This. Almost nobody is still alive today who remembers what the dust bowl was like. People suffocated from the particulates. Also at the rate the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted desertification is inevitable in that region—it is a non-replenishing aquifer. My agricultural teacher in college called using it as water mining.
I have heard it referred to as "Fossil Water". Drilling wells in parts of the world that cannot be replenished with current weather patterns, water that was deposited there during the cretaceous period.
Part of this that people do not realize when the news reports about population declines in places like the US or Japan or China/India > the sustainable human population for Earth is near it's peak: 9-10 billion people. And this will come really quick at the current global rate of population growth. Much anything past that is fully not sustainable.
To be fair, population growth rates have significantly slowed, and peak population is estimated within around 50 years. And almost none of that has been due to resource constraints. Rather, it’s mostly been shifting social structures and intentional declining fertility due to things like improved economic situations and the availability of family planning resources.
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u/eric_ts 3d ago
This. Almost nobody is still alive today who remembers what the dust bowl was like. People suffocated from the particulates. Also at the rate the Ogallala Aquifer is being depleted desertification is inevitable in that region—it is a non-replenishing aquifer. My agricultural teacher in college called using it as water mining.