Submitted by filosoful t3_11tjlos in Futurology
manicdee33 t1_jcji9nr wrote
I have to laugh when the response to "demand will outstrip supply" is "we need to be more efficient about water use" without addressing the endlessly climbing demand.
Too many humans. Too much consumption. Not enough natural resources.
We need to look for ways to slow population growth, such as making life so awful that people either won't have the time to have children or they will actively decide to not procreate because the world is too messed up to bring children into it.
thec0letra1n t1_jcjl4f6 wrote
All of the evidence points to population growth slowing down naturally. Most of the advanced economies are experiencing it right now, but just offsetting with immigration.
What this article (accurately) points out, is that agriculture and industry are enormous consumers of water - many times greater than personal usage. There are huge efficiencies to be made by re-engineering some of those processes, however, I'm skeptical because that may involve a hit to the bottom line and we couldn't have those shareholders struggling.
Look at the UK, not a single new fresh water reservoir built since water supply was privatised, despite the population growing significantly. We don't have a water problem, we don't have a population problem, we have a capitalism problem
golden_arowana t1_jcjughw wrote
Population decline in first world countries is offset by population growth in third world countries.
Surur t1_jcjwbw5 wrote
They don't use the same water.
Apprehensive-Cry-824 t1_jcjuexs wrote
Exactly. It's corporations, big agriculture that's consuming by far the vast majority of water where I'm at, NOT the everyday family. We can't let them convince us we the people are the problem when theyre the ones over consuming simply because they own the land/royalties. Not fair to give themselves a free pass and put the responsibility on everyday ppl. But hey that's american oligarchy.
dwarfstar2054 t1_jcjzer0 wrote
If population growth doesn’t continue then how will the corporations have endless growth and profits?
Bringbackdexter t1_jck0j8s wrote
Yea it’s clearly a person who doesn’t understand how gdp works
DreamSmuggler t1_jck09pj wrote
This is sounding a lot like that speech Bill Gates gave years ago where he said that, (can't remember exact quote) with birth control and vaccinations we could reduce the world population by 10%-15%. As such I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or are as demented as Billy boy there. Hopefully the former 🤞
Where I work we use hundreds of thousands of litres of water a day just to produce fizzy poisons for people to drink with their meals. Seems to me all the 'experts' always throw everything on us. Turn the lights off, drive less, eat less, use less plastic, while the whole time multi-billion dollar corporations giggle all the way to the bank with government subsidies and tax breaks.
It's a pretty fucked up world. I'm glad I had my kids already. I know a lot of people who've given up on a future generation after the last 2-3 years
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