Did you know: For the first time in 2008 the world’s city
dwellers outnumbered those in the countryside. The share of
urbanites is projected to continue increasing, so that by 2030
some 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities.
For more information view the text and data in Chapter 6 of Plan
B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. The world is incurring a
vast water deficit. It is largely invisible, historically
recent, and growing fast. Because this impending crisis
typically takes the form of aquifer overpumping and falling
water tables, it is not visible. Unlike burning forests or
invading sand dunes, falling water tables cannot be readily
photographed. They are often discovered only when wells go dry.
The world water deficit is recent--a product of the tripling of
water demand over the last half-century and the rapid worldwide
spread of powerful diesel and electrically driven pumps. The
drilling of millions of wells has pushed water withdrawals
beyond the recharge of many aquifers. The fai