I've got a lot of people asking me to explain my statements about the apocalypse that'll radiate out from Mexico not long from now… Asking what kind of cactus I had to eat to come to that conclusion and so on. So here we go (this is just a quicky, but I hope it will suffice).
After their invasion of the Aztec kingdom, in the 16th century the Spanish captured the city of Teenochtitlan which we now call “Mexico City”. It was a beautiful place full of canals and artificial lakes and a complete water transport system. The Spanish looked at this and said “there's no way a Spanish city is going to look like Venice!” and used their slave labor to fill in all these lakes and waterways.
Initially this wasn't a big deal because Mexico City stayed stable at under a quarter million people until the middle of the 19th century when it started to explode. Now Mexico City has a population roughly equivalent to all of Canada added up. About a hundred years ago mechanized pumping of deep aquifer water became possible, and at this point three quarters of Mexico City's water is aquifer based, and it's being pumped at 80% past capacity. I should add that these aren't local aquifers — this stuff is being pumped often hundreds of miles to feed the city.
Short version — unless Mexico City at least halves its water consumption immediately, it will run out within a ten year window (and if it gets to that, it's too late to conserve). Not only will Mexico City be out, but so will a radius of a few hundred miles around it — effectively all of Mexico is expected to be without aquifer reserves within 20 years. When the aquifers start running out they will take a long time to replenish, assuming they ever do. Many coastal aquifers have been flooded with salt water, effectively destroying them, and Florida has even been so stupid as to pump sewage into its aquifers.
The Middle East is facing similar shortages, with Saudi Arabia expected to be totally out of fresh water within fifty years. Israel, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and so on are all on similar courses, and have nuclear and other WMD resources to fight over the dregs. Pakistan and India are also ticking time bombs, and both nuclear powers. China's water table has dropped 120 feet under Bejing in the last forty years, and is expecting to have major food and water shortages soon. By 2025, two thirds of the planet is expected to be facing severe water shortages.
Now, maybe you're asking why this matters. Can't water be used over and over again? Can't we just use desalination plants? The fact is, no. Water can be used over and over, but only as a part of the normal water systems (short answer: we can use as much water as falls as rain). Desalination and other cleaning systems are so hugely expensive that it only works in localized scenarios in conjunction with conservation. The only answer is water conservation and a fundamental rethinking of how we live (and yes, that means meat is a luxury because it takes a lot more water to grow it). In addition, destroying the groundwater systems like we have risks destroying 90% of the life on the planet (the “dark life” bacteria that makes up most of the Earth's biomass, a system which we basically don't understand).
This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg and I've left out a lot. Educate yourself on this subject and prepare for it. In North America, especially Canada, we have so much water and so much money that we will probably be fine… but what's going to happen when China runs out of water and food? India and Pakistan? Israel? Are these nuclear superpowers going to just allow their people to die as they retool their economies and lifestyles? Or will they try and take “our” water? I believe that the US is preparing for exactly that scenario, and that this is precisely what we're really watching play out in Iraq right now.
If you want your answer, look at the weapons systems that China and Russia and America have been testing and investing in — they're pulling out the big-nuke ICBMs, the mobile launch platforms, and the missile defense shields. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: These are not useful anti-terror weapons/defenses. These weapons have one purpose only: global thermonuclear war.
If you're an American and you want to survive this, review these facts and realize that you have two choices — you can vote Bush, and pray that he can keep America so well armed and paranoid that it can simply coast through the apocalypse killing everyone else… or you can drop out of society and become a survivalist. The Democratic options are meager — only Kucinich has even addressed this issue. The last thing you want to do is avoid this issue. Either fix the core problems (America could lead the world in that), or just play scorched earth with the neo-cons.
(The above is largely paraphrased from the introduction to Blue Gold by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.)
