jex

World water supplies will not be enough for our descendants to enjoy the sort of diet the West eats now, experts say.

The World Water Week in Stockholm will be told the growth in demand for meat and dairy products is unsustainable.

Animals need much more water than grain to produce the same amount of food, and ending malnutrition and feeding even more mouths will take still more water.

Scientists say the world will have to change its consumption patterns to have any realistic hope of feeding itself.

WATER AND FOOD
A kilogram of grain-fed beef needs at least 15 cubic metres of water
A kilo of lamb from a sheep fed on grass needs 10 cubic metres
A kilo of cereals needs from 0.4 to 3 cubic metres

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3559542.stm

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Jex

IceCold

How is there such a thing as a world wide water shortage? Is water evaporating out of Earth's atmosphere? Are the physical/chemical properties that make hydrogen and oxygen join together suddenly not working anymore?

jex

Well obviously water isn't disappearing lol. However countries cannot feed a billion cows with water can they? I guess they're talking about the growth in meat and how that can effect other areas. If you have hundreds of thousands of head of cattle they must drink. That water comes from rivers, lakes or reservoirs. What happens when the amount of cattle start to take effect on the environment. Can a river actually be drunk dry? I'm trying to imagine a billion cows lined up along a river and drinking so fast that the water line drops and drops and that's just silly.

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Jex

=Sarc=

I guess the problem is getting clean water for the stock. It's probably getting expensive to treat enough water for consumption. Or, they're getting water from wells and the water table has dropped making wells go dry.

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jex

Let's face it there is only so much treated water that we can drink. Drop the water table and what else suffers?

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Jex

Geisha

I blame Atkins!!

=DdogG=

the earth is 70% water. of that 70%, 2% is drinkable.

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Wintermute

The cattle do not drink the water directly. Farmers divert rivers to irregate dry land to grow crops for cattle to graze.

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DeRanger

What the world needs now is sure as hell not "love, sweet love", its about 4 or 5 billion less people. It truly is the end of the world as we know it. With global population at least quadrupling during one person's present lifespan it won't be long before human kind is completely doomed unless there is a massive culling of our population. Humans are just a cancer on this planet anyway and we will pay dearly in the not too distant future. Hell, we're starting to pay now.

Apophis

This may sound harsh, but just as forest fires are essential to the survival of our forests, I believe that things such as famine and drought are essential to the survival of the human race.

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CingularDuality

How about Roving Death Squads to simply cull the population at random? It would definitely be more fun than starving to death...

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=DdogG=

nuclear bombs would be the easiest, cleanest way to start over......

they are "clean" so the radiation would be tolerable in a few months.

or, treat people like pets "have them spayed or neutered." then let those with enough money to do the surgery have the kids.

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xenophon

Hate to break it to ya guys. But the population in all civalized countries is actually dropping. Families that use to have 5 or more children are only having one or two.
The reason the population appears to have such a growth is because of advancements in medicine people are living much longer than they use to.
We have a much larger elderly population then we do children. But once the elders begin do die off we will se the population drop. Because we wont have the children in the same numbers to replace them. This also brings up a problem with elders out numbering children how are the tax dollars going to be raised to support medicare and SS. The balance of people will be off dramatically
Now that is only in Civilized countries.

In our less civilized countries we have had an explosion of population. This is because these countries still continue to have large families and recieve the medical care helping to extend there lives.

flux

I suggest you all read Daniel Quinn's Ishmael if you haven't already. In it he describes the problem with our culture and links it to the Argicultural Revolution which leads to population growth.

This book has opened my eyes and everyones I know that has read it. If you enjoy Ishamel read the rest of his books, they are even better.

Oh and the answer isn't to eat less meat, it is to produce less food.