destroyed 5.5 lon hectares of wheat which was alady popular, rose by 9 per-
tay, centered around corn-based cthanol, and rapeseed, and an abnormallydsy grow- cent, Even in India, where much af the pop=
forthe cranch. Fidel Castro says diverting ing season aeross northern Brope threat ulation ia vegetarian, chicken consumpéon
com into fue isa“vagic” umn ofeventsfor ens grain yields. Longer term, ‘Timmer has almost doubled sine
the world’s poor, while Venezuela’s Hugo sees two worries: that these are early signs economie-development success sory? says
CChaver calls ic“craziness.” of a cimate change, and that there is no Lawrence Goodman, head of ‘me
They aren't the only ones pointing:the _new Green Revolution underway to create _ market strategy at Bankof America. Butts
Finger at biofuels for high prices—food tougher crops. “Agricultural scientists are also a story of pacing greater demands on
makers like Kellogy’s are also. While bio quite concerned abuut thelack ofa pipeline our grain crops, since seven kilograms of
facls are a convenient scapegoat, global of new tednology he say feed go into eery kilogram of hoc
focal economies are a complex phenome- __Risingeoilprices hurt, rao, Rood expert The rise of pereapita income in emery.
non, A surgein global foed demand, high Michael Pollan has said that the most ing markets is itsel responsible for as
oil prices, uncooperative weather, cirren- “worrisome” aspect of food production is much as one third of the current food
cy luctustions and biofuels all playa part how much energy it consumes. Each step price inflation, say experts. With wealth
‘in explaining the new, statosphericworld from reaping to packaging uses addtional rising, the globe warming and no techno:
of fo economi energy—und with oil at close co $802 har- logical fix in sight, higher food prices are
About a third of the recent corm-psice rel, that adds up. Mos. ford packaging is unlikely « be a short-term phenomenon
rise is “just a curency iseue? says Peter plastic, which ig made from oil, and com- (as they would be ifthe ethanol raze were
‘Timmer, mn agricutural economist at the mon plastics like polypropylene cost up theprimary eause), The good news mayhe
Center for Global Development: Thedollar to 70 percent more today than they did that morepoor people will getrich enough
plummeted aginst most ofthe in 2003, says Andrew Falcon, the CEO of to buy.com anyway .
emenging markets has dou
'p Bankof America, and per
oer by nearly 14 percent
‘As families ppt richer, they ean more
fs itdoes in dollars?”
Toe
eer
rr Drought, pollution, mismanagement and politics have
made watera precious commodity in much of the world.
BY MARY CARMICHAEL
AILY LIFE INTHE DE-
veloped world hasde-
pended so mach, forso
Jong, on clean water
thatit is sometimes easy
to forget how preciousa commod-
ity water is, Most citizens of devel-
oped countries don’t need to work
for their water, they just need to
turn on the tap. But in much of the
rest of the world, it isn that sim-
ple. More than a billion people
worldwide lack clean water, most
of them in developing countries.
‘Theleast fortunate may devote
whole days to finding some.
‘When they fail—and they fil
more and more often now that
rivers in Aftica and Asia are slowly
dryingup after decades of
mismanagement and climate
mnge—they may turn to
violence, fighting over the
36
amount that is lee Water has Tong boa
called the ukimate renewable esouree. But
as Fred Pearce wits in his book “When
Rives Run Diy ifthe world doesnt
‘may no longer apply
ike the arsine of the 80s, che globel
water erin is far more than seaight
forward issue of searcity: Accidents of ge-
ography, forcesof industry and the machi
nations of polities may’ all play a role in
who gets Water just as warlords, as well
as droughts, were rexposile for star
tion in Ethiopia. In many says, the fam
ines contributed to tolay’s. man-made
roughts: the erops grown in the world-
wide "green revolution” of the past three
decades sated hunger but
the process
ped water in
‘As the globe gets more
crowded” aayo Susan Cozens, a polic
professor at Georgia Tech who is working
‘on water problems, “the old arrangements
just don’ work anymore
‘There is still ime for n
governments to fix things.
nprofits and
‘Chlorination,
grivity-fed distribucion systems, taps at
every household, all these could make a
difference,” says John Kayser of Water for
People, « nonprofit working in the devel
Unt for hinkig:Contaminted water lows
though a vern Sheng Gunty.Factones
Foutinly damp waste iretly int the waterway
Yollow © @ PPIs
org
‘oping world. Keocorscious startups in
the United States and Europe are increas:
ingly ofering new ways of purifing weter,
fivin high-tech (hue inexpensive) ulra
viele filtersto imple tacties sch as filing
clear botles and leting the hot sn kill the
bacteria inside,
‘But thus far, there has been no world
wide “blue revolution” More likely, says
Pearce, well “only really start to worry
About the water when it isnt there” Here
fare come flashpoiats, reyions where the
future of water is most worrisome
Chinas Poisoned Water. ‘To look at the
mighty Yangtze River, you might think
‘China could net have a water crisis. The
third longest river inthe world, it funnels
8 million gallons into the Kast China See
‘every second. The river drives the world’s
largest hydroelectric dam, the ‘Three
NEWSWEEK JUNE 11, 2007 ES
ges and its one ofthe backbones of
When you look more deeply into Ci
nas water supply, however, youll see
plenty to worry about. The government
fas long xown thai the Yangze i pollt-
Gd. In 2002, Being announced a $5 bie
iow cleanup ff, but lve your admived
thatthe ver was il so burdened with
agreultual and industrial waste that by
201 it may be unable to sustain marine
life muchesshurman fe. An Apel report
bythe Warld Wilde Pure and eo Cai-
nese agencies found that damage to the
vers coortem s lrg reverb
Travel father north, especially near
he country’s other major water system,
he Yellow” River, and the pita is even
beake
overuse fave diminished the river to &
caative cickle, Most ofthe year, litle to
none of ia water reaches the com, says
Pearce What dees til loin the Yellow
iseften unsuitable for dnnking, shins
Swiniming or any other form of human
tse Fxery day the river absorbs L milbon
on of untreated sewage from the sty of
Xian sone
Nowhere is Chin pollution problem
more visible than nthe tiny Seancer ile
Tages” that dot the country’s interior.
Shang, a town of 3000, captured na-
Since the 1980s, drought and |
tional sttention « few years ago aftr tests
found thathesvy metalsin its lea river far
‘excceded government levels. Officials from
4 nearby sate-owned mine—suspected of
dumping those chemicals into the water—
persuade che government o pay fora new
reservoir and waver system built by locals
But other, smaller exncer villages are sill
struggling. Ia the southern hamlet of
Liangaiao, rie grown by villagers with a-
ter ftom a local river has taken on the red-
dish hue of contaminants from the same
fon mine tha blighted Shangba. Since the
late 1990s, cancer has caused about to
thirds of the 26 deaths in the village. “We
have to use the polluted water t irrigate
the fields, since we have no other choices.
‘Wedon't have any money to start a water
project” says Liangoiao resident He
‘Chunxiang. “We keow very well that we
are being poisoned by eating the grain
What more ean we do? We can’t just wait
ro starve to death”
"There is hope yet for Liangqiao. Exvi-
ronmental lawyer Zhang Jingjing is filing a
await against the miné on behalf of the
villggers, and shehas astaegy tha focuses
‘om loss of crops instead of lssof life. (Chi
ese courts are often reuetant to link can-
coro pollutin.) But win o lose, Lianggiao
‘satiny part ofthe problem. Ithas just 320
people. Meanwhile, almost 400° million
PROJECT
Cis Poor dstrabuton
‘oaés-w: Inthe state of Guar, vilagers
reservoir tocol rainwater, Th ccury has
mnany dans, but not water goes to agriculture,
Chines, fllyathiedof the countey's pop-
laccn, sill awe no acces to war hat in
clean enovgh or eglar se
Inds “Hydrologeal Suicide” In this coun-
ary of Lbillion, two thirds lack dean wa-
tet “Sanitation for drinking water isa low
prion there, politically” says Susan Kan
Keane of the Natual Resources Defense
Council The priority i agriculture. In the
“7osan early'80s, the indian government
made this clear by pouring money into
massive dams meantto pod water reserved
for farms, “In many of these developing
countries, the vast majrity oftheir fresh
water goos to irrigation Sor crops? says
gan Keane, “Agriculture may make up
nly 95 percent ofthe GDP. htt can get
‘upto 90 pereent ofthe water”
‘Thats not to sy, ho
farmers have rough. 1 running lbw. The government bult dams,
hot it filed to erete the additional infin”
tructure for cairying water throughout
the countryside. At the same time, feo
fies have drawn too heavily on eth the
rivers and the groundwater. In Kerala, a
Coca-Cola plant had to be shut down in
2004 because. it had taken so. much
groundwater that villagers nearby were
IER with almost none
Some farmers have resoted wisely to
the dropping water levels by switching 0
hardier crops. Kanibhai Paicl says he
stopped growing wheat ons arm in Ga
jar, the epicsnter of India’s water short-
age, after eight years. of watching. his
louaty and income shrivel in thesua. He
farms pomegranates now, which require
far less water than wheat. Experts hope
more farmers will follow Patel’ lead. So
far, most farms still focus on water
guzzling crops like whest, cotion and
Sugar cine, Indian dairy faraers also cul-
tivate afl, pastculsly Wirsty plant
to feed their cows, a practice Pearce cals
“tycrological suicide" For every liter of
rk the farmers produce in the desert,
they consume 300 liters of water, says
Saniv Phansalkar, a scholarat the In
tional Water Management Institte, “Bat
‘whos going to ask them not earn their
Tivelhoody he as, if the dairy farms are
seeping them afloat for now?
“Tp nourish ther plants and cows, most
Indian farmers have resorted todrawing up
‘goundwater from their backyards wath in-
publ ng po sai cena mest fhe
‘suppl inreasng tension inthe are
cespensive pumps. When the pampe don't
bring up enough winter the frmers bring
in professcnals who bore deeper into the
ground. Thereis eonsant presse to com-
pt."Ifone [arms is digging 400 fet in-
to the ground, his flow farme is digging
atleast 600 ect,” says Kuppanan Palanisae
mi, who stodies the problem at Tarail Nada
Agricultural University. The water tbe, he
235, drops six io 10 feet each year.
‘The Wost Bank's Water Wars. Like the Chi-
nese, the people of the West Bank wouldn’
itor war APaestirian boy collcts waer at
havea buge water problem if nature were
the only force involved. Rain falls regularly
fon their hills and tickles down into the
recks, creating underground. reservoirs
Unfortunately for denizens of the West
Bank, that water then flows wes toward Is-
reel, Palestinians are largely banned from
sinking new wellsand boreholes to collect
water, and they pey what they consider in-
flated prices to buy it. Meanwhile, the
{groundwater level is dropping, and Pales
finians accuse Isreelis of overusing. “The
Palestinians] sit intheir villages, very short
saysPearce, “and they look up st
theirneighbors and see them sprinkling it
ontheiriawns.
Battling over water in this region is
nothing new-the Six Day War started
with a dispute over water in the Jordan.
Lately, on the Wes: Bank, the wate table is
dropping and tensions are rising, Isai
soldiers have been accused of shocting up
‘ater tanks on the West Bank in retnibo-
tion for terrorist acts, and Palestiniens have
‘been caught stealing from leracl wells
It is impossible to untangle the water
problem in Isract and the Palestinian Av
thority from the overall animosity between
the two groups. Conversely, says Pearce,
“the wider problem between the Palesin:
ans and the Israels wor't be solved until
the water problem is solved.” On the West
Bank, i's a Catch-22, with warer—and
life-on theline,
and SUP MAZUR non
tris20 mes,
‘xorroruaron wi
SIFECRMNGWATER
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Industilized nations nt only have greater accessto clean water than the
developing world, they alse tend to use more and pay ess frit, An overview: PROJECT
our drinking
supply
BV ANNE UNDERWOOD
HE COMMON WHITE SUCKER
is nobedy’s favorite fish, Its a
bottom fecder thit trout fsher-
men in Colomdo happily. toss
back into die water, But i also
‘hat scientists call a sontinel-e specice
‘hose health (or lack thereof) can warn as
about problems in the environment. So
imagine the reaction of ensironmental en-
docrinologst David O. Norris ofthe Univer
sity of Coloraco when he discovered some
alarming changes in the sucker population
‘of Boulder Creck. Upstream, were tho wa
ter flows pare and clear out of the Rocky
Mountains, the ratio of males to females
RIVERS OF DOUBT
Minute quantities of everyday contaminants in
‘ould add up to big trouble.
Populaiton: 300 ion
OUT i trtesoacans
is 50-50, just as nature intended. Down
seam, below the wastewater-treatment
plantin Boulder, the femalesouinumber the
‘males by § to 1, Even more wortisome, Ner-
ris found that about 10 percent of the fish
were neither dearly male nor female, bat
hud sensal characteristics of beth. “On the
‘one hana, we were excited [to make such a
dramatic finding) says Novis. Atthesame
time, we were sppaled.”
‘There's something fishy in the nation's
‘water supply. ‘True, is quality has improved
dramatically since passage of the Ch
Water Act in the 1970s. Toxic substances
and pollutants ate now roatinely filtered
oat, But zcross the nation, something's
Upto}is ees: Schoonfss captures ish forstuly
intheGrndetone River near Hincdey Mansa
lonkra fr ctemizalstha! minichornones
Pod
etal © eirtsburgh
disturbing effects on aquatic
Ina search for culprits, scientisss
sue aeroing in on @ group of compounds
they call emerging, contaminants inchad-
ing pharmaceuticals, cosmticy and ant
Incterial scape Although we Hike to think
that chese compounds disappear when we
wash them down the drain or lush chem
down the toilet 2 lot of them are Geary
ending up in water. Could they possi a-
fect human health? At this point, no one
Jesows for are. “We have lots of questions, |
tbat very few answers!” says environmental
chemist Christian Daughton at the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency.
Scientists arert woried about any one
of these chemicals in isolation. Most are
found in minote doses, if theyre found at
all. Toxicologist Amy Pesbeck a the Michi-
igan Department of Envionmental Quai
Clnlated thatthe levels of shuprofen 0
Micigan drinking water were so low thata
person would have to consume 1700 gl-
Ionsto get the amour in ore pill. But new
technology is allowing scientiss to seen
for mere tracesof compan, down t lev
cis that were previously undetectable--and
they find just about everyting they Took
for. A 2002 study by the US. Geological
Survey detected svch compounds in 80 per-
‘eentof the 139 streams it examined, many
ot which were downstream om’ urban
‘areas, None of the chemicals on its own
‘ppearsto be toxicat minuscule does, “Bat
‘what happens when a pers is exposed ta
avwhplecodktall ofthem’" asks Perbeck. |
“The emerging, compounds of greatest
‘comoern to most scientists are the “endo-
‘rine disrupters” These are chemicals in
the emviroament that mimie hormones
shen they get into the body. An aston
Jshing. array of chemicals fall into this
category—not only natural ard synthetic
hormones, but also chemicals in certain
cosmetics, shampoos, shaving. lotions,
skin ereams, dishwashing liguds, pest-
cides, flame retardants, plastics and anti-
bacterial soaps. Like actual hormones,
“hey have effet at exseodingly low ler
ds" says Hech Buxton, coordinator of the
‘oxic Substances Hydrology Program at Bia
the USGS. Because so many of tiem bind
to a certain typeof receptor in the body—
whether for estrogens, androgens ar thy-
roid hormones—theeffets add u
udging by fish populations, the reslt
isnt good. Scientists have fund “femi
nized” male fish in the Mississippi, Ohio,
Allegheny, Monongzhela Shenandoah and
Potomac rvers. Unlike theabnormal Boul-
der Creek fish, whi had both ovaries anid
Patit all together, and scientists worry
that endocrine disrupters could cause de-
clincs in fish populations. In a paper lst
cck in the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences, a team of Canadian
and American scientists reported the col
lapse of the fathead-mianow population in
4 Canadian test lake after low levels of a
puberty in girs and reduced sperm counts
| men, In fish, sperm problems have
been Linked to waterborne contaminants,
‘nchiding phthalates, which are used in
many plasties, enemeties, skin-care prod-
‘cts ad pesticides. Reproductive epidemi-
ologist Russ Hauser at Harvard has found
an association in men between certain
CHEMICALS FROM PESTICIDES,
COSMETICS, PLASTICS, SKIN CREAM
AND SOAP COULD BE HARMING FISH.
testes, most of these fish are dearly males.
But thee estes contain some evarian tissue
‘hat produces immature eas, and their iv
cers are producing egg-yolk proteins. fn lab
studies, scientists have also shown that
male fish exposed to estrogenic compounds
during easly devedopnent have lower
sperm counts and worrisome behavicral
changes. In one experiment, Heko
Schoenfius, head of the aquatic-toxicology
\ ae
Na ies
lab at St, Cloud State University in Min-
rnesota,exposed male fahead minnows car=
ly in life to estrogenic chemicals called
alkylphenols (whic come from some cum=
‘mon industrial and houschold cleaners)
and digcovered that as adults, they filed to
‘defend their temritors. The result? They
were unable to reproduce suecesfilly be-
cause they allowed other males to invade
ther nesting areas anc eat their offspring.
potent synthetic estrogen were intention-
ally introduced. Inthe first_ year, re-
searchers saw the same kind of femini
tion of male fish observed in the Unived
States. The next year, says lead author
Karen Kidd of the University of New
era
Se
ae
Brunswick, they documented the “nearex-
tinction ofthis species from the lake”
People, thankfully, are less vulnerable
uaa fish, because we don’ tlive and breathe
in water, To date, there is no conclusive
evidence linking. emengirg, contaminants
to human health probiems. But scientists
wonder if endocrine disrupters in the
water are partially responsible for some
well-documented tends, inctuding earlier
phthalates in their urine and low sperm
counts—althougls be nous that th
ple routes of exposure in people,
dluding direct absorption through the cin
fiom afier-shaves and colognes. Water is
only one of many sources. as Deva Lee
Davis, director of the Uriversi-
ty of Pittsburgh's Center for
Eavironmental Oncology, sees
it, humans are exposed to 30
vany things ener lifetime that
its hard to prove connections—
bat problems in wildlife should
bea naming. ‘We have to sop
tucating people like lab eats in
an unconolled experiment
and stait figuiing ovt ways to
reduce our exposutes?” she
So how can we keep these
chemicals out of the water
supply? No one is suggesting
iat we give up medicines or
‘mascars, There are, however, 8
few common-sense measures
‘we could take, Look for pha
late-five deodorants and body
lations. The Environmental
Working Group has a list on
lis Web site, Stop using anti-
bbreterial soaps. Numerous
studies have found that wash-
with regular soap isjust as
effective, And learn how to
dispose of drugs properly.
Most shouldn't be flushed.
‘Some municipalides will even
dispose of them along with
hazardous waste,
If youre truly worried
about drinking water, the answer isn't tot-
ted water, which in manycases is just bot-
Hed tap water—and requires large
amounts of energy Wo tansport. Consumer
devices for removing contaminants in:
chile charcoal filters, tabletop water dis
tillers and purification units that use re-
verse osmosis, They can all take outa wide
variety of chemicals, The fish should beso
Icy. =
ru
0 Sharon Begley
GET OUT YOUR
HANDKERCHIEFS
JHEN LEWIS ZISKA WANTED TO SEE HOW A WARMER,
world with more carbon dioxide in the air would affect
certain plants, he didn’t set up his experiment in a green-
house or boot up a computer model. He headed for
Baltimore. Cities are typically 7 degrees warmer than the countryside, as
‘well as big sources of Op. Although global levels of this greenhouse gas
have reached 380 parts per milion com-
pared with preindustial levels of280,
cities have way more—#50in Baltimore,
550 in Phoenix, 7000n bad day in New
York. So Ziska, aplant physiologist atthe
US. Department of Agriculture, eompared
ragweed growing in vacant lots in Balti-
‘more with ragweed in rural fieds~and dis-
‘coxered the dark side of sunny claims that
slobal warming will produce agreening of
planet Earth? Urbaa ragweed grows three
to vetimes bigger than rural ragweed,
starts spewing allergenic pollen weeks eat-
lier each pringgand pruduces 10 times
‘more pollen. Inas few as 29 years the
‘whole world will have CO, levels at leastas
high as somecities do row, Asclimate
changes ucto the greenhouse effect, h
fever auferere would do wll to lay in copi-
‘os supplies of Kleenex.
From mosquitoes that carry tropical
diseases such as malaria, to plants that
produce allergenic pollen, scientists are
finding that a warmer, CO,-rch world
wil be very, very good for plants, insects
and microbes tha make sick. Although
the most abviows threat te human health
is more frequent and more intense heat
‘waves, such as the onethet killed thous
ssandsof peoplein Europe in 2003, that
isonly the beginning.
Inthecase of plants, i's notjust
that they grow faster and shed pollen
‘earlier apthe world warms. The carboa-
enriched airalso alters their physiology.
Ina six-yearstudy at a pine forest man-
aged by Duke University, where pipes
and fansadjast the CO, concentration of
the ais, scientists found that elevated CO,
Increases the growth rate of poison ivy
More surprising, by inereasing theairs
ras of carbon to nitrogen, elevate CO,
also inereases the toxicity of urushiol, the
Git kp sors on geal
(ED) ig tera ttoveestoan
greenhouse world pollen will be not only
wore abundant at more alergeni be
Sins tet uy havethehigh CO,
levels that therest of the world can soon
expect, “thereis no question these
rate-related changes have already begun?
says Adington Texas, Mayor Dr. Robert
(Cluck. “very Summer we'te seeing West
‘ile vnus ear anleaiey, al the higher
leves of one that ome with higher tom
poratres ae incmasngtherats of athina
andeavsing hear and lung damage com:
parbleto living wth a dgarett smoke
Tn agreenbouse work, topical diseases
‘willexpani theirrange end their preva-
lence, For stance sltematingloodsand
droughts~ te putin that comes withTambién podría gustarte
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