New Delhi: The climate crisis is worsening day by day and reports warning us of the severity of the problem are coming out more and more frequently. A new report by the Global Commission on the Economics of Water published on Thursday says that more than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years. This is because of the rapidly accelerating water crisis occurring mainly due to climate change. The report says how demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40 per cent by the end of the decade as water systems are under “unprecedented stress”. A majority of the world’s population already faces severe water-related problems and this is only going to become worse if we do not take action against the impending scourge of global climate crisis.
Of crises; water, climate and more
The report suggests that earlier estimations of the problem are severely underappreciated. For most places in the world, water needed for daily use is already dwindling. More than 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and around 44 per cent of the global population lacks access to safe sanitation. If we do not address the problem soon, by 2050 water problems will result in about 8 per cent of global GDP being used in this regard. This would then have severe consequences for the world’s food production as well.
Despite the severity of the problem, the United Nations has held only one water conference in the past 50 years. Global interconnectivity to resolve the issue is also lacking. This is despite a spate of studies that have highlighted the problem, and more so around the world.
The problem is outsized in the Indian context as well. According to the Central Water Commission the water level in more than half of the country’s major reservoirs is lower than 40 per cent of their capacity. While India houses 16 per cent of the global population, it only possesses 4 per cent of the world’s fresh water and this problem is only expected to become worse if current trends are followed.
A major root cause of the problem is climate change induced due to human intervention which is causing an increase in the average temperature of the whole earth with time. From the burning of fossil fuels for fulfilling our energy needs to chlorofluorocarbons in refrigerators, all result in the emission of the carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide. The unchecked emission of these gases has destabilised the working of the natural environment to a huge extent and the consequences are now being seen in real time. While climate change affects everyone, the impacts for now are unevenly seen.
The Earth’s water cycle and resources are one of the biggest victims of the problem. The occurrence of foods and drought have become more erratic than ever and this is only going to become worse. This has a direct effect on agriculture and the world’s food resources which are expected to only dwindle, as the current report also says.
The problem does not stop here. Apart from the water and the food, a spate of aspects of the natural environment are also being currently affected by the worsening climate change occurring due to human intervention. Overconsumption, pollution, deforestation, human health, air quality, extinction of species, a lot is being affected. The redressal needs integrated, large scale efforts by the global community before it is too late.
