Air taxis, hyperloops and beautiful new technology ... but we're stranded!

We humans are strange: while the world cares about air taxis, hyperloops and artificial intelligence, we keep losing sight of the biggest problem we face. After all, it is climate change that will change human life more than the corona pandemic ever could. Water is the good around which a large part of this change revolves: on the one hand it influences the climate, on the other hand it is influenced by it. A treacherous cycle, if something is wrong here!

We often talk about scarce raw materials: Rare earths, crude oil or precious metals. However, the future of mankind and the quality of life of future generations will be determined by a completely different resource: Clean water! Although more than 2/3 of our planet is covered with water, only 0.3% of it is accessible for drinking. And because water on our planet no longer becomes, but only changes its physical state - solid, liquid or gaseous - this resource is also limited. Already, around 4 billion people do not have enough water for at least one month/year, up to 3 billion people even for 4-6 months/year. Experts suspect that these numbers will increase by more than 50% by 2050 if global warming continues at this rate.

The causes have been thoroughly investigated:

• 80 percent of wastewater worldwide remains untreated. This not only pollutes water, groundwater reserves and valuable soil, but also releases greenhouse gases that are extremely harmful to the climate.
• 92% of drinking water is used for agriculture. In combination with fertilisers, the seepage on the fields places an unforeseeable burden on the groundwater reserves.
• 75 percent of the waste that ends up in the sea consists of plastic, which takes hundreds or even thousands of years to decompose.
• Countless illegal wells quickly dry up groundwater reserves.

etc., etc.

Water protection and climate protection go hand in hand. But since not enough action is taken, the consequences of the global water problem are already being felt today: every fourth hospital in the world has no access to clean water. Over two billion people do not have a basic supply of drinking water and the heat waves of the past summers are compounding all these problems. Here in Europe, too, clean water is becoming increasingly scarce.

Water problems threaten the economy in Europe

Water scarcity? In Europe? For many people, that still doesn't add up. Despite the dry summers and increasingly mild winters, we tend to think of Africa when we think of a lack of water. And it's true: Europe and especially Germany is rich in water compared to other continents and countries, but also world champions in wasting water. And here, too, the groundwater is heavily polluted, clean reserves are becoming fewer: Fertilizers, drug residues and insufficiently treated wastewater are just a few of the many triggers. Even major European cities have recently raised the alarm about water shortages. And that is just the beginning ...

Added to this are the heat waves, which are becoming longer and more intense on our continent, causing half the harvest to dry up ... while the other half later drowns in floods of rain. These so-called heavy rain events are also a consequence of climate change. Agriculture is not the only one affected by this, other sectors are also affected by these extreme weather conditions and temporarily paralyze entire sectors of the economy.

Clean water is therefore an essential part of solving the climate crisis!