The Global Water Crisis, Part 1 of 2

On today’s program, we’ll highlight the current water crisis occurring around the world. “Europe’s rivers are disappearing. Italy’s Po is yet another casualty of the severe drought gripping much of the continent. The river would normally be teeming with tourists; instead its drying bed is littered with empty boats.”

In many places, ancient “hunger stones” have been uncovered as the river's water levels dropped as a warning of hunger and hardship. Human-caused global warming has made high temperatures and droughts more intense and widespread. Scientists found that climate change made the drought in the central-west European region three-to-four times worse. Italy, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, and the UK have been the most notable places enduring the drought hazard. According to the European Drought Observatory, the extreme events Europe suffered in 2022 “might become the norm” by 2050 “if effective mitigation actions are not put in place.”

In the summer of 2020 China experienced record droughts and heatwaves that dried up major rivers and lakes. Many countries in the Middle East, including Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, and Iraq, are suffering from extremely high baseline water stress because record low rainfall has caused the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers to dry up. Similarly, India, one of the world’s most water-stressed countries, is growing deep into a water crisis this year due to heatwaves, droughts, and groundwater depletion.

Supreme Master Ching Hai (vegan) kindly shared the following advice in an interview with The Irish Dog Journal. “As drought and water crises are spreading silently across the globe, affecting 44% of the world’s population, even triggering conflicts in some areas, the animal-people livestock industry is guzzling much of our precious freshwater. Animal-people livestock feed crop production alone takes up one-third of all arable land on the globe, most of which requires irrigation. So, in reality, 4,500 liters of clean water goes down the drain f or just 1 serving of beef. In contrast, only 370 liters of water are needed to produce one complete vegan meal, with plenty of calories and nutrients from rice, vegetables, and soy protein.

This is even more staggering than when we consider the epic pollution levels inflicted by animal-people production on our water resources, such as Ireland’s own rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Your country’s Environmental Protection Agency reported that one of the top contributors to water pollution is animal-people livestock run-off.

If we really want to conserve our clean, safe water for ourselves and our children, we must stop livestock production and adopt the plant-based diet.”