Which Nations Consume the Most Water?
Much of the life-sustaining resource is traded across national borders
A vast amount of water is used to produce the food and products that nations consume. Large population is the greatest factor, but inefficient agriculture or dependence on water-intensive cuisine can exacerbate demand; meat consumption accounts for 30 percent of the U.S. water footprint.
Certain countries, such as India and the U.S., also export significant quantities of water in the form of food and products, despite their own robust consumption. Populous nations that have little land or little water are huge net importers.
SEE ALSO:
- Evolution: Bird Cries Wolf to Deceive Predator 40 Times Its Size |
- Health: Pharma Watch: Raising Awareness or Drumming Up Sales? |
- Mind & Brain: Men Are Attracted to Nonconformist Women |
- Space: Sun Accused of Stealing Planetary Objects from Another Star |
- Technology: Introducing the First Vehicle Powered by Evaporation |
- More Science: Baby Chicks' Mental Number Line Looks Like Ours
Those insights come from engineers Arjen Y. Hoekstra and Mesfin M. Mekonnen of the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Over the long term, net exporters may want to alter trade policies to avoid creating their own water shortages or raise prices to reflect the cost of increasingly scarce water resources. Inefficient water nations might improve agricultural practices. And net importers might lower exports to save water for domestic use.
This article was published in print as "Water In, Water Out."
No comments:
Post a Comment