According to a recent study published in Science magazine, if trends in world fishing and climate change continue, seafood populations will be completely decimated by 2048.

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According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there is an estimated 1.38 billion trillion liters of water within Earth's dynamic system. However, only about 3 percent of the world's water is fresh water. Moreover, only about .3 percent of the world's water is usable by humans. With 6.57 billion humans on the planet, that leaves about 630 billion liters per person of accessible fresh water that we must share with the other living organisms on the planet.

The earth's human population grew by nearly 200 percent in the twentieth century and the consumption of water by humans nearly tripled. According to the World Bank, the world's water demands double every 21 years, and about 95 percent of the world's cities still dump their sewage directly into the water system. According to the World Water Council, by 2050 the planet will be short about 17 percent of the water needed to feed the world's population.

In 2003, humans consumed roughly 3.5 quadrillion liters of water. That comes to about 9.6 trillion liters per day, amounting to over 1,460 liters per person per day. China's annual water consumption is roughly 640 trillion liters per year. That comes to about 1,350 liters per person per day, whereas US Americans consume closer to 1,735 liters.

Of all water consumption by humans on the planet, 69 percent goes to agriculture, most to livestock. In the USA, for example, 80 percent of agricultural land is used to raise livestock. And where it takes about 1,000 liters of water to grow 1 kilogram of grain, it takes about 15,000 liters of water to grow 1 kilogram of beef. Water for personal use accounts for less than 10 percent of total water consumption, but is a growing concern as underdeveloped countries urbanize.

China has roughly 22 percent of the world's human population but access to only 8 percent of the world's renewable fresh water. China's urban population uses approximately 220 liters per day per person for personal use, over 10 times that of the rural population. From 1978 to 2004, China's urbanization rate grew to 41.8 percent from 17.9 percent. By the middle of the century, urbanization rates are forecasted to rise to 75 percent. That being the case, China will have to make over 85 billion more liters of water accessible to urbanites per day. A difficult feat considering 400 of China's 660 major cities already suffer from insufficient water resources.

In 2001, the Rio Grande failed to reach the Gulf of Mexico; and due to damning and irrigation, other great rivers like the Colorado and the Yellow at times barely trickle into the ocean while the Mekong and the Nile are in future threat of encountering the same problem—What did the fish say when it ran into a wall... Dam! As a result, desertification is slowly claiming all the fertile lands in Egypt while the Gobi desert creeps at a rate of 3 kilometers per year towards Beijing—now only 160 kilometers away.


Sources

Where is Earth's Water located? USGS. January, 2007.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/earthwherewater.html

How Much Water is there on Earth? How Stuff Works. January, 2007. http://science.howstuffworks.com/question157.htm

World POPClock Projection. U.S. census Bureau. January, 2007.
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/popclockworld.html

Specter, Michael. The Last Drop—Confronting the Possibility of a Global Catastrophe. The New Yorker. Oct. 23, 2006. Pages 60-71.

Livestock Water Use. USGS. January, 2007.
http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/chickenhouse.html

Livestock a Major Threat to Environment. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. January, 2007.
http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000448/index.html

Global Water Outlook to 2025: Averting an Impeding Crisis. International Food Policy Research Institute. January, 2007.
http://www.ifpri.org/media/water_countrydef.htm

Nation Sets Goals for Urban Water Consumption. China.Org.Cn. January, 2007.
http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/78565.htm

China, Canals & Coal. EcoWorld. January, 2007.
http://www.ecoworld.com/home/articles2.cfm?tid=347

China's Urbanization Encounters "Urban Disease." Chinanews.cn. January, 2007.
http://www.chinanews.cn/news/2005/2005-11-18/14441.html

Global Water Shortage Looms in New Century. Arizona Water Res. January, 2007.
http://cals.arizona.edu/AZWATER/awr/dec99/Feature2.htm

Vaknin, Sam. Who Owns the World's Water? The Progress Report. January, 2007.
http://www.progress.org/2005/water27.htm

China Faces Growing Water Shortage. World Politics Watch. January, 2007.
http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=151

China's Season of Dust. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Unesco—The Courier. June, 2006.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=33187&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Simple Mathematics is best described as a numerical guide to consumer consciousness. To understand what that means, we must first have a common understanding of what consumption is. I define it in three parts. First, consumption in its primal form is the act of processing and expending forms or forces for other forms or forces to continue to exist and grow. The second is the market-based version of consumption which describes the economic forces that drive and sustain the needs of humans. The third defines consumption as an addiction that afflicts modern humans and takes us beyond necessity past the boundaries of sustainability. My goal with Simple Mathematics is to reveal this third definition via the language of numbers and statistics. When it comes to environmental dialogue, it is far too easy to be judgmental. Numbers and statistics have the uncanny ability to stand alone and relay a much stronger argument.

Consumer consciousness is defined as the individual responsibility to educate oneself about the processes involved in satisfying one's own consumption. It is understanding that there is waste, both organic and inorganic, involved in the production and consumption of goods. Ideally, such knowledge leads to individuals eliminating certain excessively wasteful functions from their daily lives. This may be as simple as changing light bulbs to fluorescents or buying local produce instead of imports. And for some, it may be as extreme as trying to live a carbon-neutral life.

From an environmental standpoint, a conscientious consumer can see how his or her consumption not only directly impacts him or herself; but also how it affects the air, water and the land around us. The conscientious consumer understands the processes that every product first goes through before consumption and what happens to the waste left over after consumption. My hope is that Simple Mathematics can provide a simple numerical guide for those who are motivated to expand upon their own consciousness as consumers.