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28 November 2007updated 05 Oct 2023 8:55am

The danger of water wars

Water consumption has tripled in the past 30 years and there's a growing danger that disputes over t

By Fred Pearce

Water is rapidly becoming one of the defining crises of the 21st century. Climate change is making its availability increasingly uncertain. And we are using ever more of the stuff.

In the past three decades the human population has doubled but human use of water has tripled – largely because, tonne-for-tonne, modern ‘high-yielding’ crop varieties often need more water than the old crops.

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