The 3 Ages Of Water & Unruly Waters

Question 1

How much of a % of water humans use today goes towards growing food?

Answer 1

80%. No water means no food

Question 2

If earth’s entire history is condensed to a single day, humans have only been around for how long?

Answer 2

About a minute. A blip

Question 3

Irrigation investments have helped prevent some of the mass starvation forecasted in the last century but…

Answer 3

…the long term stability of these gains is now threatened since we re mining groundwater resources that took thousands of years to accumulate. The depletion of fossil groundwater raises the disturbing possibility that the successes of the Blue-Green Revolution merely delayed a global food crisis

Question 4

Indias population at independence time in 1947 was 340M (about as much as the US reached by 2023). It was mostly agricultural and had unreliable sources of water. Then came…

Answer 4

…the widespread and decentralized development of private tube wells (an American invention) and the large scale pumping of groundwater by millions of Indian farmers

Question 5

In the area encompassing India , Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the volume of groundwater withdrawn for agriculture grew 12x (over 250 cubic KM per yr) in 2020 which is more than…

Answer 5

…the entire flow of the Indus River. India and Pakistan together now lead the world in groundwater use, followed by China and the U.S.

Question 6

Groundwater provides drinking water for…

Answer 6

…2B people

Question 7

Humanity has been trading the long term ecological health of the planet for…

Answer 7

… short term measures of economic wealth. Water kept in rivers and ecosystems is vitally important to the survival of the planet and humanity

Question 8

Asia is home to more than…

Answer 8

…half the world’s population but contains less freshwater than any continent except Antarctica . A fifth of humans lives in China and a sixth in India but China has only 7-% and India has 4%. Within both, water is distributed unevenly

Question 9

What % of Chinas wells contain water unsafe for human consumption?

Answer 9

80%

Question 10

In India, groundwater is poisoned by what?

Answer 10

Fluoride and arsenic. Making much undrinkable and unhealthy due to salinity

Question 11

Monsoon- (simplest def):

Answer 11

Seasonal prevailing wind. Over 70% of total rainfall in S. Asia during 3 months: June-Sept