What if Fresh Water was the new Oil?

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

This wouldn't be a Province vs Province thing. So stop all your 'we'll pollute your water' mumbo jumbo.

It would be Canada vs USA locally. Water would also be scooped up and shipped in large quantities, for profit, to areas of the world were water is scarce. People from both countries would be pumping Lake Superior water to plants for bottling, etc. There would need to be agreements on water use, which would of course be broken, around the world.

In the USA, places like California, Nevada, Arizona, etc, would be the first to dry up. Ocean water desalinization would become very popular, but expensive of course. Long water pipelines from great lakes would be posed just like all the oil pipelines.

This is where wars will break out when countries like Russia start exerting their pressure on surrounding countries.

Not talking tomorrow, but a couple hundred years from now when the population of Earth explodes even further. Food is scarce, same with water. Need water to grow crops for peoples foods. Snowball effect takes hold and the consumer society starts to crumble.

Water being the next great world commodity is real.

The population of the World is currently at 7.4 billion. Far too many people live in this World.

[Stormer]

I am skeptical of most of these predictions. History is littered with what were once accepted demographic and climate predictions that were widely accepted and now look foolish. The populations of Europe and Japan are already falling and N. America is growing solely due to immigration. Birthrates are falling almost everywhere. Ag tech has meant that the food shortages predicted for decades have never materialized. In fact there are billions less hungry people now than there were a few decades ago.

I can remember when scientists were saying that another ice age was coming. They also said the Prairies was facing perennial droughts, the Antarctic ice cap would melt, polar bears would become extinct and we would have more hurricanes. So far the reverse has happened on all of these.

Edit: Also desalination tech has really progressed. There should be plenty of water for drinking at least. It may never be feasible for irrigation.

[UPP]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

The population of the World is currently at 7.4 billion. Far too many people live in this World.

Actually, we still produce more food than what we can consume on a global scale. We just do a really bad job of distributing our resources.

Of course, the smartest 'solution' to your hypothesis would be to wipe out Americans and Canadians because we consume and waste the most per capita.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by UPP

Actually, we still produce more food than what we can consume on a global scale. We just do a really bad job of distributing our resources.

Of course, the smartest 'solution' to your hypothesis would be to wipe out Americans and Canadians because we consume and waste the most per capita.

We are wiping out species of animals at an alarming rate. The vast majority of the population does don have access to clean drinking water, health care, sanitation, and the freedom to say what they think.

Canadian middle class residents are considered in the top 1% when it comes to quality of life, and standard of living. It's only getting worse. We really do not have an accurate picture of how the world has changed over the last 25 years, until we start living in countries where close to the entire population lives in absolute poverty.

Just look at the Olympic Games in Rio as an example of the negative effects of overpopulation. Pollution, crime, lack of sanitary conditions, zika virus, etc.

[UPP]

Originally Posted by Jets4Life

We are wiping out species of animals at an alarming rate. The vast majority of the population does don have access to clean drinking water, health care, sanitation, and the freedom to say what they think.

Canadian middle class residents are considered in the top 1% when it comes to quality of life, and standard of living. It's only getting worse. We really do not have an accurate picture of how the world has changed over the last 25 years, until we start living in countries where close to the entire population lives in absolute poverty.

Just look at the Olympic Games in Rio as an example of the negative effects of overpopulation. Pollution, crime, lack of sanitary conditions, zika virus, etc.

You're correct with you're first paragraph, but that is not due to overpopulation, but corruption. As far as food production, if we replaced coffee with food crops, most central and south American countries could throw food away at the rate that we do. I've done missionary work in Africa, Mexico, Cuba and Guatemala, and I can tell you, the so-called 1% are an absolute blight on the rest of the world.

[Treesplease]

Originally Posted by UPP

You're correct with you're first paragraph, but that is not due to overpopulation, but corruption. As far as food production, if we replaced coffee with food crops, most central and south American countries could throw food away at the rate that we do. I've done missionary work in Africa, Mexico, Cuba and Guatemala, and I can tell you, the so-called 1% are an absolute blight on the rest of the world.

Whoa!!!!
I'm ok with crapping on oil, the 1%, and overweight North Americans but lay off Coffee.

Its been a while but I have a vague recollection that food wastage in the developing world (including Russia in this) due to inadequate storage facilities and pests like rats led to far more spoilage (of the raw product) of food than the developed world. That North Americans waste far more finished or table ready food - I have no doubt.

[Pinus]

Originally Posted by UPP

You're correct with you're first paragraph, but that is not due to overpopulation, but corruption.

Both issues are part of the problem, yes.

[Jets4Life]

Originally Posted by UPP

You're correct with you're first paragraph, but that is not due to overpopulation, but corruption. As far as food production, if we replaced coffee with food crops, most central and south American countries could throw food away at the rate that we do. I've done missionary work in Africa, Mexico, Cuba and Guatemala, and I can tell you, the so-called 1% are an absolute blight on the rest of the world.

Yeah, human beings have nothing to do with pollution, deforestation, depletion of natural resources (especially water), invasive species, viral epidemics, and toxic levels of fecal matter in much of the bays and freshwater lakes in many countries. Not to mention the extinction of a significant proportion of the World's mammals. Have you seen what is going on in Europe? Millions of people from all over the World are migrating through Europe, trying to seek refuge. They are blocking highways, ripping open semi trailers, and throwing rocks at the drivers. How many of these people are Syrian refugees? 5%? 1%?

The influx of people we are seeing in Europe is a direct result of the population explosion, and the inability of Western Democracy to stop it, as the migrants, often from places where there is not even enough to eat most of the time, let alone jobs and housing, are coming in droves in search of a better life, even though these countries cannot absorb them, as it is a massive strain on their social services.

The UK left the European Union mainly due to this. Luckily we in North America have a huge Ocean separating us from the less fortunate. My worst fear is one country is going to elect a totalitarian regime that will make Hitler and the National Socialists look like saints. Would anyone on this forum have honestly predicted a decade ago that a massive percentage of Americans would support an incompetent, bigoted, and divisive man like Donald Trump? The 2016 US election looks like a better produced episode of the Jerry Springer show.

I ahve a sad feeling that some of the posters who are dismissing my points as ridiculous, have no idea about the history of North American/European nations. Maybe they are in denial. I can't ever recall the American voting public making a hate-filled nutcase, a serious contender for the Presidency. I mean there are riots in the streets along racial lines even worse than what went down in the 60s. And of course, none of this is due to overpopulation, or the strain on the World's resources. Americans must be doing it due to bad weather....