Finally, some data on #ai and #electricity and #water. I drilled down on some of it, and the sources are pretty good.

Anyone using AI needs to read it. And that means... everyone. Because it's shoved into everything these days.

This is not about hugging trees. This is about water in your tap.

https://www.earthday.org/the-true-price-of-every-chatgpt-prompt/

#sustainableai #renewableenergy #waterbankruptcy

World enters the era of global ‘water bankruptcy,’ UN scientists warn – Los Angeles Times

 Climate & Environment

‘Water bankruptcy’ — U.N. scientists say much of the world is irreversibly depleting water

Citrus orchards in Dinuba, Calif. About 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture. (Tomas Ovalle / For The Times)

By Ian James, Staff Writer, Follow

Jan. 21, 2026 2:42 PM PT

• Excessive water pumping from rivers, lakes and underground has pushed much of the world into an era of “water bankruptcy,” scientists say in a new U.N. report.
• Agriculture accounts for about 70% of water use. As many regions draw down the water accumulated over millennia, the experts say, much stronger efforts are needed to protect what remains.

Dozens of the world’s major rivers are so heavily tapped, they often run dry before reaching the sea. More than half of all large lakes are shrinking, and most of the world’s major underground sources are declining irreversibly as agricultural pumping drains water that took centuries or even thousands of years to accumulate.

In a report this week, U.N. scientists warn that the world has entered a new era of “global water bankruptcy” — a term that starkly underlines the urgency of efforts needed to protect what remains.

“For too long, we have been living beyond our hydrological means,” said lead author Kaveh Madani, director of the U.N. University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health.

Drawing on extensive research, the report says more and more regions of the world are effectively overspending from all their water accounts, and their reserves are dropping. The term “water crisis” is often used locally and globally, but the scientists said that denotes a temporary emergency from which a region can recover, whereas many parts of the world are depleting water beyond safe limits and are now bankrupt or approaching bankruptcy.

Climate & Environment

Humanity is rapidly depleting water and much of the world is getting drier

Sept. 3, 2025

Many rivers, lakes, aquifers and wetlands have been pushed past “tipping points” and cannot bounce back, the report says.

“Millions of farmers are trying to grow more food from shrinking, polluted or disappearing water sources,” Madani said.

An estimated 70% of water globally is used for agriculture. Where water resources are exhausted, it can mean collapsing economies, displacement and conflict. The report says about 3 billion people, and more than half of global food production, are concentrated in areas where water resources are in decline.

The scientists said more than half of the world’s large lakes have shrunk since the 1990s. About 35% of the planet’s natural wetlands, nearly the size of the European Union in total, have been wiped out since the 1970s. Excessive pumping of groundwater has led to long-term declines in about 70% of the world’s major aquifers, and in many areas these declines are causing the land to sink. Land subsidence linked to groundwater overpumping, the report says, is occurring across more than 2.3 million square miles, nearly 5% of the global land area. This permanently reduces what the aquifers can hold and also worsens the risk of flooding.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: World enters the era of global ‘water bankruptcy,’ UN scientists warn – Los Angeles Times

Wir verbrauchen und verschmutzen mehr Wasser, als erneuerbare Quellen wiederherstellen können. Unumkehrbarkeit heißt, dass wir wichtige natürliche Wasserreserven zerstört haben.

https://www.tagesschau.de/wissen/klima/un-bericht-wasserreserven-100.html

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/01/1166800

#Wasserbankrott #waterbankruptcy