Will Peak Water Replace Peak Oil?
The scarcity of fresh water may drive up prices and fines around the world. Already in Barcelona, Spain, you can be fined €9,000 ($13,000) for watering your flowers. According to Truthout, just like oil:
Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.”
Dan Nees, a water-trading analyst with the World Resources Institute warns, “Water scarcity may be one of the most underappreciated global political and environmental challenges of our time.” Even Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris called water “the oil of this century.”
I think oil is also the oil of this century. And so is grain, so is electricity, etc. Scary stuff.