As we recognize another annual World Water Day, let’s take a moment to highlight some of the truths of our current Water Crisis. We’ve talked about the disparity in the water supply, contrasting the availability of water in most places within the US with places where clean water is scarce. We know that without water, our life expectancy and quality of life drops dramatically. In addition to this current reality for billions of people globally, it is important to note that climate change is setting us all up to experience this lack first hand. Not only should we be working to see that those currently without get their needs met in the near future, but we need to realize that without immediate action we are all facing a dire water supply problem. Namely, the danger of running out.
The earth is covered with a bit of water but most of it, over 96% of it in fact, is salt water. Of the remaining 3-4%, 90% of THAT is frozen, stored up in the world’s glaciers and ice caps. The remainder, some small 0.3% of the earth’s total water, is our unevenly distributed usable resource.
If the glaciers are melting, doesn’t that mean that we are freeing up more of that fresh water to be used? Well, temporarily, perhaps, but there are several major problems with that. First, it doesn’t take much to understand that the melted water from the glaciers will raise the world's water level, endangering communities that live along the coasts as they flood and are eventually eroded away. Millions of people live along the coast and this will not only destroy their homes, but displace them to other places, causing a sort of migration and a period of strain as resources will need to be redistributed accordingly around the world. Additionally, a lot of our agricultural heavy hitters like California will lose considerable acreage for food production. The rising water levels will reshape the world’s coastlines and the acreage lost will be significant.
The domino effect of this loss of land is far reaching but there is another more direct result that affects many more than those living along the coast. Glaciers, besides being made of water, serve as a sort of fridge for the water that precipitates as snow during the colder months. During the summer, that snow melts and flows through most of the world’s major rivers and supplies a large portion of seasonal fresh water. If not for this phenomenon, the only water supplied to us would be that from precipitation. Also, due to climate change, we’ve seen a significant uptick in droughts so this issue is eating away at the usable water supply from both ends. If the glaciers melt away completely, something scientists say will happen by 2100 if we continue in our current trend, we will be wholly reliant on precipitation which is also experiencing detrimental changes. Dry weeks, months or even years could be in our future without the benefit of glacial runoff. Sometimes, in the US, it’s easier to forget that clean water is not unlimited. We go to the sink and clear water we could drink (though with PFAS contamination it wouldn't be advisable) comes out. A lot of us can shower everyday if we want and using clean water for yards and plants doesn’t even phase us. This issue though is one that will have serious consequences within our lifetime and may see our children without water for their more basic needs. We need to start realizing that water is a finite resource and without changing our usage practices, we will, essentially, run out!