The Global Threat of Aquifer Depletion
Sep. 7th, 2019 01:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorOne thing I'm concerned about that I'm not sure there's much discussion of is the depletion of global aquifers. While I think that climate change is an absolutely pressing issue which we must address, I feel that unfortunately this is far from the only major environmental threat that we face today. One problem that I think is often overlooked is global aquifer depletion. Aquifers are used extensively for agriculture and to supply humans with drinking water and for other purposes.
According to the article, the study data concludes that water levels in 21 of the world's 37 largest aquifers are being depleted.
This quote from the article summarizes the study results:
"In the study released on Tuesday, researchers found that eight aquifers—particularly those in arid climates—were dangerously overstressed. Eleven major aquifers were “negatively recharging,” meaning people were pumping water out of them much faster than they were putting it in. “The water table is dropping all over the world,” Jay Famiglietti, a water researcher at NASA and one of the authors of the study, told The Washington Post. “There’s not an infinite supply of water.”
The statement above about there not being an infinite supply of water may sound strange, but the point is that our global dependency on these aquifers rather than the water cycle makes our current methods of ensuring a reliable water supply unsustainable.
Another surprising fact about our use of aquifer water which the article mentions is that it's significantly contributing to sea level rise:
"Already, 2 billion people worldwide rely on groundwater for daily use. That will have slosh-over effects: A 2012 study reported that water from aquifers, moved to the surface by human activity like farming and mining, would constitute 25 percent of sea level rise before 2050, and possibly even more after that. Relocated groundwater, by that paper’s estimate, would be the third-most significant cause of sea level rise this century, after the melting ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland."
While I've read the article in it's entirety, I haven't read the GRACE study all the way through or read through all the other links the article supplies. Still, the information looks solid from what I can see, and the conclusions seem rather grim.
One article that I think gives a good overview of this situation is this one:
The Earth's Evaporating Aquifers
It's based on a 2015 study by NASA called Quantifying renewable groundwater stress with GRACE. The study uses satellites to calculate the current groundwater levels in the Earth and is believed to be more accurate than estimates accomplished by ground-based techniques. It uses a mass-measurement technique that allows it to directly measure accumulations of mass, such as water, beneath the surface of the Earth.According to the article, the study data concludes that water levels in 21 of the world's 37 largest aquifers are being depleted.
This quote from the article summarizes the study results:
"In the study released on Tuesday, researchers found that eight aquifers—particularly those in arid climates—were dangerously overstressed. Eleven major aquifers were “negatively recharging,” meaning people were pumping water out of them much faster than they were putting it in. “The water table is dropping all over the world,” Jay Famiglietti, a water researcher at NASA and one of the authors of the study, told The Washington Post. “There’s not an infinite supply of water.”
The statement above about there not being an infinite supply of water may sound strange, but the point is that our global dependency on these aquifers rather than the water cycle makes our current methods of ensuring a reliable water supply unsustainable.
Another surprising fact about our use of aquifer water which the article mentions is that it's significantly contributing to sea level rise:
"Already, 2 billion people worldwide rely on groundwater for daily use. That will have slosh-over effects: A 2012 study reported that water from aquifers, moved to the surface by human activity like farming and mining, would constitute 25 percent of sea level rise before 2050, and possibly even more after that. Relocated groundwater, by that paper’s estimate, would be the third-most significant cause of sea level rise this century, after the melting ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland."
While I've read the article in it's entirety, I haven't read the GRACE study all the way through or read through all the other links the article supplies. Still, the information looks solid from what I can see, and the conclusions seem rather grim.