‘The Water Table Is Dropping All Over the World’: NASA Warns We’re on the Path to Gl

Drought-stricken California is not the only place draining underground aquifers in the hunt for fresh water.

Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs. Thirteen of 37 aquifers fell at rates that put them into the most troubled category.

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According to what? Computer models?
Rush debunked the climate change b.s. by stating that is what they use to determine these 'scientific studies'.

 

So...Where is all the water going?

 

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Twenty-one of the world’s 37 largest aquifers — in locations from India and China to the United States and France — have passed their sustainability tipping points, meaning more water is being removed than replaced from these vital underground reservoirs.

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And it’s difficult to see it getting better soon. These groundwater reserves take thousands of years to accumulate and only slowly recharge with water from snowmelt and rains. Now, as drilling for water has taken off across the globe, the hidden water reservoirs are being stressed. Underground aquifers supply 35 percent of the water used by humans worldwide. Demand is even greater in times of drought. Rain-starved California is currently tapping aquifers for 60 percent of its water use, up from the usual 40 percent.

In another finding from the studies led by the University of California Irvine, scientists say that some of these aquifers may be much smaller than previously thought. Only a few of the aquifers have been mapped in detail and most estimates of aquifer water reserves have “uncertainty ranges across orders of magnitude,” according to the studies.

The new studies used NASA’s GRACE satellites to take unprecedentedly precise measurements of the groundwater reservoirs hidden beneath the ground. The satellites detected subtle changes in the gravitational pull of the earth’s surface. Water is exceptionally heavy and exerts a greater pull on orbiting spacecraft. As the satellites flew overhead, slight changes in aquifer water levels were charted over a decade, from 2003 to 2013.

“The water table is dropping all over the world,” Familglietti said. “There’s not an infinite supply of water.”

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In short, groundwater is being used faster than it's being replenished. I don't know about this “there’s not an infinite supply of water” nonsense, though, since we're not exactly destroying the water we use.

 

I'll take NASA's GRACE satellite over Rush's "divining rod" every time, thanks.

 

That's not the practical problem. These deep aquifers are used primarily for agriculture. If they dry up, the ag will be dependent on rain and surface water. A few dry years and we could be seeing dustbowl scenarios again if the aquifers are not there to support keeping surface crops alive. You are not going to be able to irrigate mega farms off well water (which, in addition to evaporation and entering basins and exiting to the oceans, is where the water would end up).

I don't know whose rules it is, but right now all the local governments in my area are voting on whether or not to allow a couple other cities to increase their draw of water out of our basin. The articles I have read just said the votes were being done only because the water would be leaving our river basin. I am fine with it going because the places getting it have the hospitals I will demand to be transported to if given the choice because ours suck. Take my water as long as you keep sending your birds up here to pick up our seriously injured and ill.

 

I do not know the science behind this statement, but we already can desaliniate the ocean water...Why can we not tap into the ocean to water our plant farms and drought stricken areas along the coasts?

 

you can if you are willing to pay for it. It is expensive to do compared to building reservoirs to capture surface water.

 

Over population. There is only so many people that this earth can support. The lost of the aquifers could be mother earth's way of saying no more. Water in the future may become more valued than gold or oil. Water wars may become the norm of the future.

 

Ho-hum, twiddle my thumbs.
Several years ago, I published a grand idea to deal with this.
My proposal at that time was that we needed to build a pipeline from the Cali coast to the Owens Valley. I'm no geologist, but since they found salt crystals at the bottom of the depleted Owens Valley, I figured that it didn't connect to any other aquifer. With that in mind, it would be fine to re-establish Lake Owens as a salt water body. The water would be moved from the sea and through the pipes via wind and solar energy. There would be several "interval ponds" along the way, where various seafood could be commercially cultivated. Once it got to the Owens Valley, more of this could be done.
There is a method of desalinating water that requires zero energy. It uses sterling engines, and actually produces more energy than it uses. It isn't very fast, and it requires relatively large spaces, but they have large and unproductive spaces up there.
This puts the original L.A. aqueduct back in business, and creates a bunch of new jobs, with all of that seafood production. It also creates a prototype that could be repeated in much of the Aussie outback, and other places where the creation of new inland seas would not encroach on existing fresh water supplies.
Well, Cali was more interested in hi-speed rail, and no-one listens to me, anyway.

 

I understand all that however, water does not just go away it is recycled. Where droughts once existed there is now lots of percipitation (Texas). It is cyclical and solvable with the building of more reservoirs that could capture and store water in times of excess. Unfortunately our current environmental policies have not only thwarted the building of dams but have sought to tear down already established dams..

 

I am 100% for tearing down a lot of the dams being demolished, particularly the low head dams. This still goes back to big farming and costs. Most every farm of any significance in our area has at least one pond on them. It isn't even about capturing surface water. They can only draw so much off a well at one time so the pond allows them to have extra water available when needed. Likewise, if Archer Daniels wants to pay for reservoirs for their fields, then more power to them. I am more conflicted on building them with public funds when it will largely be a corporate subsidy.

 

It's not and only a (*)(*)(*)(*)ing idiot that never dug a hole in their life would say that....

 

That is an excellent idea however, environmentalists would block that. Environmental insanity prevails in government these days.

 

Maybe the reason no one listens to you is you provide no sources for things like using sterling engines to desalt sea water that produce a surplus of energy. And anyone can dream up ways to improve systems but manifesting into reality is something else entirely! I could suggest ways to desalinate massive amounts sea water with waste heat from nuclear reactors. Not only that our entire infrastructure is crumbling. When we rebuild or if we rebuild we could just by simple planning make the USA a near paradise. Mostly because when the original infrastructures were constructed energy was a tiny fraction of today's price. New construction aimed at reducing cost and standardizing and making systems interlocking and symbolic all sorts benefits could be realized. Benefits such as unlimited range electric cars, energy too cheap to meter, etc etc. Of course no one listens to me either, lol.

reva

 

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More evidence indicating the steady decline of western civilization within the U.S.

 

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Great proposal but don't you think you are casting pearls before the swine? Good idea using Stirling engines.

 

In my original proposal, I did a lot of research, and reference everything, like the stirling engines. I think that method of desal was first thought up for recovering potable water from brackish sources in places like Africa, where there was no power supply, and no way to pay a power bill anyway.
My original proposal included a lot of algae cultivation. I was stuck on algae because some strains yield up to 80% of their total mass in oil. If you were to grow your algae in the salt water side of a stirling engine desal plant, it would not pass into the fresh water. The algae could be harvested constantly. The oil would be extracted, and the residual bio mass could be mixed into animal feed.
A big advantage with algae oil (or any bio fuel) is that it is basically CO2 stable. It produces no more CO2 upon combustion than it took to grow the stuff.
Around that time, Chevron allied with the National Testing Lab to evaluate algae as a viable commercial endeavor. For whatever reason, that whole endeavor was scrapped.

 

The average human population density of the world is 47 per square kilometer. The one of Macau is 21190 per km2. And people there are not suffering. In fact they have very high standarts of living. So by this estimation Earth can easily sustain the population of _Earth land area 150 million km2 * density of Macau 21 190_ = 3,178 trillion people. So make love not war.

 

It is rather disturbing to me when people refuse to listen to and accept the sciences we humans have created as a means of understanding and dealing with our natural world based on ignorance of them and political stance. This seriously makes these individuals seem unworthy of respect in my mind.

The loss of groundwater combined with contamination of that which is left will probably become a big problem going forward. As for Climate Change...there is nothing we can do about it beyond being prepared for the impacts.

 

The infrastructure in the country is going to hell because people prefer tax cuts to a functioning society.

 

But no land is left for growing crops, raising cattle, etc. Unless someone comes up with that pill we see on some sci-fi shows that substitute for a meal...in other words, no food, no mankind.

 

Ok, Israel while located in a very harsh environment is mostly self sufficient in agricultural sense. Its density is 388/km2. So 150 million * 388 = 58 billion people.

 

We as individuals can not do anything but government can do a lot. E.g. stop wild industrialization of China and India.