Looming water crisis simply a management problem
Source: www.newscientist.com
August 20th 2008 (Adapted)

Today's focus on the credit crisis and rising prices for food and oil has temporarily put another global scarcity in the shade: water. The UN predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of us will experience water shortages, with severe lack of water blighting the lives and livelihoods of 1.8 billion. According to the UN World Water Assessment Programme, by 2050, 7 billion people in 60 countries may have to cope with water scarcity. At this year's World Economic Forum, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon recommended that water scarcity should be at the top of the international agenda. “As the global economy grows, so will its thirst,” he said, warning of a future marred by conflicts over water.

There is no doubt that we need to rethink how we use water, especially with the human population growing rapidly, and global warming likely to produce unpredictable patterns of rainfall and drought. Nevertheless, my own research suggests that the situation may not be as dire as many are suggesting. Nations can thrive on surprisingly meagre quantities of fresh water – provided they adopt water-efficient technologies and encourage economic activity that does not guzzle water. I believe the looming water crisis is primarily a problem of distribution and management rather than supply. And we can solve it with existing technologies, increased investment and political will.

Your answer to question must be based on the article below entitled “The accidental environmentalists”:

The accidental environmentalists
Source: www.economist.com
Dec, 11th 2008 (Adapted)

More destructive hurricanes, shrinking forests, melting glaciers, disappearing animals: the prospective damage to Latin America and the Caribbean from climate change makes for grim reading. A new World Bank report, timed to coincide with a United Nations conference in Poland, tries to put numbers to the potential economic cost. By taking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's predictions for what the planet might feel like in 2100 and then overlaying data from several thousand farms situated in regions of varying heat and dryness, it is possible to make some informed guesses about what the effect on crop yields, and therefore on GDP, would be if temperatures rose and rainfall fell.

Some Latin countries are already doing things to reduce net carbon emissions that put them ahead of governments elsewhere. Much of the region's power comes from hydroelectricity and biofuels. The result is that emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of power are 74% lower than in India and China.

There are obstacles to taking these policies further. In Brazil, plans for more hydroelectric dams in the Amazon are opposed by some environmentalists; they claim the resulting flooding of forest prompts methane-producing rotting vegetation.

Your answer to question must be based on the article below entitled “The accidental environmentalists”:

The accidental environmentalists
Source: www.economist.com
Dec, 11th 2008 (Adapted)

More destructive hurricanes, shrinking forests, melting glaciers, disappearing animals: the prospective damage to Latin America and the Caribbean from climate change makes for grim reading. A new World Bank report, timed to coincide with a United Nations conference in Poland, tries to put numbers to the potential economic cost. By taking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's predictions for what the planet might feel like in 2100 and then overlaying data from several thousand farms situated in regions of varying heat and dryness, it is possible to make some informed guesses about what the effect on crop yields, and therefore on GDP, would be if temperatures rose and rainfall fell.

Some Latin countries are already doing things to reduce net carbon emissions that put them ahead of governments elsewhere. Much of the region's power comes from hydroelectricity and biofuels. The result is that emissions of carbon dioxide per unit of power are 74% lower than in India and China.

There are obstacles to taking these policies further. In Brazil, plans for more hydroelectric dams in the Amazon are opposed by some environmentalists; they claim the resulting flooding of forest prompts methane-producing rotting vegetation.

Looming water crisis simply a management problem
Source: www.newscientist.com
August 20th 2008 (Adapted)

Today's focus on the credit crisis and rising prices for food and oil has temporarily put another global scarcity in the shade: water. The UN predicts that by 2025, two-thirds of us will experience water shortages, with severe lack of water blighting the lives and livelihoods of 1.8 billion. According to the UN World Water Assessment Programme, by 2050, 7 billion people in 60 countries may have to cope with water scarcity. At this year's World Economic Forum, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon recommended that water scarcity should be at the top of the international agenda. “As the global economy grows, so will its thirst,” he said, warning of a future marred by conflicts over water.

There is no doubt that we need to rethink how we use water, especially with the human population growing rapidly, and global warming likely to produce unpredictable patterns of rainfall and drought. Nevertheless, my own research suggests that the situation may not be as dire as many are suggesting. Nations can thrive on surprisingly meagre quantities of fresh water – provided they adopt water-efficient technologies and encourage economic activity that does not guzzle water. I believe the looming water crisis is primarily a problem of distribution and management rather than supply. And we can solve it with existing technologies, increased investment and political will.