World’s Water Supply
in Danger from Climate Change
There is virtually no place in the world that won’t be affected by dwindling water reserves caused by dramatic climate change as we watch it unfold in this generation. Many areas of the world already suffer hardship due to lack of clean water. There is a voracious appetite for water on our planet in both poor and rich countries. What’s worse is that it is going to get worse.
The dynamics of atmospheric conditions and their effect on our planet have been studied for a long time now. Environmental study and research present empirical evidence that the weather patterns we have come to think of as ‘normal” are changing quickly. Areas of the world already facing intense competition and growing demand for scarce water supplies will face steadily worsening water supplies in the future. Everywhere, climate change will raise new obstacles to water resource planning and policy development, because the climatic and hydrology patterns of the past will no longer provide a reliable guide to the future.
In this website, the potential impacts of climate change on the world’s water resources are examined. The implications of climate change demand a new way of evaluating water resource planning. Climate change is already encroaching on the world as we know it and we must adopt new strategies to deal with water resources for today and for generations to come.
There are many factors contributing to the decreased supplies of potable water. Unforeseen effects of continuing climate change will continue to emerge and change how we use water. There are already some planning groups that understand that the world’s water supply must be protected. But small groups cannot make a difference single handedly. What is needed is the collaboration of the world’s biggest users of water and the commitment of the population on water conservation. Only by viewing the problem as a societal whole can the challenges of the future be resolved. Education and open forums are needed to ensure that even at the individual level, people need to understand how critical the water shortage is in some of areas of the world and that it is going to get worse. How we have traditionally used water, as though it were an infinite resource will have to change as part of the solution to one of the greatest challenges of our lifetime. Since climate change is already staring us in the face, it is safe to assume that the patterns of the past are not predictors of the future.
Adapting to increasing climate change in the future will depend on the positive changes we can make today and the planning for adaptation of a changed climate in the future. The total effects of climate change remain somewhat as an unknown since climate change is advancing and rather quickly at that. Now is the time to analyze potential effects of climate change and base action plans that that take into account the risk of chaotic climatic changes. There will be a long period while the citizens of the world get used to climate change and how it impacts their daily lives. It is crucial to our future and the generations to come that organizations come together to coordinate strategies for dealing with management of water resources. Even before the community at large understood that climate change will affect how we live, there have been numerous examples of weather extremes, from serious drought to deadly floods. These changes are already apparent as some regions of the globe are undergoing huge changes in weather and resulting in changing landscapes. Lately it is the urban water industry that leads the challenge of water resources affected by climate change. Scientists and environmentalists are using a risk management methodology to plan for the effects of climate change.
Water means life on this planet. The total effects of climate change - water availability, water quality and the added dangers resulting from devastating storms and floods are already pointing the way to potential ill-effects on human beings, animals and the ecosystems that support it all. Analysis being conducted today will improve scientific understanding of climate change on the world’s available water resources. Implementation of new strategies to ensure a water supply in the future must be predicated on unknown future climate change and how well humans adapt to a truly changing planet.
