Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
Last week we talked about why individuals should use less water. It turns out, that conserving water at home is mostly about saving energy and reducing emissions. But where does most of our water go? And why should the people in charge of it save water too?
Meg Talikoff and Juliana Merullo from our Possibly team are here to explain.
Juliana Merullo: Hiya!
Meg Talikoff: Hey, Megan!
Megan Hall: So, who’s really using up all of our water, if it’s not people like me who take long showers?
Meg Talikoff: Well, the big water users in high-income countries like the US are the agriculture and industry sectors. Together, they use more than 80% of our water!
Megan Hall: And I assume if they use less water, they’ll also save energy?
Juliana Merullo: Definitely. But unlike us, they can run into other issues if they use too much.
Megan Hall: What do you mean by that?
Meg Talikoff: Well using up too much of the total water supply can cause a whole host of issues.
Megan Hall: Does that even happen in the Northeast? It always feels like we have plenty of water to go around.
Juliana Merullo: Sadly, yes. Our East Coast attitude towards water is called the “myth of abundance” according to UNC Greensboro professor Dr. Sarah Praskievicz –
Sarah Praskievicz: In climates that are generally wet, like in the Eastern US, there is a widespread perception among the public and even among many water managers that water is abundant. And, there are a couple of places where the myth of abundance starts to break down.
Megan Hall: In what ways does this myth break down?
Meg Talikoff: First, businesses and farms absolutely can overuse water in wet places. Sometimes big farms take too much water out of small local rivers or lakes. That threatens the wellbeing of all the plants and animals that live there.
Juliana Merullo: And if industries on the coast pump too much groundwater, saltwater can start seeping into underground places where freshwater used to be. That ends up contaminating whatever freshwater is left.
Meg Talikoff: Pumping too much groundwater in one area can even make land start to sink! New research shows that Boston is sinking at almost 4 centimeters per decade, in part because of groundwater extraction.
Juliana Merullo: And another issue is that if we use too much water, we could eventually lose the ability to be resilient in times of drought.
Megan Hall: I thought drought was mostly an issue in much drier climates.
Meg Talikoff: Well, dry places are definitely on the front lines. But the idea that the East Coast doesn’t have drought is part of the myth of abundance.
Sylvia Reeves: It’s periodic in nature. It’s not the continuous drought that you see and hear about from out West, but, very localized drought is possible, very widespread drought is possible in New England…
Meg Talikoff: That’s Sylvia Reeves, NOAA’s Drought Information Coordinator for the Northeast.
Juliana Merullo: Our East Coast droughts are usually manageable if we have enough water stored up to draw on when things start getting dry.
Meg Talkoff: But if we don’t, we can run into water scarcity. Sylvia told us about three counties in Western New York that started having a drought in the summer of 2023. By Thanksgiving, more than 100 homes had wells dry up.
Juliana Merullo: Drought can also make it so we can’t grow much as food as usual. One study found that farms without access to groundwater lost 13% of their crop value during dry years.
Megan Hall: If we don’t own farms, or big industries, what can we do about all this?
Meg Talikoff: Well, there are a few things to think about!
Juliana Merullo: You can eat less red meat, because cattle use a lot of water.
Meg Talikoff: You can also plant things in your yard that match well with our climate, or that don’t need watering.
Megan Hall: Alright, sounds good!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to thepublicsradio.org/possibly Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative.
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