andthennothing.net

I found the podcast Don Gould – Pure Water 4 All from IT Conversations really interesting.

So, why is water such a problem?

Approximately 76% of earth is water, yet only 2.5% is fresh, and of that over 99% of fresh water is inaccessible (polar ice, etc.) Thus leaves only 0.3% of earth’s water available for all living creatures to share. [...]

Over 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water (65% in Asia, 27% in Africa). Many have to devote several hours every day to retrieving water and water borne pathogens kill more children that any other cause, making unclean water the biggest threat to world health.

The 250 major watersheds worldwide cross political boundaries of at least two nations. Gould echoes the warning of many economists and scientists: The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water, not oil.

The project, Pure Water for All, is aiming for providing water through cheap and low tech grassroots solutions.

Climate is a mystery to me. Not that I have invested a lot of time to unmystify it, but still. The ice ages (bar the Hollywoodized one) have come and gone without our industrialized help. The butterfly makes it hard to know whether changes in temperature and weather is due to our carbon dioxide production, the earth’s normal fluctuations or something else. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not thinking that we shouldn’t do anything about the situation – just that I find it hard to be sure of the causality.

Nevertheless, events like the melting of Siberia makes me worried!

Perhaps I just have to read up some more, but now I don’t have the time since the sun is shining outside for the first time in like four weeks.