How Half the World Could Grow Thirsty At China's Whim
- China ·
- Climate Change ·
- Water
Six months ago the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted that they were wrong in their calculations that the Himalayas could vanish by 2035. But that doesn't mean that the region isn't in trouble. Amy Goodman recently reported that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking faster than anywhere else in the world, and new research suggests they could be mostly gone in about 100 years.
But way before the glaciers disappear, there's no doubt that Asia is going to be in for some tectonic shifts spurred by changing water availability. This will have huge impacts on agriculture (in India, for example, 90 percent of their water is used to grow food). There's much conjecture on what this will mean for ecosystems, too. But what about the role of water in politics? Already, the tension is mounting here.
Just look at the Dalai Lama. Sure, China's ousting of the Dalai Lama focused on religious issues -- but pull back the curtain, and there's a whole lot of resource conflicts you'll also unveil. The Tibetans happen to be sitting on China's water mine. The headwaters for many of Asia's rivers, in fact, come from the Tibetan Plateau, including the sources of the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Brahmaputra, Salween and Sutlej. In sum, almost half of the world's population lives in the watersheds of rivers sourced from the Tibetan's rugged terrain, according to the series Circle of Blue, by Keith Schneider and C. T. Pope.
Think about that for a second -- China has its hand on the tap for nearly half the world's population. It's astounding to even imagine. And while even China's centralized government can't control how fast those glaciers may melt, it can control how much of that water actually makes it downstream -- and how much is clean enough to drink or farm with when it gets there.
So, what happens if China doesn't play nice? Already there are reports that new industrial activities in the Tibetan Plateau, including mining and deforestation, are degrading water quality. China also has plans in the works to build hydropower dams and systems of canals to divert water hundreds of miles to quench the thirst of agricultural and industrial regions. And that's right now -- while there's still a lot of water to go around (most of the time). What happens when the going gets even tougher?
Getting countries to actually agree to take definitive action to stave off the worst of what may come is a challenge that cannot be overstated -- see the recent rounds of climate treaty talks as a case in point. But so far, discussions of water haven't figured heavily into global negotiations of any sort. As climate change takes hold, how do we also begin to manage our dwindling water supplies? How do we ensure that the most powerful countries aren't able to gobble up the most critical supplies? There are no easy answers, but it's worth talking about ... and soon.
Photo credit: Brogge1
Tara Lohan
is a senior editor at AlterNet.org where she heads up the environment, water, and food sections. Her work has appeared on the websites of The Nation, Mother Jones, the Huffington Post and in Yes! Magazine.
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