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Áder worries about water

According to János Áder, the increase in the world's population is accompanied by an increase in consumption, leading to a water and climate crisis. The former president, chairman of the board of trustees of the climate protection foundation ‘Kék Bolygó’, said this in a lecture to high school students.
14. October 2024 5:14

In the last one hundred years, the number of people living on Earth has quadrupled. The demographic explosion applies to Asia, Africa and South America, but not to Europe, emphasised János Áder to the students of the Kázmér Batthyány High School in Szigetszentmiklós.

In his lecture entitled ‘From the water crisis to sustainable development’, the former president cited one of the causes of the water and climate crisis as being the fact that the available fresh water per person is constantly decreasing due to the rapid growth of the earth’s population. Energy demand is increasing three times faster than population growth, which further increases water consumption. The continuous increase in carbon dioxide emissions is leading to a rise in global temperatures, which is triggering extreme weather events. This is illustrated by the simultaneous occurrence of floods and drying lakes and rivers.

It is not possible to continue to meet the growing demand for energy by using fossil fuels, as these are heating up the planet. The increase in water consumption at this rate is dangerous because only 0.007% of the Earth’s water resources are easily accessible surface water. 97% of the Earth’s water is salt water, from which fresh water is very expensive to extract. Áder emphasised that families can also do a lot to conserve water resources by using water consciously. Access to water could also be improved by purifying wastewater and salt water, for which there are now quite good but unfortunately still very expensive technologies.

 

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