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filosoful OP t1_jcjd0ub wrote

Landmark report urges overhaul of wasteful water practices around world on eve of crucial UN summit

The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40% by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit.

Governments must urgently stop subsidising the extraction and overuse of water through misdirected agricultural subsidies, and industries from mining to manufacturing must be made to overhaul their wasteful practices, according to a landmark report on the economics of water.

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FuturologyBot t1_jcjf557 wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/filosoful:

Landmark report urges overhaul of wasteful water practices around world on eve of crucial UN summit

The world is facing an imminent water crisis, with demand expected to outstrip the supply of fresh water by 40% by the end of this decade, experts have said on the eve of a crucial UN water summit.

Governments must urgently stop subsidising the extraction and overuse of water through misdirected agricultural subsidies, and industries from mining to manufacturing must be made to overhaul their wasteful practices, according to a landmark report on the economics of water.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/11tjlos/global_fresh_water_demand_will_outstrip_supply_by/jcjd0ub/

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manicdee33 t1_jcji9nr wrote

I have to laugh when the response to "demand will outstrip supply" is "we need to be more efficient about water use" without addressing the endlessly climbing demand.

Too many humans. Too much consumption. Not enough natural resources.

We need to look for ways to slow population growth, such as making life so awful that people either won't have the time to have children or they will actively decide to not procreate because the world is too messed up to bring children into it.

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Admiralty86 t1_jcjiion wrote

Seems you could have a barge offshore of a country, with a nuclear reactor, which powers reverse osmosis and pumps the fresh water onshore,

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MrZwink t1_jcjjx4c wrote

We will never outstrip supply, people will drop like flies bringing demand back down.

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thec0letra1n t1_jcjl4f6 wrote

Replying to manicdee33 (#2,251,561)

All of the evidence points to population growth slowing down naturally. Most of the advanced economies are experiencing it right now, but just offsetting with immigration.

What this article (accurately) points out, is that agriculture and industry are enormous consumers of water - many times greater than personal usage. There are huge efficiencies to be made by re-engineering some of those processes, however, I'm skeptical because that may involve a hit to the bottom line and we couldn't have those shareholders struggling.

Look at the UK, not a single new fresh water reservoir built since water supply was privatised, despite the population growing significantly. We don't have a water problem, we don't have a population problem, we have a capitalism problem

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jdragun2 t1_jcjmz6k wrote

Replying to filosoful (#2,251,371)

We were all taught that this would happen starting almost thirty five years ago in school. Shocked Pikachu faces shouldn't be a reaction by anyone.

Happy to live where we get fucking obliterated by snow fall every damned year and it's getting worse with global climate change. at least fresh water won't be an issue where we live. Keeping other people from other areas away from it sure as hell may turn into one though.

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Sea_Ad_3765 t1_jcjs2n0 wrote

We have desalinization tech that has already solved the problem. Oceans have trace minerals that add to the value of the process. We seem to BS. this whole idea with the bean counters claiming it costs too much. How much do you think it costs to send a gallon of water up in space? Sailboats have small desalinization systems on board now.

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Apprehensive-Cry-824 t1_jcjuexs wrote

Replying to thec0letra1n (#2,251,658)

Exactly. It's corporations, big agriculture that's consuming by far the vast majority of water where I'm at, NOT the everyday family. We can't let them convince us we the people are the problem when theyre the ones over consuming simply because they own the land/royalties. Not fair to give themselves a free pass and put the responsibility on everyday ppl. But hey that's american oligarchy.

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blu_stingray t1_jcjwexs wrote

Affordable large scale desalination and investment in fresh water conservation and reclamation, as well as sustainable agriculture practices would be the solution.

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Surur t1_jcjwxtm wrote

If this graphic is true, it clearly shows agriculture, which uses 95% of the water, should be the main target, and even a 5% reduction in their use would double the amount of water available to cities and industry.

Why are we even talking about anything else?

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trash_burner12 t1_jcjxu86 wrote

we can't really change our ways. We're basically a big macro-organism. Our best chance is techno-evolving to drink ocean water.

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DreamSmuggler t1_jck09pj wrote

Replying to manicdee33 (#2,251,561)

This is sounding a lot like that speech Bill Gates gave years ago where he said that, (can't remember exact quote) with birth control and vaccinations we could reduce the world population by 10%-15%. As such I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or are as demented as Billy boy there. Hopefully the former 🤞

Where I work we use hundreds of thousands of litres of water a day just to produce fizzy poisons for people to drink with their meals. Seems to me all the 'experts' always throw everything on us. Turn the lights off, drive less, eat less, use less plastic, while the whole time multi-billion dollar corporations giggle all the way to the bank with government subsidies and tax breaks.

It's a pretty fucked up world. I'm glad I had my kids already. I know a lot of people who've given up on a future generation after the last 2-3 years

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drewbles82 t1_jck2atd wrote

Replying to blu_stingray (#2,252,143)

completely agree but the way most governments work around the world is they won't build anything till people start dying...this stuff should have been built years ago and they can use wave/offshore wind to power it

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sudoku7 t1_jck675p wrote

Replying to blu_stingray (#2,252,143)

I would prioritize the agricultural reforms over desalination. Not that we don’t need to do both, but desalination by itself is going to mask the problem and introduce additional environmental costs.

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ImmaBlackgul t1_jckbw9y wrote

Why is everything suddenly a crisis and in need of “urgent” fixing?!

It’s quite ridiculous that there is absolutely no oversight whatsoever for commercial use of natural resources in the beginning and then 20, 30, 100 years later “we” need to fix it! “We” didn’t break it so why “we” need to fix it.

The people who broke it need to fix it, so send the alarm bells directly to them.

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BuddhaChrist_ideas t1_jckccsa wrote

Replying to Surur (#2,252,163)

I wonder if huge shifts to indoor / tower / hydroponic farming would help to mitigate some of the water losses. Also reducing our dependency on meat / dairy, as they seem to be fairly water dependent.

There have to be options, as we can't just stop producing food; but I'm sure we could change our practices and reduce waste water by a large margin.

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Doctor_Box t1_jckdanp wrote

Animal agriculture is hugely wasteful and resource intensive. Luckily lab grown meat and precision fermentation is coming online to hopefully mitigate a lot of the damage since people cannot be bothered to change habits.

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MotorballPlayer99 t1_jckddxj wrote

So some countries that had extreme population growth over the past 20 years will shrink or at least stop growing.

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StarfleetGo t1_jcku0q7 wrote

That is because private companies and individuals bought up the fresh water access across the planet. The supply scarcity will be purely artificial.

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sabres_guy t1_jcku2e3 wrote

Replying to Surur (#2,252,163)

That would be seen as going after farmers and business and a ton of people worldwide would instantly and instinctively kick back hard at even the notion when brought up politically.

Just talking about and creating a 10 year plan for reduction of fertilizer use in Canada brought huge backlash and more than a lot of misunderstanding about what the plan even was. Didn't matter though more than enough people saw it as destroying the food chain and then that's all it was viewed as within months.

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dragonhold24 t1_jckvtqe wrote

(if ture) Pro-Human Response: Israeli-style desalination plants & Artificial lakes

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FlyingLeadMonster t1_jckw4zw wrote

I just searched for the pools in Mallorca and they have close to 50k... 17 pools made per week in the last seven years WTF?

Don't make pools at 25 yards of the coast ffs

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Drisken t1_jckx36e wrote

Can't wait to spend 99 Eddies on a gallon of REAL WATER

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THEBIGREDAPE t1_jcl3ox4 wrote

Only in the arid areas. North Western Europe will be fine.

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Geologist_Present t1_jcl4eur wrote

There are so many things we can do to easily lower water use. I hope we do those things.

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marmatag t1_jcl5b90 wrote

Bill Mahr did a talk about this. California has some really wasteful practices especially in agriculture. Like growing tons and tons of almonds. It’s just wasteful.

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BCI-- t1_jclhjm8 wrote

Future resource worth more than oil and we give it away to nestle for them to sell it back to us.

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daddymusic t1_jclm3ub wrote

K… how bout everyone gets one of those bamboo structures that pulls h2o out of the atmosphere?

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jdragun2 t1_jclv5o7 wrote

Replying to ThisElder_Millennial (#2,254,570)

On the nose my man. My brother lives near Canada in NY, my sister near the great lakes, and we are up in the mountains of NH. Actually my house is in a glacial valley, at the basin surrounded by three mountains. so even when they get 6 inches five miles in any direction, we will always get 8 to 12. And the temp in winter is always ten degrees colder than any direction in five miles too. We really get shit on here. My siblings get Lake Effect snow that's just as bad. At least water won't be an issue for us. Lol.

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420BigDawg_ t1_jclvmgr wrote

Can anyone tell me how lab grown meat is doing? Is it almost a thing?

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Criticalhit_jk t1_jclyyls wrote

Replying to Surur (#2,253,129)

So this blatant disregard for others, right? Access to water isn't exactly a new issue, so why has everybody gone the "we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" route till now

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goldgrae t1_jcmap1o wrote

Replying to anengineerandacat (#2,256,544)

This just isn't true. Yes, there are some horrible agricultural practices and messed up incentives around water use and crop production, but there is a reason California is a bread basket and a locus of agricultural research and development -- water can be moved economically, whereas sunlight, soil and climate can't.

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ThisElder_Millennial t1_jcmgm41 wrote

Replying to jdragun2 (#2,256,310)

I was like, hmmm... place in North America that's rarely in drought, has access to lots of fresh water, and people can legit bitch about that heavy white bullshit that falls from the sky. It's either this or that.

Full honesty, I was thinking you might be a Yooper.

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M4err0w t1_jcmn1sx wrote

how much longer will it hold if we burn down nestle?

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fishy2sea t1_jcmrhvz wrote

Only cause energy will be free, governments and people need something else to control....

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BilkySup t1_jcms5t3 wrote

Replying to goldgrae (#2,257,172)

Exactly. The northern part of Canada has so much fresh water but the growing season is less than 3-4 months while California has almost a year round season between Salinas and Oxnard. Cost effective Desalination is the how this problem can be solved. Also, stopping companies from taking the water from CA for bottled water needs to stop ASAP

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ImmaBlackgul t1_jcmwco0 wrote

Replying to AppropriateAd8937 (#2,258,338)

Well that’s true, they’re not going to do jack and the ones doing the damage 100 years ago are also dead. I’ve often wondered when malls closed down, why the mall owner isn’t made to tear it down and plant trees. Politicians are lame, weak, and lack any imagination whatsoever.

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NeoKingEndymion t1_jcn0vvp wrote

People need to go vegan. Lots of water is used for animal ag. We dont need animal ag.

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norbertus t1_jcn1bje wrote

If so, then fracking will not be the key to American energy independence.

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TheMadBug t1_jcnbth0 wrote

Replying to gamereiker (#2,257,566)

I know almonds get a deservedly bad wrap, but out of all the things you might pour into your coffee or cereal, cow milk is the least water efficient by almost double compared to almonds.

Granted Soy is on a whole different level of efficiency - but the overall message is meat and dairy are the biggest offenders if you want to fix things.

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Benzo446 t1_jcng4lh wrote

Surely reverse osmosis plants would help to some degree, coupled with neighbouring sodium ion battery facilities nearby to make production mutually beneficial (If initial power came from renewable sources).

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kaminaowner2 t1_jco1lf8 wrote

We know how to fix this problem, it’s literally our own stupidity that even makes it a problem. Things will get bad, but it’ll be fixed as soon as the middle class are uncomfortable enough. It’s the poor that have the most to lose.

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rileyoneill t1_jco3xat wrote

Replying to NeoKingEndymion (#2,258,651)

The new precision fermentation processes will be able to make animal products, particularly ingredients used by the food industry, which will be able to produce meats and dairy using a tiny fraction of resources as today's animal livestock processes.

In the future, pretty much everyone will be a vegan, but we will eat things that looks like, and taste exactly like meat and milk.

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36-3 t1_jco4dn8 wrote

This was projected back around 1990. The US defense dept commissioned a study on climate change. Aside from the increased temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns and the changes to the Gulf Stream etc., it predicted serious fresh water shortages that might lead to "water wars". Maybe Paolo Bacigalupi's "Water Knife" isn't too far fetched.

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rileyoneill t1_jco5f9j wrote

Replying to norbertus (#2,258,679)

Fracking as what we did in the past, Solar, Wind, and Battery are dominating new investment and will be displacing fossil fuels. We will soon hit a critical adoption in electric transportation where the overall oil used for miles every year is declining consistently every year. Meaning, not only do we have all the oil infrastructure we will ever need in North America, but we actually have too much. All of our oil infrastructure will produce more oil than we need and prices will crash as a glut is built up.

When investors can no longer make money investing into oil the entire industry will go into trauma mode.

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thenamelessone7 t1_jdqsvat wrote

Just start eating 20-30% less meat and we are set for water usage.

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