Global Warming and the Water Crisis.pdfVIP

860 Journal of Health Science, 55(6) 860–864 (2009) — Current Topics — A Problem of Climate Change as Seen by a Pharmaceutical Researcher Global Warming and the Water Crisis Shinjiro Kanae∗ Department of Mechanical and Environmental Informatics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2–12–1–W8–4 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152–8552, Japan (Received August 19, 2009) This paper overviews the latest information on the impact of global warming on water cycles and resources, with a focus on links to health science. Many people may think that water issues mainly involve securing safe drinking water for regions lacking this crucial resource. However, of world water withdrawals, 70% is for agricul- tural water. Therefore, issues of water scarcity are highly connected with agriculture and food production. Global warming is expected to result in decreased water availability in semi-arid regions where major crop regions are located. Crop production in semi-arid regions already requires more water inputs than does agriculture in regions of ample natural rainfall; with global warming, the water situation in semi-arid regions is expected to worsen. In addition to the decrease in water for agriculture, domestic and drinking water supplies will also be threatened in semi-arid areas. In contrast, other regions may face the problem of too much water and flood disasters. Currently, the flood-affected population worldwide ranges from an annual minimum of approximately 30 million to a max- imum of 300 million people. Projections for the late 21st century, however, suggest that 300 million will be the minimum number affected by flooding each year. The consequenc