An article published by CNN in Spanish warns that “for the first time in human history” The global water cycle has become unbalanced, raising fears of a growing “water disaster”with consequences for the economy, food production and the future of humanity itself.
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The global water cycle refers to system through which water moves and transforms as it travels through the Earth.
“Water evaporates from the ground – including from lakes, rivers and plants – and rises into the atmosphere, forming large rivers of water vapor capable of traveling great distances, before cooling, condensing and finally falling back to the ground as rain or snow”, explains the article CNN, which warns that destructive land use and poor water management altered this process, according to a report published Wednesday by the Global Commission on the Water Economy.
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This alteration has already left serious consequences for some 3,000 million people who currently suffer from a shortage of liquid.which leads to crops withering and cities sinking.
According to the report by the experts of the Global Commission on the Water Economy, reproduced by CNN, “The water crisis threatens more than 50% of global food production and can reduce countries’ GDP by 8% between now and 2050”.
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The losses would be much more accentuated (up to 15%) in low-income countries that have scarce irrigation systems or aqueducts.
Finally, the report urgently calls for a “rethinking the place that water occupies in economies”and that better pricing be included to discourage the waste of this water resource.