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The Global Water Crisis Will Shake Humanity To Its Core [Charts]

Gus Lubin

2012-06-06T18:39:00Z

mauritania

You don't hear much about the water crisis in the United States. Water is still cheap here and our borders contain a relatively large freshwater supply.

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But in some places the crisis is in flames.

1.6 billion people live in regions with absolute water scarcity and by 2025 two-thirds of the world's population could be living under water stressed conditions. And it's just getting worse.

Late energy analyst Matthew Simmons warned this was scarier than peak oil: "As global population grows, water usage has to rise for sanitation, food production and modern energy creation. It is unclear whether this can happen."

The following slides contain alarming charts and maps. You can also check out guides from from Citi and Jefferies on how to invest in water scarcity.

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Global water use has quadrupled in the past century. This trend is NOT abating.

chart

Most of the world's major river basins face high stress levels

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Americans use the most water per person. Guess what happens when the rest of the world becomes equally "developed."

In terms of net water consumption, Europe imports hundreds of billions of cubic meters of water per year

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Chinese water demand will exceed supply by 25 percent in 2030

In fact most of China has less water than the sandy Middle East

map

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40% of children in much of Africa and India have stunted growth, due to unclean water and malnutrition

Population is surging in places where water pressure is already high

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India WILL run out of water by 2050

chart

The Arab World is already depleting non-renewable water aquifers

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"A shortage of water resources could spell increased conflicts in the future. Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon." -- Ban Ki-moon

ban ki-moon

Will these be the battle lines of the world's next wars?

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Ground zero of the conflict may be in between Bangladesh, India, Indochina and Pakistan

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Meanwhile drought severity has drastically increased over the past 100 years

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Peak water = peak food

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Check out the first foods that will disappear in a global water crisis >

China

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