Mixing water and oil as global resources dwindle

Washington - More than 1,100 U.S. counties - a full one-third of all counties in the lower 48 states - now face higher risks of water shortages by mid-century as the result of global warming, and more than 400 of these counties will be at extremely high risk for water shortages, based on estimates from a new report by Tetra Tech for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

The report finds that 14 states face an extreme or high risk to water sustainability, or are likely to see limitations on water availability as demand exceeds supply by 2050. These areas include parts of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. In particular, in the Great Plains and Southwest United States, water sustainability is at extreme risk.

Reports on diminishing drinking water tend to contain the following common strands:

• population pressure - demand is increasing all the time, with the global population set to pass 8 billion by 2025;
• increasing pollution - contamination that is effectively decreasing the amount of available drinking water;
• poverty - it’s incredibly expensive to tap new sources of water, and it’s the world’s poorest that are suffering water shortages;
• climate change - many parts of the world are getting dryer;
• mismanagement - much of the water tapped for irrigation leaks or is lost to evaporation; and
• conflict between domestic users - power generation, industry and agriculture - all heavy consumers.

Respected - and greatly missed - peak oil guru Matthew Simmons made, as ever, penetrating observations about declining global resources. His February 2010 presentation, Twin Threats to Resource Scarcity: Oil & Water (PDF 3.41MB), noted the “historical irony” of the intertwining of oil and water. “The two do not mix and we can not get along without both.”

Having noted the global importance of oil, the long-time energy investor notes “water is even more priceless” - as it is central to both food growing and energy generation. “For a century mankind ignored depletion of both precious resources.”