.Cotton is one of the thirstiest crops in the world, taking about 2,720 litres of water to produce one cotton T-shirt, equivalent to what an average person might drink over three years. Consumption of cotton products represents 2.6% of the global water footprint of consumed goods and services. 80% of the total EU water footprint is located outside Europe in countries such as China, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In 2008, 2,890 billion litres of water was used in Pakistan to grow the cotton needed just to make products sold by the homestore Ikea – equivalent to the volume of drinking water consumed in Sweden over 176 years. More than 70% of global cotton is produced using irrigation and 15-35% of all irrigation withdrawals are estimated to be unsustainable. Upland cotton production in California is forecast at 310 thousand bales, down 39 percent from the 2012 crop. Harvested acreage is estimated at 92.0 thousand acres, down 35 percent from a year ago. Yield is forecast at 1,617 pounds per acre, up 2 percent from last month. By 1987, the Aral Sea had split into two separate bodies of water, the Small and the Large Aral, and the latter split again two decades later. More than 54,000km2 of the former sea floor – an area bigger than the whole of Denmark – is now exposed as dry mud flats, contaminated with salt and pesticide residues that are deposited over a 350km radius by toxic dust storms. In less than a generation, the Aral Sea has shrunk to 10% of its former volume, leading to the widespread destruction of ecosystems and the livelihoods that were built upon them. Its demise is one of the greatest ecological disasters in modern history, and it is entirely human-made. How cotton emptied the Aral Sea ejfoundation.org/cotton/cotton-and-water..
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 00:35:31 +0000
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