Thomas Friedman Quotes

At about 9.5 billion people, the world will run out of fresh water.

It took Britain half the resources of the planet to achieve its prosperity; how many planets will a country like India require?

According to the U.N., more than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by 2025. Many social scientists predict that the next big wars will be over water. Nevertheless, the average American family blissfully consumes 300 gallons a day, when you add in watering the lawn and washing dishes, clothes, and cars.

Phoenix and Las Vegas have grim long-term prospects. On top of oil-and-gas problems, they will have terrible problems with water and the ability to produce food locally. I suppose it shows how delusional the public is, and how our institutional controls have decayed - for instance, lending standards.

In 2000, twice as much water was used throughout the world as in 1960. By 2050, half of the planet's projected 8.9 billion people will live in countries that are chronically short of water.

The two defining issues of this century are both universal but felt locally: the global water crisis and the resources boom.

In 2012, Coke used more water than close to a quarter of the world’s population..

We Americans are churning through fresh water at an alarming and unsustainable rate.

Right now, huge numbers of people cannot obtain even drinking water, and the situation is likely to become worse with predicted climate change and failure to take the actions that are necessary.

The shortage of fresh water is the major ecological problem of this moment.

Maybe this is what the future will look like: fresh, clean water will be so rare it will be guarded by armies. Water as the next oil - the next resource worth going to war over.

More than half the world’s people live in countries where water tables are falling.

Each year some 1,400 square miles of land in Northern China turns into desert …. Civilization can survive the loss of its oil reserves, but it cannot survive the loss of its soil reserves.

No water—no jobs.

Conservation programs are great but when you’ve already done all the conservation and you got no water, how does that help you? It doesn’t. The only thing that could help us now, is water.

Heedless exploitation of depletable ground water supplies endangers food production and other essential human systems. Heavy demands on the world's surface waters have resulted in serious shortages in some 80 countries, containing 40 percent of the world's population. Pollution of rivers, lakes, and ground water further limits the supply.

The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth's limits. Current economic practices which damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.

Water is on the table for every single one us. When it's gone, game over. I don't care what company you run; I don't care if you're Republican or liberal.

I'm very happy about 'Last Call At The Oasis.' I hope it's a wake up call... we caused the problem, but we can be the solution.

The government can build institutional infrastructure to address the paradox of floods and calamities in some parts of the country, and water scarcity in other parts.

The great challenge of the 21st century is to provide good standards of living for 7 billion people without depleting the earth's resources or running up massive levels of public debt. To achieve this, government and business alike will need to find new models of growth that are in both environmental and economic balance.

The uncontrolled and rapacious exploitation of oil has led to unintended consequences, and if we continue on a similar trajectory with water, the oil crisis will seem like the trailer of some horrible disaster movie.

As with oil, water exploitation raises an inter-generational debt that will be hard to repay.

Access to a secure, safe and sufficient source of fresh water is a fundamental requirement for the survival, well-being and socio-economic development of all humanity. Yet, we continue to act as if fresh water were a perpetually abundant resource. It is not.

As long as there have been people in California, there have been people obsessed with California's water. Scientists say the state is at its driest point in half a millennium and as any Californians will tell you, it is not just their problem, it's everyone's problem.