Water shortages and the influence of scientific prayer

BY COLLEEN DOUGLASS

Water Shortages seem to be on the tips of tongues virtually throughout the world. There's the depletion of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and millions in East Africa facing starvation. There are withering Iraqi farms and California's coho salmon crisis. There's China's reduction in corn production and Mexico's billion dollar crop losses. In one way or another, shrinking fresh water supplies affect nearly everyone on the planet.

In an article for this magazine's sister publication The Christian Science Monitor, staff writer Gloria Goodale evaluated the increased focus that water shortages will require ("A wake-up call on water use," June 10, 2009). She writes, "Move over, carbon, the next shoe to drop in the popular awareness of eco-issues is the 'water footprint.' " Recently in conversation, Goodale described the crucial nature of California's water shortfall. Whereas in earlier periods of drought, when Southern California could rely on more than its share of Colorado River water, this time around, other states also need their fair share, so California is left wanting. And in neighboring Mexico, little potable water from the Colorado actually reaches the Mexican Gulf.

This same scene plays out on several continents. National Public Radio ran a story on September 3, 2009, posing the question, "Water Wars?" (see "Drought Withers Iraqi Farms, Food Supplies"). According to NPR's piece,