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Page added on March 24, 2014
World energy use threatens water
Rising demand for energy, from biofuels to shale gas, is a threat to freshwater supplies, according to a United Nations report released Friday.
The report urged energy companies to do more to limit their use of water in everything from cooling coal-fired power plants to irrigation for crops grown to produce biofuels.
“Demand for energy and freshwater will increase significantly in the coming decades,” U.N. agencies said in the World Water Development Report. “This increase will present big challenges and strain resources in nearly all regions.”
By 2030, the world will need 40 percent more water and 50 percent more energy than now, the report said. Water is under pressure from factors such as a rising population, pollution and droughts, floods and heat waves linked to global warming.
Around the world, about 770 million of the world’s 7 billion people now lack access to safe drinking water, it said. And the energy sector accounts for about 15 percent of water withdrawals from sources such as rivers, lakes and aquifers.
“This interdependence calls for vastly improved cooperation” between water and energy, said UNESCO head Irina Bokova.
The report lamented the water sector’s lack of influence compared to what it called the “great political clout” of energy. March 22 is World Water Day in the U.N. calendar.
All energy production uses water, often as a coolant, it said. The least amount of water is used in wind and solar power, while heavy users include hydraulic fracking to produce shale gas or the extraction of oil from tar sands.
The report said that hydropower dams are sometimes built with little thought for other water users, and it urged caution about biofuels, partly because of water use required for irrigation.
7 Comments on "World energy use threatens water"
Makati1 on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 1:11 am
There is no ‘safe’ drinking water that is not treated. Even a well in farm country can be polluted with nitrogen from the fields above. I had that problem in PA. There were probably other chemicals but it was not tested for them. When I was a kid, 60 years ago, you didn’t have to worry about drinking water from mountain streams. Now, it would be foolish to do so without treating it first.
Davy, Hermann, MO on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 1:12 am
ARTICLE SAID – By 2030, the world will need 40 percent more water and 50 percent more energy than now, the report said. Water is under pressure from factors such as a rising population, pollution and droughts, floods and heat waves linked to global warming.
Here we go again with another prediction on a vital resources that will be impossible to meet. When people read these things what is going on in their heads? There is absolutely no possibility of those kinds of numbers. The above statement should be like a tornado siren we have here in Missouri. If we can’t get a handle on our population I fear nature will.
Newfie on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 1:46 am
Never ending growth is a fairy tale.
Stilgar Wilcox on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 2:40 am
“The report urged energy companies to do more to limit their use of water in everything from cooling coal-fired power plants to irrigation for crops grown to produce biofuels.”
I’ll rest easy now knowing energy companies are being ‘URGED’ to limit water usage. If they hadn’t urged them I would have been worried.
DC on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 3:39 am
How about, World Energy Use Threatens ….Everything.
Kenz300 on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 3:00 pm
Quote — “Water is under pressure from factors such as a rising population, pollution and droughts, floods and heat waves linked to global warming.”
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Over population — endless population growth will only lead to more poverty, suffering and despair.
bobinget on Mon, 24th Mar 2014 3:07 pm
Duct tape slows leaks till there’s time, money and the will to do permanent repairs.
It’s said, ‘hanging concentrates the mind’.
Water shortages, caused by climate change, is already impacting millions of lives across four continents.
There is no ‘rain dance’ solution.
(According to the latest World Bank data, Nigeria had a population of 168,833,776 in 2012, compared with a population of 313,914,040 in the United States.
In 30 years, the world will likely look very different.
“Secular population trends still favor Emerging Markets, as working population growth in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa will easily outpace growth in the West,” says BofA Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett. “Demographic trends in Africa are of particular note with the population of Nigeria set to overtake that of Indonesia’s by 2034, and the US population in 2045.”
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/nigerian-population-to-exceed-us-by-2045-2013-8#ixzz2wtH4cCdI
No iconic ‘peacemaker’ will lead us out of this incredible morass of overpopulation, superstition, ignorance, and denial.
Blaming energy use for water shortages is like blaming the sun for scorching your garden. AG simply cannot exist w/o liquid fuels at this time.
This article and many here also blame “Big AG” for ruining the land and using excess water, fertilizer,
diesel, GMO technology.
“If only we would all go organic”, say my gardening friends while praying for lower prices at the Co/Op.
There is an answer. Forty years ago some of us called it ‘conversion’. IOW’s use so called defense funds to defend us from starvation and anarchy.
When WW/1 (the Great War) closed out it was called, sincerely, “The War to End All Wars”. Today when we reference the first World War in those terms, it’s with irony.
With genuine sincerity here, after the NEXT World War which appears to be looming on a dozen fronts,
survivors will finally see the light. “There are no such things as military solutions”. Our common ‘enemy’
will be too much (salt) water in certain places and next to none where we need salt, pollution free, for survival.
While we wait there are temporary solutions. Some, even longer lasting then duct tape
While technology is already in place for human survival, the world seems to be begging for one more cathartic.