Quote:
Originally Posted by pseudoreality
I disagree. Oil is non-renewable, water is. We don't use water. We just pump it around and contaminate it. There lots of technologies to treat water. They cost money and use energy, but are used in many places in the world. Some engineering will help us adapt to the new world.
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Have you heard of the concept of water scarcity? It's not just happening in Cape Town - it's happening in many parts of continental Africa, India, Iran, Pakistan, and other developing areas. There are many articles on the subject even just doing a quick Google search. This isn't an isolated crisis.
The growing world population will be putting incredible demands on the fresh water supply. Heck, 2.5 billion people on this planet live without adequate access to clean water. In addition to industry and agriculture both increasing their demands, humans are also destroying wetlands and ecosystems that support the cleansing and filtration of freshwater.
There are new technologies, yes, but consider why we haven't come up with a silver-bullet solution yet for urban consumption - desalinization plants are incredibly resource-intensive and cost prohibitive for many governments in their current forms. Everything else just isn't done on a massive scale, or is not economical to deploy to the masses (yet).
We can talk about the abundance of water all day. it's fresh, drinkable, usable water that is the issue that matters - just like oil that is extractable and usable. Apologies if that wasn't implicit in my comment.