Water in a Warming World

During my evening procrastination (it was productive, I swear...) I came across a visually arresting website, marketed as the first Anthropocene educational web portal, developed in 2012 by a series of research programmes and organisations. I'll try to post about different parts of the website in the following weeks, as a break/reward (for you and me!) between some of the more lengthy philosophical posts! For now, if you can spare a mere 4 minutes from your Tuesday night, this short fascinating video from their site on water in the Anthropocene is well worth a watch:

I know I've been a bit critical in regards to the Anthropocene over the last month or so, but this does highlight the impacts humanity has had on a planetary scale on the global water cycle. The video claims we've built 48,000 large dams, drained 50% of global wetlands, use an area the size of Africa for our livestock, and altered integral parts of Earth's water cycle. Anthropogenic climate change is causing wet regions around the world to get wetter, and dry regions to become drier (Niang et al 2014). There is no doubt that humanity's actions on Earth have already changed the way we see and use water on our planet. Big challenges face the human race in the near-future: can we innovate our way out of water shortages? Will we be able to prevent "water wars"? Fundamentally, will we be able to adapt to the world and future we have unintentionally, yet forcefully fabricated?

If the topic of water in a warming world gets you fired up, I'm also the lucky owner of a second blog, looking at how water is impacted in East Africa due to climate change. If you fancy a read, you can visit it here!