Hydrologist says water needs to be protected
A former NASA scientist has come to work at the University of Saskatchewan to address issues of water security and scarcity around the world.
Considered one of the leading hydrologists in the world, Jay Famiglietti was recruited to be the executive director for the Global Institute for Water Security at the Uofs.
Famiglietti’s message is straightforward, even if the solutions are not: There is a water shortage problem in parts of the world that will have ramifications across the planet.
“Patterns of water availability are shifting dramatically,” he said. “And that will have a big implication, a big impact on all of us.”
Famiglietti spoke in a public lecture on Saturday as part of the Usask Talks lecture series during Alumni Weekend. The lecture, titled 21st Century Freshwater Security: Is It Achievable? focused on groundwater shortages from the major aquifers around the world.
According to Famiglietti, about 20 of the 37 major groundwater sources have reached a point where they are no longer renewable, due to overuse.
And as certain spots of the world become drier and hotter and others colder and wetter, the industry that will be affected the most is agriculture and food production.
“Most of the water that we use gets used for food,” he said.
“As consumers, I think we need to be demanding from the food industry that they do things as efficiently as possible.”
It’s not a message that’s necessarily easy to get across to politicians or people in the agriculture industry. Famiglietti shared a clip from a water conservation documentary he appeared in where farmers from the Fresno area of California seemed to not comprehend his warnings.
And Famiglietti’s predictions mean that the outcome of those warnings isn’t far off. He said the amount of agricultural production in the United States, particularly in California and the southern states, has caused the aquifers there to be non-renewable. The southern area in the U.S. that covers parts of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas will be depleted in a few decades.
“There will come a time when there’s 12 or 15 billion people we need to feed,” he said. “Hopefully, the mutual need to grow food and have fresh water will bring us together rather than drive us apart.”
According to an accepted climate change model displayed by Famiglietti, the world was expected to reach a pattern of increasing temperatures and water level reduction by the end of the century.
But as the data gathered by NASA projects such as the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites show, the world is experiencing those predicted patterns now.
“We can’t say that pattern is there because of climate change, only because we only have 15 years of data,” Famiglietti said. “But it sure looks like ... we’re seeing it now. And that for me is a really great cause for concern.”
In his relatively new role with the Global Institute for Water Security, Famiglietti said the next big challenge is establishing a more worldwide reputation for the institute. He said they have to think ahead to keep the organization running and to actually make an impact on water security issues.
“Time goes by so quickly ... it’s time to start thinking about the future from the minute you walk in the door,” Famiglietti said.