Kanook – Tlingit Nation

May – 2010

Water is a chemical mixture that is vital for all known forms of life. One molecule
of water has two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom – hydrogen as
you know is the most common element in our Universe, I hear tell.
Typically water is referred to as being a liquid, but as we all know it has a solid
state, “ice” and a gaseous state, “vapor or steam”. Water by some estimates
covers around 70.8% of the Earth’s surface or some 139,433,450 square miles,
leaving around 57,506,451 square miles for the left and the right to fight over. Most
of our water is found in our oceans and a few other large places, it is estimated that
1.6% of our water is below ground, and in our cloud cover about 0.0001%, the
oceans contain in round figures 97% of the surface water, glaciers and polar caps
2.4%, and our rivers, lakes, and ponds at 0.6%.
As a matter of record, scholars and such, tell us that the single largest freshwater
resource for suitable drinking water is Lake Baikal1 in Siberia, which by the way has
a very low salt and calcium content making it pretty clean. The Antarctic Ice sheet
is estimated to contain 90% of “all” freshwater on Earth, meaning the rest of us
have to make do with the remaining 10%. Today, conservatively the planets
population consumes on a daily basis around 10.3 billion gallons of water, this is
just drinking folks and doesn’t reflect the other uses we have for our freshwater.
Only about 2.75% of the water on Earth is fresh water with great percentage of that
is locked up in ice.
Current estimates put the world’s population growth at some 80 million per year,
pointing to an increased demand for freshwater at some 64 billion cubic meters – a
cubic meter of water equals 264.17 U.S. gallons, so this 64,000,000,000 times
264.17 or 16,906,880,000,000 gallons of water, or about 59 hours of outflow from
the Amazon River. The problem presents itself when it is realized that the some 3
billion people that will be added to our globe by 2050, in their location and the
unavailability of fresh drinkable water. Whereas “most” population growth will
occur in developing countries, and mainly in regions that are already experiencing
water stress and in regions with limited access to “safe” drinking water and just as
serious “adequate” sanitation. Estimates show that 60% of the population growth
between 2008 and 2010 is in sub-Saharan Africa (32%) and in South Asia (30%)

1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Baikal
together these two regions are projected to account for 50% of the world population
in 2100.
By 2050, it is told to us that 22% of the World’s Population will be 60-years-old or
older an increase of 10% from 2005 – in 2050 nearly 50% of the World’s population
will be under the age of 25 – a prime breeding age.
Today the world faces a serious challenge in dealing with migration, illegal and
legal whereas the latest figures reveal that there are 192 million migrants, up from
the 176 million in 2000. In the United States the State of Arizona passed a new law
in their attempt to deal with illegal migrants from Mexico, a new law that is
guaranteed to set new political lines in the sand across the nation. Couple this
change in attitude with the figures now in the press that are telling us the 18 of the
27 world’s largest cities with populations of over 10 million will soon be facing the
largest migration pressures.
In the poor areas of the world, such as the coastal regions of South Asia we can
only sit back and watch this ballooning of population in an already stressed area
when it comes to fresh water.
One of the biggest consumers of water is the production of Energy, which overall
its cost has been increasing steadily since the early 70s – and according to the
latest estimates from the International Energy Agency we will need 60% more
energy in 2030 than in 2020 – this massive expansion will further drain our
freshwater resources. Besides energy we use freshwater in copious amounts to
produce or day-to-day commodities which today amounts to approximately 1,625
billion cubic meters a year, or about 40% of our total freshwater. 80% of this
amount is used in the agricultural products trade with the remaining in the
industrial products segment.
Across the globe water infrastructure is aging, and unfortunately populations no
matter the location is unable to remove funds from their day-to-day existence,
whether by taxes or other methods to bring their water infrastructure up-to-date – a
fact brought home with numerous instances of massive water pipes breaking such
as in Boston the other day. It is estimated that over 50% of all water is lost due
leaking infrastructure – a fact that is not just limited to one particular region of the
world. Riding side-saddle with this problem is the inadequate treatment of our
waste, whereas projections show that globally the costs to keep up with our
sanitation needs to double by 2015 – whereas in under developed countries and
estimated $9.5 billion will need to be spend on their facilities.
As for “safe” drinking water, it is said that 2 in 3 people that survive on less than
$2 per day lack access to safe drinking water, and 1 in 3 who live on less than $1
per day. More than 660 million people without adequate sanitation live on less than
$2 per day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 per day. Today some 1.4
billion (21% of world population) are classified as poor with 44% of them in South
Asia, 24% in sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, 6.5% (91 million) in Latin America
and in the Caribbean around 3.4 million. In Latin America 77% of the total
population live in urban areas, 38% in Africa – figures that are expected to rise
rapidly over the next few decades.
 Lack of water causes at least 10% of the global disease burden suffered today,
whereas in the year 2000 diarrhea accounted for 17% of the 10.6 million deaths in
children younger than 5, and malaria for 8.5%. It is said that 1.4 million children die
each year from preventable diarrhea, and that it is known that ordinary diarrhea
remains the “major” killer among water, sanitation, and hygienic-related diseases,
contributing to 43% of deaths. Again, the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are
the most affected regions. Overall “under-nutrition” is the underlying cause of 53%
of all deaths in young children.
These numbers might not affect directly your particular region, but they do affect
the trend of increasing migration, people who can, running from poverty brought on
by the lack of water and the resources associated with its abundance. We all know
that water usage is not divided equally across the globe with the ten largest users
in volume are India, China, United States, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, Indonesia,
Bangladesh, Mexico and the Russian Federation. Agriculture is by far the largest
primary user of our water, whereas irrigated crops account for 79% of our water
withdrawals, and in some regions accounts for a 90% withdrawal. 20% of the total
water used globally is from under-groundwater sources, a share that is rising rapidly
particularly in the dry areas – such as the Mid-West in the United States.
As the population expands as will the demand for food, and consequently the
demand for water, and as we see today mass migrations will take place chasing the
food, a fact that all the laws in Arizona will not prevent.
As I have mentioned previously, if you believe that the global conflicts today over
oil are devastating wait until war is fought over water – you can already see the
affects of this across the world as countries slam their doors to immigrants, legal
and illegal from other countries. Laws are being created that might reflect other
reasons, but in the end it comes down to the lack of water.

As for Climate Change, as I have mentioned time and time again, our climate will
change it is a fact of life and has happened numerous times in our planets life in the
cosmos, most all of it happened before man built his first fire or drove his SUV’s
down the ribbons of highways crisscrossing our land. Guess what, it may be
happening again, and my belief is that when it happens it will be an unwelcomed
change by a few and a welcomed change to just as many.
Because of the change, wealth will shift, borders will be crossed and wars will once
again be a fact of life. The landscape of life will change and man will be helpless in
stopping it, carbon credits or no carbon credits it will happen. The Blue Marble
itself will survive! Humanity, it will survive albeit maybe in reduced numbers it will
survive. The choice between life and no life actually is a narrow decision, whether
or not you’re ready for the change is a matter of personal preference, albeit during
times of strife the personal preference margin only gets smaller. Wars will happen
over water rights and will spread across the regions of the world where water is
scarce, regions today that have no water will again have water and there will be
regions today that have no water that will never have any water – an example is the
Gobi Desert in China were archeologists are finding perfectly preserved dinosaurs
below the surface of the Desert, that have been there for over 75 million years. If
the desert had any appreciable amount of water during that time the bones would
be long gone.
Warming temperatures will increase the cycle of oceans evaporating and the
formation of clouds, a changing jet stream will happen whereas the flow of air
across our globe will shift, and then we might see increased rainfall in the Sahara
and forests spring up, which will only assist in shifting the brown sand into fertile
land once again.
Archeology has proven that when the Pyramids were constructed along with the
Sphinx the climate was much different in that part of the world than today, lush
green forests and copious amount of rain, and by the way they didn’t have coal
fired power plants nor SUVs hauling the blocks of stone from the quarries to the
building site.
I mention again, there have been some benefits of the Global Warming advocates
running around telling us the “sky is falling”, benefits that see changes in the way
humanity looks at the pollutants they are spewing into our atmosphere. Whereas
whether they increase of decrease the amount of carbon dioxide could be
important, but man has to be a little conceited to believe he is the only species
changing our climate because of CO2 production. But our attention to this condition
has raised our awareness of the clear-cutting of the rainforests, promoted a reduced
dependence on fossil fuels and in general our overall life has been made a bit better
as we have become more conscious of our wasteful living, especially if you live in a
country in the “Western” world that has always demanded more and more from its
environment, which is now changing.
The sky maybe falling, but it not because of man’s effort to increase its weight by
adding more CO2, it is because the water in the lower atmosphere is diminishing
and just maybe it’s going through another cycle of change…think about it before
you run out and purchase a carbon credit to justify you going shopping in your SUV.
Have a good “wet” day!