The trouble with resources: Water (Part 1)

Image courtesy of US Geological Survey

Water is life.

An old rule of thumb says you could last three months without food, three days without water, and three minutes without air. I deal with water first even though we need air more urgently because of air's ubiquitous nature. Obtaining water requires conscious choice, and lacks the sense of urgency of air, so we may tend to put it off if we do not have a strong and immediate sense of thirst. This leads to varying levels of dehydration that create anything from mild memory loss and fever to death, and this just covers the water needed within our bodies to maintain function. We also use water to grow crops and maintain human health through waste conveyance. To understand whether or not we have enough water to support our life, we need to know how much we have available to us, how fast we use it, and how quickly nature makes it available to us again.

Water is a finite resource. Most of us learn about the water cycle (or hydrologic cycle) in school, but do not pay attention to the most interesting consequence of the use of the word "cycle". It reminds us that we do not create water or destroy it through our existence; water merely changes form, and sometimes location, then becomes available to us again, and again. The table below lists data that the image below does a great job of making visual:





The visual only tells part of the story. As we can see in the table, of that 27,000 cubic miles of surface-available freshwater, almost 25% is either in the atmosphere, in swamps or in us, making it immediately unavailable for use. That leaves about 22,000 cubic miles of surface water. According to the American Water Works Association, the average daily direct water use for Americans is 69.3 gallons inside and an additional 280 gallons per day outside. That use covers daily water intake and personal health. Add to that between 2,500 gallons per day of virtual water that goes into the energy, food, and resources we require each day including construction and production of goods. (Remember, that although equivalent daily, per capita water draws for the US are around 1,350 gallons per day, many of the crops and products we consume come from overseas, so we are not limited to our borders when considering the water needed to support our lifestyle.) If 9 billion people used water at that rate, that would total 25 cubic miles of water a day or about 0.1% of our available surface water. Allowing for water in transit (both to us for our use and to wastewater treatment) and for water in the treatment process for return to the surface water stores, we would have 0.3% of our world surface water supply withdrawn each day for our use.

Assuming we can keep up with the treatment of the water - a task that would require construction of thousands of water treatment facilities across the world - we can make choices that allow us to recharge our sources of freshwater at the same rate we use them. With this, and taking into account the fact that several areas of the world have the ability to tap into the 2.5 million cubic miles of ground water, it would appear that our planet has more than enough water to supply 9 billion people living the American lifestyle. So why does water present such a huge challenge, with 2.7 billion people currently short of water and some calling water the "oil of the 21st century".

The answer to that question is availability and quality...location, location, location.

Next week - water availability and quality.

It's our choice

"Nine billion people cannot live the 'American way of life' with the resources currently available on this planet. That means one of two things: either we accept the disparity that must occur, or we must find ways to maintain the value of our standard of living without the resource intensity and environmental degradation that accompanies it. I choose the latter, and recognize that this cannot be a slow, gradual, and conservative change; it requires a sense of urgency because the issues we face grow exponentially in intensity as more people inhabit the planet and look to achieve the stability, comfort, and quality of our way of life."

That statement drives everything I will do in my career until I die. As long as I am able, I will work, speak, write, and even play with the mentality that we can and must find a way to make a high quality of life possible for all people. Whether an individual makes the choice to attain that quality of life should be up to them, but the possibility must be the responsibility of all of us. This blog will serve as one medium through which I try to inspire, advocate, and highlight the opportunities and possibilities available to us. Frequent readers will notice a couple of different threads running through my writing:

1. Humble - Surprising for those who know me, but ownership of ideas and focus on individual inurement stifle progress more than they aid it.

2. Apolitical - Another surprise, but although I welcome and enjoy a great debate on the politics, we too often focus on politics as an end instead of a means. I will focus on the solutions the political arena can pursue, but will not get wrapped up in the blame/antagonism/party politics that too often distracts from the real issue.

3. Scientific - I hope that my work and ideas reach many people - especially those with contrary ideologies and approaches. One area on which I cannot, and will not, abide a discussion is on the matter of science. True science asks a question and observes in order to reach a conclusion on the answer to the question. When pursued correctly, a jury of peers can validate the conclusion and the methods, and another can repeat the science to obtain similar results. Over the course of time, more and more validation and testing will refine the answer...sometimes well beyond the original scope of the question, and sometimes finding a very different understanding of the conclusion. In NO CIRCUMSTANCE, does science desire an outcome and tailor the data to fit that conclusion. I leave that to lawyers and politicians. When I talk of science, I will hold myself and the cited sources to this definition, and ask all others to do the same. Before parroting the words of an "expert", we all need to take the time to evaluate the veracity of their credentials and statements. This does not mean that we cannot reference statements made by others as part of discourse, we just cannot call them science unless they meet that definition.

4. Balanced - This blog will sometimes focus on the arts, or sports, or teaching...or any number of elements of our daily lives. We have grown into a society of specialists, and have far too few people who appreciate the entire palate that society and civilization have to offer. I hope that those who follow will follow will stick with me if something in the blog does not fall into their normal tastes...I promise, to the greatest extent possible, that everything I post will circle back to one of the three themes listed below.

Most blog entries will fall into one of three broad themes:

"The trouble with the world today..." - posts that identify issues of concern including the impact, timing, and source.

"That's the way it should be..." - posts that shed light on solutions that communities have pursued to overcome obstacles.

"In your own backyard..." - stories from our community (the 19th Ward) and the City of Chicago

I hope you enjoy the blog. I welcome any and all feedback that adds value to the discussion and helps to shape our vision for a collective future with high quality of life and low level of fear. Please let your friends and relatives (and even the occasional nemesis) know about the blog. The more voices in the discussion, the better our chances of survival. Remember, it's our choice whether we ignore or address the problem, and it's our choice whether we want a world of equal opportunity.

It's time to make your choice.

Thank you!
Enjoy the journey!
JFC