[Pil-pc-oceania] water

[Martin Naylor]

Let it Rain Rain Rain - E.Clapton
   
  It also takes 200 litres of water to produce a 350 ml bottle of water

Hungry for water
22 Mar 2007 15:53:00 GMT
Reuters AlertNet

How much water does it take to produce a cup of tea? More than you 
might
think - about 35 litres (8 gallons). That's because you need buckets of 
the
stuff to grow the tea leaves in the first place. By the same logic, it
takes about 1,450 litres to produce a kilogram of wheat. And a kilo of 
beef
requires up to 15,000 litres, the amount necessary to grow the grain to
feed the cow that ends up in your burger.

Today, on World Water Day, I'm reminded that the international food 
trade
is essentially a form of water trade. If you live where water is 
scarce,
it's more efficient to import sacks of corn than the millions of tonnes 
of
water needed to produce it all yourself. So food becomes a kind of 
virtual
water import.

...With global warming, a ballooning world population and rapid
urbanisation, the stakes are getting higher. By 2025, experts say 3.4
billion people will be living in countries where water is scarce. 
Shortages
will fuel conflicts and trigger mass migrations. Diseases will thrive 
and
multiply amid poor sanitation.

entire article
http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/1564/2007/02/22-155304-1.htm




  At present usage rates the high grade ore bodies currently being mined would last around 80 years. If nuclear power went from providing 16% of the world's elecricity to 80%, then this reduces to 16 years. This suggests that, if lower grade ores are not effectively available,  nuclear electricity has a limited future. It would also imply that expanding nuclear power is counter-productive in terms of combatting greenhouse gas emissions. 


  http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/a-to-z-guide-to-political.html political interference in science
 


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