Thursday, November 26, 2009

Opinion

Water and Overpopulation

November 02, 2007 11:42 AM ET | Bonnie Erbe | Permanent Link | Print

Water wars date to the time of the pioneers in the West but are of more recent vintage in the East and, now, in the South. With a drought turning severe, three southern governors have been bickering and ventured to Washington, D.C., yesterday to try to sort things out.

But no matter how the chief executives of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida resolve their wrangle over access to water usage from two river basins—the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa and the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint—the unspeakable topic remains unspoken in water-rights discussions.

The unspeakable term is overpopulation. Unless and until states and the nation address the issue of human overpopulation, water's scarcity will increase. In fact, there's talk that if North America doesn't start getting some serious rain in regions that have suffered major droughts in recent years, water will be the new oil. If you're horrified at the prospect of $5-per-gallon gas, what are you going to think when your water bills quadruple and severe restrictions are put on water usage?

Tags: Alabama | Florida | Georgia | environment | water

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Reader Comments

overpopulation

All natural resources will be depelted. As we aware the Westernised countries are mainting a constant level of pop. the problem exists with the new age countries like india and China. They are moving from an agricultural self-sustaining lifestyle to a western style lifestyle with its consumerism and thus use of natural resources.

I would be interested to see your paper when it is complete

Overpopulation

Hi, I am writing a research assignment on overpopulation. One of the requirements of the assignment is that we have to set a question and using the E-mail contacts World Wide Web to find out answer. If you would be willing to answer my questions about overpopulation, it would help me out a lot.

Question: what natural resource is being depleted the most due to overpopulation?

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About Bonnie Erbe

Bonnie Erbe is a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and hosts PBS's weekly news analysis program, To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbe. She also writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column for Scripps Howard News Service.

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