More than just a populist phrase: "Water means life"

The new world view

Withered tree on withered ground in the desert

We all come from water. The origin of life began with this molecule and it is this building block that allows our blue planet to exist with its diverse life forms - including us. So water means life - the entire civilization depends on the supply of H2O! But the old world order is crumbling, the redistribution of our elixir of life is accelerating with climate change. And soon, nothing will ever be the same again ...

Decades of observations of water movement, global #water distribution and groundwater by Nasa's Grace satellites prove that #climate changes are making wet areas wetter and dry areas drier. While #floods and #extreme precipitation are now four times more common than 40 years ago, drought regions have more than doubled in that time. And the trend is upward. It is not for nothing that the World Economic Forum declared #water scarcity and its effects as the greatest threat of the near future.

Numerous experts agree that as early as 2050, seven billion people - we currently count a global population of around 7.8 billion - will face the problem of water scarcity on a daily basis. This dramatic shortage of available water will directly affect the inhabitants of probably 60 countries around the world, and indirectly affect each and every one of us. Countries in Europe will also have to deal with the problem of water scarcity in the future.

ATBblog globe — NASA's Grace satellites have been measuring both surface and groundwater reserves on Earth from space for many years

#Groundwater, which has more and better freshwater than all the rivers and lakes in the world, is the most important resource, accounting for 90% of the readily available #freshwater reserves. However, it is hardly managed. Since industrial groundwater extraction began around 100 years ago, many #aquifers have simply been pumped dry; more than half of these aquifers, some of which are huge, have already passed their critical point. Whereas in many places groundwater was found at a depth of 80 meters just a few years ago, today boreholes at a depth of 1,000 meters are often barely sufficient. And drilling is going deeper and deeper, faster and faster. A lucrative business for some, but a disaster for all of us! Because groundwater, some of which is thousands of years old, is already being used up faster than it can be replaced ... and therefore more and more valuable and expensive. We already know that global demand will exceed available #water by 40% in ten years.

So water availability is much more uncertain than we think. Even major cities in rich industrialized countries have been dangerously close to having their taps turned off, and even in Germany, during climate extremes, parts of the population have already had to be supplied by water tankers.

In particular, agricultural fertilization methods and untreated or insufficiently treated wastewater pose the greatest threat to both surface and groundwater in first-world countries like Germany. In many cases, dangerous residues are found in rivers and lakes, #groundwater reservoirs are contaminated and once bubbling wells are salinated. Important reserves thus become unusable ... and we humans victims of our own success.

In our global world, if we don't protect water, it will be our downfall. But we can do it! Of course, there is no panacea - different parts of the world need different strategies. But unlike other threats, the #water crisis is solvable: smart minds, the knowledge and the technologies are there. What is missing is appreciation - appreciation of the molecule we are made of, the fuel of life ... appreciation of water.