Water is the key to life, and the human body is made up of a majority of the same. People everywhere in the world use fresh water in agriculture, industry and other development. Put simply, people cannot survive without fresh water. However, several agencies around the world have issued warnings that trouble lies ahead, but these warnings go largely unheeded. What happens when the fresh water that we take for granted is unavailable? Let's find out as we again visit the series that dwells on cataclysm and Armageddon. Just like always, I will be presenting scientific evidence and examples for another global calamity, but please keep in mind that this will mostly be speculation and is in no way a promise or prediction of future events. This column is purely entertainment and any doomsday cult proceedings or other self-destructive activities are not the responsibility of the author or the magazine. Enough with the disclaimer, now onto "the end of the world."

To life, water is everything. When scientists search for life on other planets, they look for traces of water or evidence that water once existed. Life is water and water is life. It seems like such a simple thing to understand yet repeatedly, in every instance, the human animal shows complete disdain for this life giver. Statistically, fresh water makes up less than 3% of the water available on the planet. The remaining 97% is too salty for drinking, watering crops or for most industrial uses. Of this fresh water, close to 3% is tied up in ice formations or is too deep under the ground to extract. The hydrologic cycle of precipitation, runoff, infiltration, uptake, evaporation and transportation keeps the water purified and collected for use, and normally has the life cycle well in hand.

Hey! The hydrologic cycle is a closed system! The Earth is running out of water? You're off your rocker! Yes, it is a closed system. But this is a process that takes time, and the water is often consumed faster than it is replaced. Water in the atmosphere is replaced every two weeks on an average, but water from a river takes decades. Deep ground water can take hundreds of years to replace, and aquifers require an extended amount of time that goes beyond the scope of the human time scale. Let's not forget that the human animal has altered some of the variables, with dams, pollution and diversion. To make matters worse, many governments and industries have no respect for the water system, seeing it as another resource to exploit to keep their profits flowing. When you add up all of this drain and compare it to the rate of renewal, you can see that there is a serious shortage problem.

I don't know why it is that people seem to always exist in large numbers in places where water is not plentiful. Obviously, these arid and semi-arid areas will be the first to experience difficulties as water supplies diminish, and in many cases they already are. Over half a billion people dwell in areas where there is a shortage of water. As industrial, urban and agricultural concerns grow in these places, there will be even less water available for human consumption. An interesting statistic: The world's population has tripled in the past 70 years, while its water consumption has increased six-fold. Industrial development, irrigation, pollution, unbridled population growth and a failure to conserve are blamed for this outrageous figure. If the global population increases at the rate expected, 40% more water will be required to sustain the additional people by the year 2025. Where this 40% is supposed to come from is anyone's guess. Put another way, by 2025, nearly 3-billion people will be trying to exist without enough water.

A shortage of potable water means an abundance of disease and death, as people turn to unsafe water supplies. Cholera, malaria, typhoid and dysentery run rampant under these conditions and can quickly scale to epidemic proportions. As people die, the labor pool dwindles, crops flounder from lack of irrigation, and productivity takes a nose-dive as people make finding water their job. Malnutrition will become a much larger concern as developing countries' water resources rapidly fall behind their population growth. This won't just be something that so-called "third world" countries have to shoulder. Even in the big industrial countries rivers are used to dispose of waste matter, much to the chagrin of the cities that lie downstream. It has always been a mystery why the most valuable substance in the world is used to transport human waste. The substance that we absolutely cannot exist without is used in our toilets and sewers. Of course, this is a trivial amount of pollution compared to the amount of pollutants that agriculture and industry place into our life's blood. This pollution affects the largest, most developed countries, as well as the developing nations. Someday it may not be so easy to distinguish the powerful industrial nations from their lesser-developed neighbors as the water shortage squeezes the life out of humanity without prejudice.

There are also political ramifications of water shortages. Ones that could lead to violence and war as countries fight over access to rivers and inland seas. Some believe that the next World War will be fought over water. Some of these regions are already engulfed in political disparity; once you throw disappearing water supplies into the mix, it will only be a matter of time before the gloves come off and widespread conflict ensues. The UN Secretary General's appointed panel for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg will pay a visit to this issue later this month as part of their discussions. One of the members, the Prince of Orange, has made water resources and development his special focus, and has a 16-page document available for perusal on the Internet.

Death, drought, disease and war are all side effects of a diminishing water supply. Countries will see their productivity plummet, and new trading partners and markets for consumer goods will disappear as their economies are devastated. Starvation and disease will cut like a scythe through the fields of human life. Neighbors will take up arms against those around them in a desperate gambit to obtain the precious liquid. A World War centered on water could create casualties far surpassing anything else mankind has inflicted on itself. Livestock will be annihilated as priorities shift in the equation. In the end, the death toll could be in the billions. It won't just be the developing nations that suffer: Changing weather patterns and increased consumption and pollution put the developed world in the crosshairs, too. Can society withstand this type of assault or will man be sent into another Dark Age?

It is not too late to change, though. If we start now we can make a difference. Conservation and less pollution are two excellent places to start. Scientists work hard to develop food crops that use less water and yield as much or more food. People are re-thinking their use of water as a human waste disposal system. Awareness is spreading and people are starting to take notice. We know that water is precious and we know that it is being overused. Now we just need to do something about it before this end of the world scenario becomes a reality.