Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The Politics of Water
In my 2009 book on the Assads, I wrote: "In the Middle East as the century progresses, the politics of water will become as important as the politics of oil." That's not exactly earth shattering news, but this week it surfaced in TIME in a fairly depressing story that looks at Nevada and Australia, among other places where population is overshooting potable water. If you think peak oil is an issue, wait till we hit peak water.
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Much of the water for Central Asia, and a good part of it for South Asia (outside of the monsoon season) comes from glacial melt. Most of those glaciers are going fast. When they're gone, a good part of the globe, most of it already a tinderbox, is going to be mighty thirsty...
Yup. I strongly suspect this will be the Big Problem of our children's lifetimes.
I suspect that with the 2050 global population expected to increase to the equivalent of TWO entirely new Chinas in number, the water crisis will have to just get in line with the rest of the crises and wait its turn.
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