Today the lecture was about global water resources. We started out with an assessment of the commonly heard phrase that the "wars of the 21st Century will be fought over water (instead of oil)," and most of the class seemed to agree, including me. At the end of the lecture though, I had changed my mind...it seems like there really is plenty of water for everyone, despite all the alarming statistics about increased demand and consumption (doubled from 1960 to 2000); all we need to do is manage the water better.
It's interesting to note that even in some of the world's most arid places, like the Middle East, water may not be a big problem. This is because countries may be wealthy enough to have large-scale sea water desalinization plants if necessary, or perhaps have developed ancient know-how for acquiring ground water. The biggest problem globally seems to be megacities and slums, not only supplying them with enough water but also feeding their growing populations, as agriculture requires so much water (70-90% of water consumption is for agriculture). Droughts must still be a big problem though, and famines can also hit rural populations.
The concept of "Virtual Water" was mentioned, which means indirectly using large amounts of water by importing water-intensive products, for example rice from Cambodia.
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