A poll conducted by University of Texas at Austin has shown that people seem to be a lot more bothered about gasoline than water and are concerned about fluctuating oil prices than depleting water resources. That might really not be very surprising to the average American whose mind is carefully controlled by popular media and television, which has been harping on and on about gasoline prices with even the political big shots focusing on crude oil supplies and prices. But the trend of focusing too much on gasoline is a scary one and something e could well do without.
While cost of gasoline tops the list of energy concerns, even consumption of oil from ‘foreign sources’ is also ahead of water depletion issue. Never mind the fact that we as a race have fought among ourselves since the very beginning, drawn lines and marked out territories, split up natural resources and now demarcate sources as ‘foreign’ with a pseudo sense of patriotism, but we are forgetting and neglecting the resources that are most essential to our survival. (Of course, some will argue that all animals mark out territories, but then I was under the impression that we were ‘different’)
Water is one of those essential resources and since we are getting it in a tap at a price that is almost free, we tend to assume that it will continue to be that way forever. But the fact remains that freshwater sources across the globe are depleting and of course there are many communities that walk several miles each day for fresh water. This in no way is to say that depletion of fossil fuels or their expensive cost should not be an issue. But depleting water resources surely deserve a lot more attention. Maybe that will only happen when the taps start to dry…
Via: Scientificamerican
