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WATER POLITICS

Via Big Picture Agriculture, an interesting graphic from the OECD:

Right now there is a lot in the news about future water shortages because of the World Water Week meeting being held in Stockholm August 26-31, 2012.

The OECD graph above shows how and where water needs will increase by 55 percent between 2000 and 2050 for irrigation, energy, and factories.

IPS reports from the meeting, saying that the U.S. intelligence community is portraying a grim scenario of ethnic conflicts, regional tensions, political instability and mass killings as the world faces water scarcity over the next few decades.

In addition, the Environmental Working Group reminds us that energy extraction in fracking and other future methods require water and much of that water becomes contaminated.

By 2030, it is expected that about half of the world’s population will live in water stressed areas. Countries such as India could face significant interior strife due to inadequate water resources.

Since agriculture is the largest and most inefficient consumer of water, people will be looking towards solutions from the sector both in efficiency and in dietary changes, such as reducing meat consumption