Intensifying agricultural and industrial use of water is also a serious issue. In key parts of India, China, north Africa and the US, groundwater is being pumped out of the aquifers to produce crops faster than it can be replenished. Deeper extraction only delays the end of those resources.
This also affects the global hydrologic cycle, in that so much water is being drawn from below ground that it is estimated to be adding about 25 per cent of the world’s annual sea level rise through evaporation and precipitation. The eventual exhaustion of this water source will affect billions of people, most of them poor, unless current trends are reversed.
It is also worth noting that 10 times more water is used to produce meat than cereals. So the aspiration to generalise the rich world’s diet to everyone and feed an additional three billion people by 2050 would require an extraordinary three times as much of the present global water use in irrigation. That seems unattainable – and unsustainable.
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