Next Resource in Crisis: Water

While economists and world leaders fret about the global food crisis, there is another emergency that is just as urgent: the shortage of water, writes British scientist Fred Pearce in Yale Environment 360. No longer is water "a cheap and unlimited resource," and with two-thirds of water extracted from nature used to irrigate crops, a scarcity could trigger terrible famines.

With major waterways including the Colorado River and China's Yellow River being overused to the point of drying out, Pearce urges people to do three things: rethink biofuels, develop trade in food exported from countries with a water surplus (like Brazil), and to be more efficient with water use. (More Fred Pearce stories.)