Global Water Shortages and Climate Crises Highlight the Need for Increased Action
Bogota, the capital of Columbia, is facing a dangerous water shortage. So is Mexico City. And, until recently, so was Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay. But low water levels aren’t only a concern in South and Central America—throughout 2023, Germany’s Rhine River suffered from water levels so low, shipping operations in the river had to be suspended. Spain is currently suffering from two droughts concurrently, which are both breaking records in their region. Amid global crises such as these, the need for climate action is starkly emphasized.
Across the globe, cities and governments are struggling with water shortages, with nations such as Uruguay forced to dilute reservoirs to the point of creating non-potable water in attempts to stretch water supplies. But these aren’t the only environmental issues countries are facing—the list includes deadly heat waves, increased natural disasters, and sea level rise which threatens to consume island nations. And at home, the US faces worsening droughts, intensifying fire seasons, and increased public spending on disaster relief.
Recent global studies by leading research institutions, including the United Nations, have predicted that parts of the globe, such as regions in Africa and Asia, could become unfit for human inhabitation toward the end of the 21st century. Under this scenario, crises such as heat waves would be 10 times as likely, increasing the dangerous trend of rising temperatures that has already begun across the globe. Year after year, rising temperatures are only one of the indicators of the global climate crisis.
If the international community continues to take little action, moving at a snail’s pace to address the green energy transition and sustainability reform, these issues will only continue to grow. While system change is a major undertaking, and requires a long-term strategy, a current lack of political will or action in tackling these issues inspires little confidence in leaders’ abilities to avert the looming climate crisis. It is worth noting that inaction by groups such as the G7 or the EU has the greatest effect on the world’s least developed countries—who are contributing the least to causing climate change. While some action has been taken to rectify this issue at the recent COP28 conference with the creation of a ‘Loss and Damage’ fund, the effort still comes up woefully short when considering the scale of the problem. It is critical that world leaders, especially leaders in the highly-developed West, take timely and effective action on the climate crisis to avoid catastrophic consequences.