Experts: Warming to cause global water shortages by 2080

[Pale Blue Dot]

Source: USA Today

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Half the world's population could face a shortage of clean water by 2080 because of climate change, experts warned Tuesday.

Wong Poh Poh, a professor at the National University of Singapore, told a regional conference that global warming was disrupting water flow patterns and increasing the severity of floods, droughts and storms — all of which reduce the availability of drinking water.

Wong said the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that as many as 2 billion people won't have sufficient access to clean water by 2050. That figure is expected to rise to 3.2 billion by 2080 — nearly tripling the number who now do without it.

Reduced access to clean water — which refers to water that can be used for drinking, bathing or cooking — forces many villagers in poor countries to walk miles to reach supplies. Others, including those living in urban shanties, suffer from diseases caused by drinking from unclean sources.

At the beginning of the decade, the World Health Organization estimated that 1.1 billion people did not have sufficient access to clean water.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/globalwarming/2008-11-18-climate-change-water-shortages_N.htm?csp=netvibes

[Lautremont]

1. I'm not one to argue with someone called Wong Poh Poh.

That 2080 estimate is farther off than I'd have guessed, though.

[Mari333]

2. I intend to stay right here next to Lake Michigan

luckily I wont be around in 2080. and Im not coming back :)

[Betty]

3. water will be the new oil

imagine the wars that will be fought over water.

[GodlessBiker]

4. Can't we just collect the water from melting glaciers?

[Uncle Joe]

5. I even wonder about the long term impact on the oceans from the growing number

of desalinization plants?

It seems to me this would gradually increase the salt content of the oceans to the point of making them uninhabitable for marine life.

Thanks for the thread, Finnfan.

[truthisfreedom]

6. Hopefully the salt and minerals don't have to be returned to the ocean.

They can likely be removed as solids.

[Uncle Joe]

7. I've wondered what they do with all that, hopefully use it for some

beneficial purpose or if not at least store it in a secure manner.

I keep thinking of the Dead Sea as the worst case scenario on a global scale.

[Barrett808]

8. The brine waste is highly toxic, locally -- but the greatest global threat is ocean acidification

Caused by human CO2 emissions:

http://oceanacidification.wordpress.com

[Uncle Joe]

9. Yes, I knew about the more immediate threat of acidification

but thanks for the link Barrett, you do good work.:thumbsup:

[Barrett808]

11. Thank you for the kind words.

:toast:

[raccoon]

10. I'm glad I won't be around in 2080. nt

[scheming daemons]

12. I'll be dead by then.... and so will my kids, most likely....

But not my future grandkids.

Hopefully we can change course for them.

[cobalt1999]

13. Tell your kids not to have children.

It may not be a pretty future for them.