Aspects of the environment fundamentally moderate globalization in principle and international business in practice. Climate change, biodiversity collapse, deforestation, eco-challenges of all sorts are going to shape what we do and what we cannot do.
The graphic below look at the issue of your water footprint. The water footprint of a product is an empirical indicator of how much water is consumed, when and where, measured over the whole supply chain of the product.
The water footprint shows human appropriation of the world’s limited freshwater resources. It helps assess the impacts of goods and services on freshwater systems and then, formulating strategies to reduce those impacts.
Freshwater is a scarce resource; its annual availability is limited and demand is growing. The water footprint of humanity has exceeded sustainable levels at several places and is unequally distributed among people. Improving information about water footprints of communities and businesses will help to understand how we can achieve a more sustainable and equitable use of fresh water.
There are many spots in the world where serious water depletion or pollution takes place: rivers running dry, dropping lake and groundwater levels and endangered species because of contaminated water. The water footprint helps to show the link that exists between our daily consumption of goods and the problems of water depletion and pollution that exist elsewhere, in the regions where our goods are produced.
Nearly every product has a smaller or larger water footprint, which is of interest for both consumers that buy those products and businesses that produce, process, trade or sell those products in some stage of their supply chain.
Specifically, approximately [fact1] billion people in nearly [fact2] countries will face water stress or scarcity conditions by 2025.
By the middle of the century, this will have reached almost [fact3] billion people.
A) 3
B) 4
C) 2
Extracted text: US the global water footprint US Infrastructure www.americainfra.com INFRASTRUCTURE The 'water footprint' of a country is defined as the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by the inhabitants of the country. amount of freshwater available Water footprint per capita, m per year 600-1000 1000-1200 1200-1300 readily available freshwater 1,240 global average global average water footprint is around freshwater stored in icecaps 1300-1500 1500-1800 1,240 saltwater 1800-2100 m3 per year per person 2100-2500 countries most dependent on water imports xh 70% of existing freshwater is withdrawn for irrigation in agriculture Bahrain Belgium Netherlands 80% 80% Kuwait Malta 82% 87% 87% the highest water footprints per capita highest renewable water resources brazil russia usa china indonesia 2,483 2,389 2,344 m' per year m' per year 2,322 m' per year m³ per year 2,223 m per year united states greece malaysia italy thailand 19% 35% 28% 51% 8% import dependency import dependency import dependency import dependency import dependency water footprint of different foods More than 2.8 billion people in 48 countries will face water stress or scarcity conditions by 2025. By the middle of the century, this will have reached almost 7 billion. 24,000 litres 15,500 litres 4,400 litres 1,500 litres 140 litres 1kg of chocolate 1kg of beef 1kg of olives 1kg of sugar 1 cup of coffee Source: WaterFootprint.org and wWF 8,233 Gm³ / year 4,507 Gm³ / year 3,069 Gm³ / year 2,896 Gm³ / year 838 Gm³ / year