Post by exile on Apr 7, 2023 20:52:16 GMT 1
pcpa
I am not sure it is as bad as cernunnos suggests but the effects are there.
To make clear, with a planet that is 70% covered in water the problem is not a shortage of water. The problem is a shortage of usable (ska drinking quality) water in the places it is needed.
In our little commune, 120 years ago, a few mountain sources satisfied a population 3 times the current one. In the last few years we have had more and more restrictive uses of water during dry periods for a population of 1/3rd that of the past - but I would grant an expanded summer population. Our worst (in my limited experience) occurrence was 5 or so years ago, when we went from no restriction on 1/6 to full restrictions on water use before 21/6. Those restrictions stayed in place until 31/1 the following year.
Following that, plans were put in place to augment our supply from the Rhone valley with a pumped supply. The result - full water restrictions last summer, despite an augmented supply.
The point here is that being high up, our catchment area for the springs is quite small and reliant on regular (annual) rainfall. Indeed reliant on regular and steady winter snowfall. That has been becoming notably less and less reliable in the short period we have been living here. We planned ( and still plan) to be cut off for several days each winter. The last time that happened was 2019 and that was November rather than winter proper.
Here it just hasn't rained/snowed like it used to do. Total rainfall across the world will not have changed - indeed may have increased a bit. But if it rains a bit more in the Pacific Ocean that does not solve the drinking water issue. If instead of falling regularly over a year - a bit more this month than last - it falls with 50% in 3-4 days where most runs off and disappears into river and then the seas (rather than sinking into the ground and refilling the aquafers), we do have a problem even if the amount overall has not changed.
These are the sort of observations we are seeing.
We can continue to survive and will draw water as required - perhaps in restricted circumstances but we will contue to survive. Elsewhere
that will be much more difficult.
I am not sure it is as bad as cernunnos suggests but the effects are there.
To make clear, with a planet that is 70% covered in water the problem is not a shortage of water. The problem is a shortage of usable (ska drinking quality) water in the places it is needed.
In our little commune, 120 years ago, a few mountain sources satisfied a population 3 times the current one. In the last few years we have had more and more restrictive uses of water during dry periods for a population of 1/3rd that of the past - but I would grant an expanded summer population. Our worst (in my limited experience) occurrence was 5 or so years ago, when we went from no restriction on 1/6 to full restrictions on water use before 21/6. Those restrictions stayed in place until 31/1 the following year.
Following that, plans were put in place to augment our supply from the Rhone valley with a pumped supply. The result - full water restrictions last summer, despite an augmented supply.
The point here is that being high up, our catchment area for the springs is quite small and reliant on regular (annual) rainfall. Indeed reliant on regular and steady winter snowfall. That has been becoming notably less and less reliable in the short period we have been living here. We planned ( and still plan) to be cut off for several days each winter. The last time that happened was 2019 and that was November rather than winter proper.
Here it just hasn't rained/snowed like it used to do. Total rainfall across the world will not have changed - indeed may have increased a bit. But if it rains a bit more in the Pacific Ocean that does not solve the drinking water issue. If instead of falling regularly over a year - a bit more this month than last - it falls with 50% in 3-4 days where most runs off and disappears into river and then the seas (rather than sinking into the ground and refilling the aquafers), we do have a problem even if the amount overall has not changed.
These are the sort of observations we are seeing.
We can continue to survive and will draw water as required - perhaps in restricted circumstances but we will contue to survive. Elsewhere
that will be much more difficult.