This month the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published a report which clearly shows extreme water shortages are likely to occur by mid-century in the United States. The report finds that every state in the lower 48 is at risk for water scarcity and the Great Plains and Southwest are likely to face extremely high water shortages.

Researchers at Tetra Tech, a consulting firm used by the federal government and many major corporations, took a look at projected water demands along with renewable water supplies. They calculated what would happen to water supplies under 16 different leading climate models. What they found is that water supplies will dwindle and demand for fresh water will increase.

On the supply side, climate models forecast that many parts of the country will not only have less rainfall, but more of what does make it to the ground from snow or rain will be lost to evapotranspiration (water lost to evaporation and vegetation transpiration). As temperatures rise due to climate change, east Texas, the California Central Valley and the Southeastern states could see five fewer inches of available precipitation each year–what’s left after evapotranspiration. Leaving them even drier than they have been in recent years.

While we’re seeing less water enter the system, we’ll be taking more water withdrawals from aquifers, dams, rivers, and lakes. According to the study, water use in the U.S. is expected to increase by 12.3 percent between 2000 and 2050. The primary uses of fresh water are for agriculture, power plant cooling, and domestic use.

The regions expecting the worst water shortages are already using more water than they receive in rainfall each year. For example, California, the Southwest, and Texas already have water withdrawals over 100 percent of annual rainfall. This means those states use more water than they have.

Another point that needs to be made is that the hardest hit states are also where we grow much of the nation’s fruit, vegetables, and cotton. On the map below, you can see by the dark red colors the counties most at risk for extreme water shortages. The white dots show where the majority of the cotton is grown in the U.S.

While American cotton farmers are methods that put cotton’s water consumption in line with other crops, we may have to choose one day that it’s more important to have food than cotton (as there are other choices for textile fibers). But we won’t be able to rely on other countries to take up the slack and grow our cotton for us.

The top five cotton-producing nations are: China, U.S., India, Pakistan, and Brazil. Together these countries produce almost 84 percent of the global cotton crops. And, with the exception of Brazil, these same nations are also looking at severe water shortages in the short and long term.

Clearly much needs to be done to ensure we’re using water wisely. Conservation methods need to improve, legislation to slow down and reverse climate change is required, and we may have to decide if we want to grow cotton for t-shirts, or food for our tables.

What do you make of the new study and do you think we’ll have to face the day when cotton jeans, linens, and t-shirts are only for the wealthy? Post your thoughts below; we’re interested in what you have to say on this subject.

image credit: Google Earth / NRDC

In this week’s water-related news we find Boston preparing for rising sea levels, ideas from Singapore on managing water stores that are always 40 percent short, how Indians plan their weddings based on venues with clean, ample water supplies, and an editorial by Chevy Chase on the state of our oceans.

preparing for rising seas

The city planners in Boston are looking ahead to a future where rising ocean levels flood significant portions of the city. While Boston has benefited from the ocean, throughout its history Beantown has added to its footprint with landfill, leaving much of the city just above sea level. City leaders are considering a variety of ideas such as changing the entrances to the underground subway and newly built freeways, moving electrical equipment out of downtown basements and onto the roofs, updating zoning laws to discourage construction in high-risk areas, even building massive gates in the bay. And Boston isn’t the only city beginning to this about rising seas. Venice is building sea gates to hold back the tides already.

singapore: a model for water management

Water expert Dr. Peter Gleick takes readers to Singapore for a look at how this small country with 4.5 million people manages its water. For years Singapore has purchased about 40 percent of the water it needs from Malaysia. While the monetary cost of the water hasn’t been a burden, the political and security situation has been. To address the situation and reduce reliance on imported water, Singapore has been working for the last few years to increase conservation, eliminate waste, increase local fresh water capture, and recycle or desalinate water. The country is a model of efficiency; an average citizen of Singapore uses around 40 gallons each day. For comparison, the average Californian uses 130 gallons per day. On the supply side, they are heavily investing in wastewater treatment and recycling plants which could supply as much as 30 percent of their needs. Clearly, the U.S. and other countries could learn a lot from Singapore’s model.

water-caused wedding woes

Wedding-venue wish lists usually include features such as: has a great view, beautiful gardens, or is eco-friendly. Rarely have our readers had to worry if the hall would have enough clean drinking water for the joyous occasion. But this is just what’s happening in some parts of India where water shortages have become all too common. Families in central India are going halls to villages miles away just to ensure there’s plenty of water. According to the Times of India, the family of the groom will specifically ask for a venue that has ample water. And you thought your family had tough requests.

the ocean needs your attention

This past Tuesday was World Oceans Day. Of course, we’re all pretty darn focused on what’s happening with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, so this year people were actually talking about the state of the oceans already. Chevy and Jayni Chase have been educating themselves and others about the perils facing the oceans for a lot longer than the 50 plus days since the Deepwater Horizon exploded on April 20. This week on CNN.com, the Chases wrote an editorial spelling out the issue quite plainly: “Our lack of attention is killing the oceans.” Chevy and Jayni point out that we often don’t consider where our fish come from, what happens when trash makes its way to the open water, or the simple fact that we know more about the moon than we do about the depths of the oceans. They encourage you to take the time and give some of your attention to the oceans. After all, they oceans account for more than 71 percent of the surface of the planet.

Which stories caught your eye this week? Please share them in our comments below.

This week’s water-related news wrap-up has hopeful technology, a conversation about America’s water-wasting ways, struggles over who owns and controls water in Ecuador, and severe drought in Burma not being helped by the military junta.

clean water from common cactus

Treehugger brought an article about how the common prickly pear cactus could give us clean, safe, and cheap drinking water. The story was originally reported in the New Scientist. The process itself if quite simple: you just boil a bit of cactus and then drop it in the contaminated water. There’s more testing to do, but we think this is pretty cool.

photo: ah zut

america’s unquenchable thirst

Minnesota Public Radio program Midday recent guest Robert Glennon believes America’s thirst for water is “Unquenchable.” While we all think of Texas, California and Arizona, but even Minnesota other mid-west states have been facing water shortages. In fact, some cities in Minnesota weren’t able to supply enough water for ethanol refineries and Lake Superior is too low to float fully-loaded cargo ships. We’ve been using so much water that our groundwater pumping is getting out of hand. America is depleting its groundwater at a faster rate than it can be naturally replenished. Just last year, Atlanta was within 90 days of running completely dry. And that’s not all due to drought, but population expansion stressing water resources.

One of the biggest water wasters, according to Glennon, is our sanitation system. Each year America flushes 6 billions gallons of water down the toilet. This water is then sent back to the treatment plant to be used again. The problem is that downstream, say in New Orleans, their drinking water has been run through this cycle many times.

Glennon was also on The Daily Show last year where Jon Stewart points out that our energy policy, even moving to some clean energy technologies, could worsen the crisis.

protests prevent vote on water bill

Columbia University’s Earth Institute just posted an article about the growing water crisis in Ecuador. At the center of the problem is who owns the rights to the country’s water. In 2008, the constitution sited water as a fundamental human right. Since then many people feel this means that water should be a public utility and not privatized. As you can guess, that’s exactly what’s been happening. Over the years the people have been staging protests which have turned violent. Despite the outrage, the legislature has wanted to begin debate on a new “Water Act” that will give even more control to private companies with few guarantees for the population for continued access to clean, affordable water. Protests by Ecuador’s major indigenous organizations, however, seem to have resulted in the session coming to an end without a vote on the bill.

burmese drought

Once again the people of Burma are suffering. This time, record high temperatures and a late monsoon season have dried up wells and other drinking water sources. Some 60 villages are reported to be under severe water shortages. The drought is taking its toll in other ways as well. The severe heat and low water levels have caused some 100,000 fish deaths at fish farms in Rangoon. One article reported that while some local water bottling companies have donated some water, the government hasn’t responded to the crisis. In a related story, the Mekong River is at a 50-year low. Downstream countries are blaming China for building too many dams, but China blames mother nature.

What water stories are you following? Share them in our comments section below.

Every tweet, Facebook post, and news story seems to be talking about the history of Earth Day or tips on what you should do to honor Mother Earth, but are you paying attention? Instead of standing on our soapbox, we thought we’d give you an easy list of things NOT to do as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

1. Take an extra long, very hot shower.
2. Leave on all your appliances and lights, even if you’re not in the room.
3. Drink only bottled water, imported scores you extra points.
4. Throw the anything that can be recycled into the regular trash.
5. Print every email you receive, in color.
6. Drive to work, and be sure to use your biggest vehicle.
7. Buy that cup of $4.00 coffee on the way to the office, and certainly do not bring in your own mug.
8. Eat lunch at a fast food restaurant. Order the extra large size too!
9. Leave your car idling when you run into the dry cleaners.
10. If it’s cold where you live, turn up the heater to 76 degrees.
11. If it’s hot, turn the air conditioner to 68 degrees.
12. Wash a single pair of pants on the full load cycle and use hot water.
13. Tear out the trees in your yard.
14. Plant a huge lawn, especially if you live where it needs to be watered all summer.
15. Spray your yard with toxic weed killers.
16. Buy imported, out of season fruits and vegetables.
17. Bring your sweetheart home a big bunch of flowers flown in from South America.

What else can you think of that we shouldn’t do on Earth Day, or any other day of the year, for that matter?!

photo credits: traffic PMM / shower head Fervent Photographer / exotic fruit Djinn76 / roses George Reyes