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Looking at price trends of desalination and solar power leads to the conclusion that by 2050, the 100km coastal region everywhere could have access to affordable water, and by 2040 in the western world[1]. Personally i think that water consumption will greatly decrease in the future, because of the great water saving potential of synthetic biology as a way for growing food: In theory using synthetic biology and making basic food components[amino acids, fats, flavourants, etc] can make all the food the world eat, at a land size of rhode island with something like 1/1000 less water than today, generating around 1% of greenhouses gases , and at something between 5-20 cents/pound.And molecular gastronomy and food science know, or are rapidly learning,how to make it into tasty food. As an example for that, there's a company(prottero) that uses synthetic biology, and already making sugar at 5 cents/pound - 1/2-1/3 of the cost of regular sugar, with 30x the land efficiency. So yes, i think Malthusians will be very disappointed. [1]http://www.syngentafoundation.org/db/1/1299.pdf |