1. Virtual Water: Tackling the Threat to Our Planet's Most Precious Resource", essay by Tony Allan (England)

The essay "Virtual Water: Tackling the Threat to Our Planet's Most Precious Resource" by Tony Allan (England) is an important work in relation to water conservation because this academic essay presents a new vision on water consumption. Allan considers water as a global resource, and analyzes the impact of trade in goods and services on water consumption.

The essay addresses the topic of water conservation in several ways. First, Allan introduces the concept of "virtual water." Virtual water is water that is used to produce goods and services.

Secondly, Allan analyzes the impact of trade in goods and services on water consumption. Allan argues that trade in goods and services can lead to increased water consumption in already water-scarce regions as mentioned in the following passage: "Trade in goods and services can lead to increased water consumption." of water in regions that already have water scarcity. For example, if we import food from a region that is water scarce, we are increasing water consumption in our own region."

The author's message about water conservation is clear and concise: we must act now to protect this vital resource. Water scarcity is a global challenge that requires a collective effort. By taking steps to reduce water consumption, we can help ensure a sustainable future for our planet.

Furthermore, Allan argues that the concept of virtual water is an important tool for understanding water scarcity. By tracking the flow of virtual water through the global economy, we can identify the sources of water scarcity and develop strategies to address it.

The essay offers several tips on water conservation. Some of these tips are:

• Support companies that use sustainable water management practices. Sustainable companies transform how they capture, manage and analyze water data at every stage of their operations.

• Improve the efficiency of water use in agriculture. This can be done by adopting more sustainable agricultural practices, such as drip irrigation.

• Reduce water waste. This can be done by repairing leaks in pipes and reducing the amount of water used in industry.

In summary, the essay shows us the impact of trade in goods and services on water consumption, and invites us to take measures to reduce virtual water consumption. This work is a call to action for all of us to take steps to conserve water.

Water is a vital resource that we must protect for future generations.

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

Foreign corporations are increasingly purchasing land in the U.S.; in the Southwest, thanks to longstanding laws on water rights, these purchases often come with unlimited access to the valuable water underneath the soil. Combined with nearly year-round sunshine, this has made the area a magnet for companies looking to grow water-intensive crops and raise livestock. Over the last 20 years, foreign companies have purchased more than 250,000 acres of land in six Southwestern states to raise cattle and pigs, as well as to grow everything from almonds to alfalfa, according to an analysis of purchase data that Undark obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

On its face, foreign ownership of farmland hasn’t proved significantly different from American ownership for large-scale production of crops like alfalfa. Domestic farmers have long shipped food overseas, and companies like Almarai, as well as independent researchers, have suggested the outsized focus on foreign companies may be xenophobic. American farmers and companies also control millions of acres overseas, mainly in Africa, Asia, and South America. But with their implications for food and water security — that ultimately, the U.S. is not in control of its own farmland — the purchases are drawing attention to the larger trend of industrial agriculture in the U.S. and the problems that come with it.

Corporate farms, researchers and policymakers warn, drain aquifers and threaten access to water for drinking and future crop production. The export of crops and the water used to grow them, known as virtual water, has been accelerating for decades, despite concerns that in drought-stricken areas such as the Southwest, this system is unsustainable in the long term. Although virtual water itself is not inherently problematic — and can even reduce water usage in some cases — its extraction from water-stressed communities is sounding the alarm as water crises become more urgent. Even as the Colorado River Basin enters its 21st year of sustained drought and climate change threatens to further exacerbate water scarcity, virtual water trading is expected to triple globally by 2100, with a large share moving from the U.S. to other countries.

The work is based on a concept that researchers came up with to describe trade in the 1990s: virtual water. When cities and countries trade certain products, they're actually trading water. The concept works especially well for food trade. After all, estimates say that anywhere from 70 percent to more than 90 percent of the fresh water humanity uses goes toward agriculture. Thinking of trade in terms of virtual water helps researchers track how countries manage the resource.

Dermody's team began by tracing actual water in ancient Rome, using a hydrological model to predict how much grain different regions produced. After that, however, the team tracked everything in terms of the virtual water the grain represented as it was bought, sold and shipped between cities. The team published the work this month in the journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences.