $900 a year. So that would probably put a crimp in their ability to live more than a week.

[JustWinBaby]

(12-11-2015, 12:03 PM)Benton Wrote: In the end, like with anything, it boils down to money. $2,000 a year isn't a lot to a lot of people. On the other hand, about 3 billion people exist on about $900 a year. So that would probably put a crimp in their ability to live more than a week.

All the climate change protocols have significant large costs associated with them, too.  $2000 doesn't sound like anything prohibitive - in comparison to a lot of other "pssing into the wind" costs - for a family of 5.

And as the technology improves, costs come down.  Plus alternative/renewable fuel sources drive the cost down further.