The world is rapidly entering a climate change frenzy. We have overwhelming evidence of the changes occurring to baseline planetary conditions due to greenhouse gas emissions unquestionably arising from human activity. All focus is turning to mitigation. How can we reduce our climate change impact while maintaining the rates of economic growth that the industrialised world has grown so accustomed to, and which emerging economies aspire to replicate? In answer to this fundamental question of sustainability, emissions reduction targets and carbon footprint figures are bandied about willy nilly by business leaders and policymakers alike, whilst carbon labelling of everyday High Street products brings the carbon conscience to mainstream consumerism.
But the science shows that climate change is here to stay. Mitigation efforts may help us to limit further consequences over and above those that we’ve already set in motion, but an equal focus must be placed on adaptation to the already inevitable impacts that the Earth and its population will face in the coming years. And when adaptation enters the equation, water presents us with a challenge of equal – if not greater – proportions as carbon.
The materiality of water to human life has long been accepted. Historically, water availability dictated patterns of human settlement and colonisation. Today, we are dependent on the water resource for the continuity and quality of our food supplies; for our personal health and wellbeing; for the materials with which we construct our environments; for the fuels that power our lives; and for the landscapes that we nurture and enjoy. Yet water security is under increasing pressure from many directions. Exponential growth in world population, rapid migration from rural to urban areas, the impacts of dietary change, increasing pollution of water resources, and over-abstraction of groundwater, each present threats to the availability of this most important of resources. And that’s in addition to climate change.
The Fourth Assessment Report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2007) indicated that, by the middle of the 21st century, annual average river runoff and water availability may decrease by between 10-30 per cent in some dry regions at mid-latitudes and in the dry tropics. Drought is anticipated to increase in spatial extent and deepen in severity in some of the most vulnerable regions of the world. Water supplies stored in glaciers and snow cover are projected to decline, causing reduced water availability in regions supplied by meltwater from mountain ranges. More than one sixth of the global population currently depends on this source.
Water scarcity has long been an issue linked with low income countries, where water infrastructure is poor and where access to safe drinking water is uncertain for many. However, some of the most recent manifestations of drought have been seen overwhelmingly in more developed corners of the world, including eastern areas of Australia and the south-west of the USA. In industrialised countries, burgeoning demands for water cannot be met sustainably for the future. Even the temperate climates of northern Europe are likely to realise the risks of water scarcity with greater immediacy than currently recognised. There is a pressing need to reduce consumption.
In an attempt to measure the links between water availability and the commodities which support our quality of life, the concept of the “water footprint” has been conceived. The water footprint, similar to the carbon footprint, is calculated as the volume of freshwater used through each step in the production process. Water use is measured in terms of water volumes consumed (including evaporation) or polluted in all material extraction, processing and manufacture, and the locations in which consumption or pollution occurs. This latter aspect is highly relevant due to local variations in the impacts of water use, which depend on social, economic and environmental conditions.
The Water Footprint Network has used this process to estimate the implications of common commodities for water resources. A single cotton t-shirt, for instance, is likely to have a global average water footprint of 2,700 litres; a kilogram of apples, 700 litres; and a kilogram of chocolate an incredible 24,000 litres. It is estimated that around 85 per cent of humanity’s current water footprint is related to the consumption of agricultural products; 10 per cent to industrial products; and only 5 per cent to domestic water consumption. This suggests that the most effective means to reduce consumption of valuable water resources will be to tackle production and consumption of food, drink and raw materials. This dramatically opposes the policy emphasis in many industrialised countries to reduce daily consumption of household utilities.
But to stimulate momentum in the right strategic direction will need our leaders to wake up to the more extensive implications of climate change than simply carbon emissions. Water should be a pressing issue of national and international concern. Since the water cycle is global, the long-term availability of the resource transcends national boundaries and will require a joined-up commitment to manage. Steps are already being taken by a few leading businesses for whom water represents an essential input (see, for example, Coca Cola‘s approach to water stewardship), but national and international governance appears yet to take any serious action beyond isolated projects. Arguably, water security presents a more immediate threat to humanity than carbon. It’s time this basic resource was given the attention it deserves.
Tags: Climate change, CSR, Environment, Natural Hazards
