Water wars
November 30th, 02009 by Kirk Citron
The Long News: stories that might still matter fifty, or a hundred, or ten thousand years from now.
The discovery of water on the moon is almost certainly the biggest Long News story of the year; it will make it much easier to build moon colonies, and it provides cheap fuel for travel to the rest of the solar system.
But Liz Brooking suggests we also look at water issues here on earth: three hundred million school children don’t have access to clean water today, and according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 47% of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by the year 02030.
Some recent news stories about water:
1. What water on the moon might mean:
The wet side of the moon
New aluminum-water rocket propellant promising for future space missions
Moon potential goldmine of natural resources
2. Back down to earth:
Water scarcity will create global security concerns
New report on the economics of water scarcity
3. The politics of water:
Arab experts predict Mideast water wars
China enters Central Eurasia’s water wars
UN study advises caution over dams
India faces water crisis as temperatures rise
Africa must act to tackle water crisis
Devastation on a ‘biblical’ scale
4. Some possible solutions:
Carbon nanotubes capture greenhouse gases, desalinate water
The high rise urban farms of the future
We invite you to submit Long News story suggestions here.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 1:52 pm and is filed under Long News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Posted on November 30th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Will there be a pillaging of the moon?
The answer is probably yes.
Posted on December 1st, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Water wars is a scary prospect. Even in an affluent and technologically advanced society there often isn’t adequate supply to meet current use patterns without damaging the watershed.
The system of complex agreements and conflicting rights can make it really difficult to move forward to a better system.
See http://www.green21.org/blog/politics/water-wars-on-the-russian-river/