Humanity is consuming resources at an ever-increasing rate, and not a few studies speak of a critical efficiency failure. If profound changes are not made, it is most likely that the planet will not be able to restore these resources quickly enough, so... what would happen if we reach that point? Could the Earth recover after such a catastrophe?
It is quite common to see in the news the impact of drought on different crops around the world. Some irrigation systems can cover the demand depending on the scale, but in most cases, farmers and ranchers have no other choice but to look up and pray for rain.
The lack of safe water is one of the many threats humanity will have to face in the future, and if anyone thinks it is an exaggeration, they only need to look at what has happened with the Aral Sea, whose evaporation became one of the biggest environmental disasters in history.
We need water for dozens of reasons beyond agriculture (the biggest pressure point) and direct consumption, but if we do not act responsibly, that need will exceed our planet's "recycling" capacity. So, what would happen on Earth if water and basic food disappear?
Wars for Water
In reality, water cannot easily disappear. All experts agree that it is a finite resource, but one of the most important problems is that water is available in the wrong form (read 'salt water').
Desalination efforts continue to advance, however, the energy cost remains at too high levels. The real risk to the Earth comes... through us. As the water crisis grows, the possibility of armed conflicts over access to the precious liquid will also increase.
Some of them have already been seen in the past (the Six-Day War had the Jordan River as one of its central pieces), others remain active (one of the reasons that triggered the war in Darfur was access to water), and then there are those that could explode at any moment, like the aforementioned Aral Sea involving Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
In summary, the Earth will probably survive. Even if water wars destroy a good part of the crops, there are projects like the Doomsday Vault in Norway that seek to protect food diversity. But everything depends on us.
Words like "efficiency" and "conservation" need to become much more than simple ornaments in official reports. In the future they must become the rule, or otherwise, the idea of several "Immortan Joe" scattered around the globe will not be so far-fetched...
