When Will The World Run Out Of Water?

You might not know this, but water is pretty important. It's what fills our balloons, cleans our hubcaps and comes out of the top of locomotives when they toot! Then there are the secondary uses, like temperature regulation, waste excretion, and brain function in the human body, to name a few.

Whether you're a human or a steam train, you won't be locomoting anywhere without water, which begs the question: Is there ever a time when we'll run out of the stuff? 

There's good news and not so good news, according to Gizmodo, so we'll whet your whistle with the positives — the world is never going to run out of water completely, because it's a renewable resource. If you're a flat earther-type, it might be easy to imagine water pouring off the Parcheesi board-shaped planet like sweat off the brow of an NBA player on the charity stripe, but this crazy thing called gravity actually works with this other thing called the atmosphere to keep our water earthbound. So that's the good news.

The bad news? The water we use to drink and farm with is gonna be a little tight ... Climate and Capitalism says that in three decades, "almost 80% of the lands that depend on groundwater will start to reach their natural irrigation limits as the wells run dry."

According to Peter Gleick, a water and climate scientist, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, and member of the US National Academy of Sciences, we have what you might call a "water crisis", meaning that our water system is out of balance because "We are not living within the natural constraints of our most precious renewable resource." 

As a result, "more communities and ecosystems will face growing water scarcity, shortage, contamination, and disruption if we fail to move to a more sustainable approach."

Don't geek at Gleick though, because he goes on to say that if we run things way more efficiently and mindfully, there's still hope. That means doing things like keeping water clean to prevent disease, capturing stormwater and getting better at desalination (removing salt from ocean water to make it drinkable). That will allow us to stop sucking down vulnerable rivers and aquifers like malted milkshakes. 

So turn that faucet tight when you're not using it, put out a couple bowls to capture that rainwater, and cue up that Fat Joe feat. Lil Wayne classic, Make It Rain.