'Clear Human Fingerprints' Found by NASA Study of Increasingly Dire Global Water Shortages

[riversedge]

I think of the small grandkids when I see these pics and wonder......




Wednesday, May 16, 2018




'Clear Human Fingerprints' Found by NASA Study of Increasingly Dire Global Water Shortages
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/16/clear-human-fingerprints-found-nasa-study-increasingly-dire-global-water-shortages

"This report is a warning and an insight into a future threat."



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The Aral Sea, seen in a NASA satellite image, in 2000 on the left versus 2017 on the right. (Image: Modis/Terra/NASA)

With a first-of-its-kind satellite study, NASA scientists have identified more than 30 parts of the globe where the depletion of freshwater has been most dramatic, largely due to human activity and the climate crisis.

Parts of India, the Middle East, Australia, the Arctic, Antarctica, and California were among the places pointed out in the new study published in Nature on Wednesday, as areas where an overuse of groundwater resources from irrigation, agricultural, and industry projects, as well as the loss of glaciers and ice sheets, have led to water shortages.

NASA has identified more than 30 hotspots where freshwater is in particular dangerNASA has identified more than 30 hotspots where freshwater is in particular danger

The findings showed a "clear human fingerprint" on the drying out of the Earth, the authors of the report told the Guardian.

Aside from the warming planet's effect on rapidly melting polar ice, the extraction of water from rivers like those that feed into the Aral Sea in Central Asia, for the purposes of farming and industrial use, have resulted in dramatic losses of freshwater.

Over-extraction has been especially problematic in parts of India and China, according to the study, causing a rapid decline in the availability of water despite normal rainfall levels........................................................

Link to tweet

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

1. ......

Wait until the Great Lakes start drying up like this. In our lifetime we may start to noticeably see it.

[ProudLib72]

2. Wait until the Ogallala aquifer dries up

Then we return to the Dustbowl. Maybe everyone should watch Ken Burns' series to decide if they want that.

Sorry for getting a little OT. It's all this talk about big agriculture being hurt by the trade war while it is big agriculture that will vanish in about a decade after that water is depleted.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. I guess the Trump administration didn't about this study

They'd have shut it down.

[BlueJac]

4. K&R

[Achilleaze]

5. "We are making a killing by monetizing water. Ha ha." - republicans, inc.

"No money, no drink. Now f*ck off, you poverty-stricken animals." - republicans, Inc.