Some 70 percent of our water withdrawals from rivers and aquifers is used in agriculture, mostly for grain. Growing a ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water. The rate of recharge seldom keeps up with the demand. In India, water is drawn at double the rate of recharge. Water tables in China, India and the United States are falling up to 3 meters each year, and major rivers on all continents, including the Ganges, Colorado, Nile, and Yellow, no longer contain enough water to flow year round to the sea.
Some analysts foresee food shortages and war if water-use trends continue.
According to the Worldwatch Institute, aquifer depletion could reduce India's food supply by 25 percent, while the population along the Ganges will rise by 43 percent by 2025, a possible source of friction between India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Jordan River, shared by Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, may have to nourish a population growth of 71 percent in the next quarter century, hopefully without an outbreak of violence. So here we are. Back at 2001, with a rising population and mounting deficits of resources. In the movie, one ape changes history by turning a random bone into a tool.