Summary for Monday March 29th

Below is a summary of today's lecture provided by Morton and Maya with a few italicized additions and hyperlinks from Prof. Low...

First lecture of The Blue Covenant, by Maude Barlow.

The overuse of water is rapidly decreasing some of the largest aquifers in the world. There are two main types of aquifers – superficial ones which are recharged continuously, and fossil aquifers which are not. The Ogallala aquifer which supplies water to more than one third of American crop irrigation was formed in the last ice age. It is emptied at an alarming rate, and it is not being recharged.

One issue with emptying groundwater reservoirs arises when the void left behind when the water is extracted cannot carry the weight of the ground above, causing the ground to collapse. This leaves large craters behind on the surface. This has happened in several places around the Aral Sea for example (and the video example of extreme water depletion and catastrophic subsidence in South-central Turkey). The Aral Sea is also an example of overuse, since the irresponsible extraction of water from its tributaries lead the lake to shrink to a fraction of its size (10% of what it used to be), leaving formerly vibrant fishing communities stuck in the middle of what is rapidly becoming a desert. What is left of the lake is so saline (21,000 ppm or over 10 times what we decided was drinkable) that most life in it disappeared, since most species are unable to adjust to such an extreme change in environment over only a few decades. In other places, such as Arizona, Northern China and elsewhere, water issues arise because people inhabit arid lands, which cannot support the populations without importing large quantities of water.

Two fifths of the world’s population does not have reliable access to clean water. The WHO estimates that 80% of all illnesses are caused by bad drinking water. In fact, more children die because of water-related issues than any other cause of death for children. This trend is exacerbated by global warming, which is causing increased rates of glacial melt; incidentally, a large quantity of water bodies in the developing world depends on glacial melt. The World Bank, which is the largest developmental aid agency in the world, prefers privatization to deal with water scarcity. However, as Maude Barlow notes, there could be a number of issues with this approach – mainly that for profit companies have a lesser tendency to keep in mind the greater good of the people, which leads to sub-optimal supply. One such example is Cochabamba in Bolivia, but these issues are commonplace all around the world.

Slides shown in lecture today are available as a .pdf on Sakai.

Claire's speaker's notes are available below.

The my maps page has been updated with the locations mentioned in today's lecture.

The reading for Wednesday will be: Global Water Shortage Looms In New Century