The clearest sign that the human population has outrun the Earth’s ability to support us comes when key resources begin to collapse under the unrelenting pressure of our demands.
"...humanity has become used to thinking about money in terms of an ever-elastic amount of debt that can be extended and renegotiated at will. But water, unlike money, is finite."
This is a crucial point that people today have been mesmerized into ignoring.
While some governments squirm over their fiscal deficits even as they extend them further, no government fusses at all about their national ecological deficits or for that matter the aggregate global eco-deficit. Ecological deficits (caused by overshoot) means that we are depleting the biophysical basis of our own existence. They are therefore vastly more important than mere money deficits/debt but hardly anyone is aware of them.
The water deficit is only one dimension of eco-deficit, but a crucial one. Most people are also unaware of Liebig's Law of the Minimum: any complex system dependent on several essential inputs is limited (and can be taken down) by that single input in least supply. Water along with energy is surely high on the list of 'essential inputs' capable, in its absence, of taking down whole populations.
I am very grateful for this article. I was almost completely unaware of how much water shortage is a crisis globally. I liked very much your comment Julian in an earlier post of mine, when you were saying that humans are not very wise evidenced by all the damage they have caused. I quote your words:
It would seem to me that we really need to bring awareness to the crisis of water shortage, water bankruptcy, etc. so that we can counter the effects of this as much as possible.
What a great read. This is one of the most important problems facing humanity today, we need to act as soon as possible. What concerns me is that all the new technology requires more and more resources, and we just keep growing and growing!
Thank you, Julian, for reminding me that water bankruptcy is a much greater threat to the world civilization than the crossing of the red line of intermediate cruise missiles being used by Ukraine a couple of days ago. Politics and even wars come and go but on an ever-warming planet things will play out according to nature's rules.
I hadn't come across the aspect of water supply as a major issue across the planet before. Just one more thing adding to the big picture. I think the current civilisation is on the brink of collapse, perhaps in a few years.
When you consider all ten of the catastrophic threats to humanity, all of our own making, collapse is more or less inevitable - unless we decide to act together to save ourselves. That's what this Substack is all about. See also: https://humanfuture.org/megarisks
The Club of Rome "projected that shortages in non-renewable resources, combined with agricultural failure (due to lack of water/arable land) and pollution, would lead to a, "sudden and uncontrollable decline" in population and industrial capacity in the first decades of the 21st century.
Brilliantly written as always, Julian. This should be headline news around the world, yet barely makes a dent. Iran's need to relocate their capital away from Tehran due to water shortages was repeated called 'decades of political and infrastructure mismanagement', which completely ignores the wider issue affecting multiple countries.
Much appreciated report on water depletion in a world 3,000 times overpopulated by humans and again as much by our domestic animals, where each adult contains 10gals of water, or 80 lbs., so nearly half our body weight. I have the greatest respect for you and your work, although, apparently, you still lack the courage to face the truth of massive human overpopulation as the driver of ALL of our natural resource depletion problems, including water. Have a blessed day!
"...humanity has become used to thinking about money in terms of an ever-elastic amount of debt that can be extended and renegotiated at will. But water, unlike money, is finite."
This is a crucial point that people today have been mesmerized into ignoring.
While some governments squirm over their fiscal deficits even as they extend them further, no government fusses at all about their national ecological deficits or for that matter the aggregate global eco-deficit. Ecological deficits (caused by overshoot) means that we are depleting the biophysical basis of our own existence. They are therefore vastly more important than mere money deficits/debt but hardly anyone is aware of them.
The water deficit is only one dimension of eco-deficit, but a crucial one. Most people are also unaware of Liebig's Law of the Minimum: any complex system dependent on several essential inputs is limited (and can be taken down) by that single input in least supply. Water along with energy is surely high on the list of 'essential inputs' capable, in its absence, of taking down whole populations.
Hear! Hear!
I am very grateful for this article. I was almost completely unaware of how much water shortage is a crisis globally. I liked very much your comment Julian in an earlier post of mine, when you were saying that humans are not very wise evidenced by all the damage they have caused. I quote your words:
Humans collectively, alas, are not wise - for all our pretensions. Individuals may be - but society at large barely pays them any attention. You may enjoy this short essay: https://cribb.substack.com/p/why-we-should-rename-homo-sapiens
It would seem to me that we really need to bring awareness to the crisis of water shortage, water bankruptcy, etc. so that we can counter the effects of this as much as possible.
What a great read. This is one of the most important problems facing humanity today, we need to act as soon as possible. What concerns me is that all the new technology requires more and more resources, and we just keep growing and growing!
Too many people, consuming too much, on a runaway freight train that can only crash and burn!
The criticism in the article re-Aotearoa NZ is spot on!
Thank you, Julian, for reminding me that water bankruptcy is a much greater threat to the world civilization than the crossing of the red line of intermediate cruise missiles being used by Ukraine a couple of days ago. Politics and even wars come and go but on an ever-warming planet things will play out according to nature's rules.
I hadn't come across the aspect of water supply as a major issue across the planet before. Just one more thing adding to the big picture. I think the current civilisation is on the brink of collapse, perhaps in a few years.
When you consider all ten of the catastrophic threats to humanity, all of our own making, collapse is more or less inevitable - unless we decide to act together to save ourselves. That's what this Substack is all about. See also: https://humanfuture.org/megarisks
The Club of Rome "projected that shortages in non-renewable resources, combined with agricultural failure (due to lack of water/arable land) and pollution, would lead to a, "sudden and uncontrollable decline" in population and industrial capacity in the first decades of the 21st century.
Brilliantly written as always, Julian. This should be headline news around the world, yet barely makes a dent. Iran's need to relocate their capital away from Tehran due to water shortages was repeated called 'decades of political and infrastructure mismanagement', which completely ignores the wider issue affecting multiple countries.
Much appreciated report on water depletion in a world 3,000 times overpopulated by humans and again as much by our domestic animals, where each adult contains 10gals of water, or 80 lbs., so nearly half our body weight. I have the greatest respect for you and your work, although, apparently, you still lack the courage to face the truth of massive human overpopulation as the driver of ALL of our natural resource depletion problems, including water. Have a blessed day!
You must have missed the first paragraph. And about a hundred other times I have addressed the issue of population.