Planet in precarious predicament

Our Earth could be heading into a water crisis. The planet’s human population is increasing steadily with no apparent limit. But the Earth’s usable water supply does have a limit.

On Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County supervisors seemed to recognize that situation. They voted unanimously to form a county agency to manage water resources. It was none too soon. We’re in a multi-year drought that’s parching much of California.

In Paso Robles, our average rainfall is a little over 14 inches per year. But in the 2013-14 rainfall year, we got only 6.13 inches. The year before that we got just 7.18 inches.

For the current rainfall year, we’re still at only 8.78 inches. And our major, natural underground reservoir, the Paso Robles groundwater basin, is shrinking steadily from continuous overpumping.

And then there’s the worldwide population explosion. It brings more thirsty mouths to Earth every year. As of 6:05 p.m. Wednesday the U.S. Census Bureau said the Earth’s population was 7,225,346,400 and growing. We are sharing the Earth with almost 7.23 billion men, women and children who must all have water to survive.

Here in Paso Robles, the population hasn’t grown that dramatically. Between 1950 and 2014, Paso Robles’ population grew from 4,800 to 30,450.

But if you want dramatic growth, consider the world population explosion as reported in the January 2011 National Geographic: In 1930, the year I was born, the Earth’s population was 2 billion. Now it’s 7.23 billion. It’s predicted to reach 8 billion in nine years.

Or we could look back to the year 1 A.D. National Geographic estimated that in that year, the Earth’s population was 200 million people. The human population of Earth didn’t reach 1 billion until about 1800. And 1800 was just a few years after James Watt invented an improved steam engine, which helped spark the Industrial Revolution. Coal became a popular fuel for industry and transportation. Later, petroleum products were developed and ingenious men produced automobiles.

The rapidly increasing population supplied the masses of customers the industrialists needed to keep their factories humming, producing cars, flush toilets and window screens. A lot of Americans got jobs and were able to buy single-family, three-bedroom homes.

I guess the question is, how long can we keep it up? How many more people can this planet support? How many more industrial waste products can we pump into the Earth’s air or dump into its water? Is anybody wondering when our “successes” will become a disaster?

This story was originally published February 20, 2015 at 4:21 AM with the headline "Planet in precarious predicament."