Saturday, April 14, 2012
Saturday, September 17, 2011
25 Signs That A Horrific Global Water Crisis Is Coming
25 Signs That A Horrific Global Water Crisis Is Coming
Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis. This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing. Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore. Without fresh water, we simply cannot function. Just imagine what would happen if the water got cut off in your house and you were not able to go out and buy any. Just think about it. How long would you be able to last? Well, as sources of fresh water all over the globe dry up, we are seeing drought conditions spread. We are starting to see massive "dust storms" in areas where we have never seem them before. Every single year, most of the major deserts around the world are getting bigger and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is becoming smaller. Whether you are aware of this or not, the truth is that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point.
If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas. As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water. We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water. When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.
And yes, it will even happen in the United States too. For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.
Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.
But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.
That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming. The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....
#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have. Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years. Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country. In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie". Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet. If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. We need to start listening to the experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....
"Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."
#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.
#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.
#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen. Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.
That number is going to keep increasing.
Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food. Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.
A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon. The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.
A horrific global water crisis is coming.
You better get ready.
Every single day, we are getting closer to a horrific global water crisis. This world was blessed with an awesome amount of fresh water, but because of our foolishness it is rapidly disappearing. Rivers, lakes and major underground aquifers all over the globe are drying up, and many of the fresh water sources that we still have available are so incredibly polluted that we simply cannot use them anymore. Without fresh water, we simply cannot function. Just imagine what would happen if the water got cut off in your house and you were not able to go out and buy any. Just think about it. How long would you be able to last? Well, as sources of fresh water all over the globe dry up, we are seeing drought conditions spread. We are starting to see massive "dust storms" in areas where we have never seem them before. Every single year, most of the major deserts around the world are getting bigger and the amount of usable agricultural land in most areas is becoming smaller. Whether you are aware of this or not, the truth is that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point.
If dramatic changes are not made soon, in the years ahead water shortages are going to force large groups of people to move to new areas. As the global water crisis intensifies, there will be political conflicts and potentially even wars over water. We like to think of ourselves as being so "advanced", but the reality is that we have not figured out how to live without water. When the water dries up in an area, most of the people are going to have to leave.
And yes, it will even happen in the United States too. For example, once Lake Mead dries up there is simply no way that so many people are going to be able to live in and around Las Vegas.
Right now, most of us take for granted that we will always have access to an unlimited amount of clean water.
But when you take a hard look at the data, it quickly becomes clear that everything that we have always taken for granted about water is about to dramatically change.
That following are 25 signs that a horrific global water crisis is coming. The first 12 facts are about the United States, and the last 13 are about the rest of the world....
#1 Today, the United States uses approximately 148 trillion gallons of fresh water a year.
#2 According to the U.S. government, 36 U.S. states are already facing water shortages or will be facing water shortages within the next few years.
#3 Since 1998, the level of water in Lake Mead has plunged by more than 50 percent. Lake Mead supplies about 85 percent of the water used in Las Vegas, and at this point the lake has 5.6 trillion gallons less water than it used to have. Lake Mead is falling so fast that some believe that the Hoover dam could actually stop producing electricity in a few years. Needless to say, that would be a total disaster for that entire region of the country. In addition, if things continue at the current pace, it is being estimated that Lake Mead will run completely dry some time around the year 2021.
#4 According to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. interior west is now the driest that it has been in 500 years.
#5 The Ogallala Aquifer, which is a massive underground lake that stretches from South Dakota all the way to Texas, is rapidly drying up. The Ogallala Aquifer is believed to be the largest body of fresh water in the world, and right now it is being drained at a rate of approximately 800 gallons per minute. Right now it covers approximately 174,000 square miles, and since the 1950s we have drained enough water from it "to half-fill Lake Erie". Once upon a time, the Ogallala Aquifer had an average depth of about 240 feet, but today the average depth is just 80 feet. If something is not done, we will definitely see a return of the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. We need to start listening to the experts. Just consider what David Brauer of the Ogallala Research Service had to say when asked about the future of the Ogallala Aquifer....
"Our goal now is to engineer a soft landing. That's all we can do."
#6 A federal judge has ruled that the state of Georgia has very few legal rights to Lake Lanier. Lake Lanier is the main water source for the city of Atlanta. Millions more people are expected to move into the Atlanta area in the coming years, and this is creating an absolute nightmare for city officials.
#7 It is estimated that California only has a 20 year supply of fresh water left.
#8 It is estimated that New Mexico only has a 10 year supply of fresh water left.
#9 Things have gotten so dry in Arizona that now giant "dust storms" have been blowing through the city of Phoenix.
#10 Texas is has experienced one of the driest stretches that it has ever seen. Right now, approximately 81 percent of the state of Texas is experiencing "exceptional drought" conditions, and wildfires have burned an astounding 3.6 million acres in the state.
#11 Approximately 40 percent of all U.S. rivers and approximately 46 percent of all U.S. lakes have become so polluted that they are are now considered to be too dangerous to fish in, swim in or get drinking water from.
#12 Eight states in the Great Lakes region have signed a pact banning the export of water to outsiders - even to other U.S. states.
#13 It is being projected that by the year 2030, global demand for water will be 40 percent higher than it is today.
#14 Worldwide demand for fresh water tripled during the last century, and is now doubling every 21 years.
#15 According to USAID, one-third of the population of the earth will be facing severe or chronic water shortages by the year 2025.
#16 Of the 60 million people added to the world’s cities every year, the vast majority of them live in impoverished areas that have no sanitation facilities whatsoever.
#17 It is estimated that 75 percent of the surface water in India is now contaminated by human and agricultural waste.
#18 If you can believe it, according to a UN study on sanitation, far more people in India have access to a cell phone than to a toilet.
#19 In the developing world, 90 percent of all wastewater is discharged completely untreated into local rivers, streams or lakes.
#20 Every 8 seconds, somewhere in the world a child dies from drinking dirty water.
#21 Due to a lack of water, Saudi Arabia has given up on trying to grow wheat and will be 100 percent dependent on wheat imports by the year 2016.
#22 In northern China, the water table is dropping one meter every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#23 Incredibly, a new desert the size of Rhode Island is created in China every single year because of drought and overpumping.
#24 In China, 80 percent of all major rivers have become so horribly polluted that they do not support any aquatic life at all at this point.
#25 Collectively, the women of South Africa walk the equivalent of the distance to the moon and back 16 times a day just to get water.
Right now, more than a billion people around the globe do not have access to safe drinking water.
That number is going to keep increasing.
Without enough fresh water, people cannot grow enough food. Global food prices are already starting to skyrocket, and the coming global water crisis certainly is not going to help matters.
A massive, massive disaster is on the horizon. The era of gigantic amounts of cheap food and "unlimited" amounts of clean water is over.
A horrific global water crisis is coming.
You better get ready.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Eyes betray numbers in our heads
Courtesy of the
University of Melbourne
and World Science staff
It may be harder to lie about your age, or your poker hand, after new research has found that our eye position betrays the numbers we’re thinking about.
Participants in a University of Melbourne, Australia, study were asked to state a series of random numbers. By measuring their eye position, researchers said they could reliably predict the next chosen number—before it was spoken.
A leftward and downward change in eye position announced that the next number would be smaller than the last, the scientists said. Correspondingly, upward and rightward forecast a larger number than the last. The degree of eye movement reflected the size of the numerical shift.
The paper was published March 23 online in the research journal Current Biology.
“When we think of numbers we automatically code them in space, with smaller number falling to the left and larger numbers to the right. That is, we think of them along a left-to-right oriented mental number line—often without even noticing this number-space association ourselves,” said researcher Tobias Loetscher of the university, an author of the study.
“This study shows that shifts along the mental number line are accompanied by systematic eye movements. We suggest that when we navigate through mental representations—as for example numbers—we re-use brain processes that primarily evolved for interacting and navigating in the outside world.”
“This study will hopefully provide a template to investigate how the human mind works via a connection with the space and world around us,” added co-author Michael Nicholls.
The study involved asking twelve right-handed men to name 40 numbers between one and 30 in a sequence as random as possible, paced by a metronome. For each number, the researchers measured the average eye position during the half-second before each numbers was declared.
University of Melbourne
and World Science staff
It may be harder to lie about your age, or your poker hand, after new research has found that our eye position betrays the numbers we’re thinking about.
Participants in a University of Melbourne, Australia, study were asked to state a series of random numbers. By measuring their eye position, researchers said they could reliably predict the next chosen number—before it was spoken.
A leftward and downward change in eye position announced that the next number would be smaller than the last, the scientists said. Correspondingly, upward and rightward forecast a larger number than the last. The degree of eye movement reflected the size of the numerical shift.
The paper was published March 23 online in the research journal Current Biology.
“When we think of numbers we automatically code them in space, with smaller number falling to the left and larger numbers to the right. That is, we think of them along a left-to-right oriented mental number line—often without even noticing this number-space association ourselves,” said researcher Tobias Loetscher of the university, an author of the study.
“This study shows that shifts along the mental number line are accompanied by systematic eye movements. We suggest that when we navigate through mental representations—as for example numbers—we re-use brain processes that primarily evolved for interacting and navigating in the outside world.”
“This study will hopefully provide a template to investigate how the human mind works via a connection with the space and world around us,” added co-author Michael Nicholls.
The study involved asking twelve right-handed men to name 40 numbers between one and 30 in a sequence as random as possible, paced by a metronome. For each number, the researchers measured the average eye position during the half-second before each numbers was declared.
Friday, January 22, 2010
TNT picks up 3 new series
TNT has added three more shows to its lineup of originals, picking up a pair of cop shows for later this year and a Steven Spielberg-produced drama about an alien invasion for 2011.
The cable channel has picked up 10 episodes each of the untitled alien series, which stars Noah Wyle as the leader of a resistance group; "Delta Blues," featuring Jason Lee as a quirky Memphis cop; and "Rizzoli & Isles," about a Boston homicide detective (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner (Sasha Alexander) who work together on cases.
"Delta Blues" will star Lee ("My Name Is Earl") as Dwight Hendricks, a Memphis police officer with deep ties to the city who lives with his mom (Celia Weston). Alfre Woodard ("Three Rivers") plays his boss; the cast also includes Robyn Lively ("Savannah," "Saving Grace"), Sam Hennings, Abraham Benrubi ("ER"), DJ Qualls ("Hustle & Flow") and Leonard Earl Howze. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are executive producing the show with co-writer Liz Garcia ("Cold Case"); fellow scribe Joshua Harto is a producer.
"Rizzoli & Isles" is based on a series of novels by Tess Gerritsen. Harmon ("Law & Order," "Women's Murder Club") will play Detective Jane Rizzoli, who enlists the help of medical examiner Maura Isles (Alexander, "NCIS") to solve cases in Beantown. Lorraine Bracco ("The Sopranos") will have a recurring part as Jane's mom; the show also stars Bruce McGill ("W.," "Animal House"), Lee Thompson Young ("FlashForward"), Jordan Bridges ("Conviction") and Billy Burke ("Twilight").
"Bones" veteran Janet Tamaro wrote the pilot and will exec produce with "The Closer's" Michael Robin, who also directed, and Bill Haber.
The alien-invasion series will star Wyle ("ER," "The Librarian") as a man who becomes the leader of a resistance cell after aliens wipe out most of the planet's population. Moon Bloodgood ("Terminator Salvation"), Jessy Schram ("Life," "Veronica Mars"), Drew Roy, Maxim Knight and Seychelle Gabriel. Robert Rodat ("Saving Private Ryan") wrote the pilot, which Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress") directed. Spielberg is an exec producer.
The cable channel has picked up 10 episodes each of the untitled alien series, which stars Noah Wyle as the leader of a resistance group; "Delta Blues," featuring Jason Lee as a quirky Memphis cop; and "Rizzoli & Isles," about a Boston homicide detective (Angie Harmon) and medical examiner (Sasha Alexander) who work together on cases.
"Delta Blues" will star Lee ("My Name Is Earl") as Dwight Hendricks, a Memphis police officer with deep ties to the city who lives with his mom (Celia Weston). Alfre Woodard ("Three Rivers") plays his boss; the cast also includes Robyn Lively ("Savannah," "Saving Grace"), Sam Hennings, Abraham Benrubi ("ER"), DJ Qualls ("Hustle & Flow") and Leonard Earl Howze. George Clooney and Grant Heslov are executive producing the show with co-writer Liz Garcia ("Cold Case"); fellow scribe Joshua Harto is a producer.
"Rizzoli & Isles" is based on a series of novels by Tess Gerritsen. Harmon ("Law & Order," "Women's Murder Club") will play Detective Jane Rizzoli, who enlists the help of medical examiner Maura Isles (Alexander, "NCIS") to solve cases in Beantown. Lorraine Bracco ("The Sopranos") will have a recurring part as Jane's mom; the show also stars Bruce McGill ("W.," "Animal House"), Lee Thompson Young ("FlashForward"), Jordan Bridges ("Conviction") and Billy Burke ("Twilight").
"Bones" veteran Janet Tamaro wrote the pilot and will exec produce with "The Closer's" Michael Robin, who also directed, and Bill Haber.
The alien-invasion series will star Wyle ("ER," "The Librarian") as a man who becomes the leader of a resistance cell after aliens wipe out most of the planet's population. Moon Bloodgood ("Terminator Salvation"), Jessy Schram ("Life," "Veronica Mars"), Drew Roy, Maxim Knight and Seychelle Gabriel. Robert Rodat ("Saving Private Ryan") wrote the pilot, which Carl Franklin ("Devil in a Blue Dress") directed. Spielberg is an exec producer.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
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