The folks at NASA have discovered a planet in space that may well be headed for desperate trouble.
Scientists had long suspected that humans were taxing the world's underground water supply, but the NASA data was the first detailed assessment to demonstrate that major aquifers were indeed struggling to keep pace with demands from agriculture, growing populations, and industries such as mining. "The situation is quite critical," said Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and principal investigator of the University of California Irvine-led studies. Underground aquifers supply 35 percent of the water used by humans worldwide. Demand is even greater in times of drought. Rain-starved California is currently tapping aquifers for 60 percent of its water use as its rivers and above-ground reservoirs dry up, a steep increase from the usual 40 percent. Some expect water from aquifers will account for virtually every drop of the state's fresh water supply by year end.
It still beggars the imagination that, on Earth, water is going to become a scarce—and, therefore, profitable—commodity. Like gold. Or oil.
The health of the world's aquifers varied widely, mostly dependent on how they were used. In Australia, for example, the Canning Basin in the country's western end had the third-highest rate of depletion in the world. But the Great Artesian Basin to the east was among the healthiest.The difference, the studies found, is likely attributable to heavy gold and iron ore mining and oil and gas exploration near the Canning Basin. Those are water-intensive activities.
Because of all the freedom, naturally, the poorer parts of the world are going to go dry more quickly.
The world's most stressed aquifer — defined as suffering rapid depletion with little or no sign of recharging — was the Arabian Aquifer, a water source used by more than 60 million people. That was followed by the Indus Basin in India and Pakistan, then the Murzuk-Djado Basin in Libya and Niger.
60 million people. Most of whom live in and around deserts.
Also running a negative balance was the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains Aquifer, which stretches across the southeast coast and Florida. But three other aquifers in the middle of the country appeared to be in relatively good shape.
So, what the hell, let's run a tar-sands pipeline through one of them and see what happens.
"We need to get our heads together on how we manage groundwater," he said, "because we're running out of it."
I'm sure there's a market-based solution out there somewhere.