In etwa einem Drittel der Wassereinzugsgebiete wird die Grundwassergewinnung bald zu teuer. Dadurch wird etwa die Hälfte der Weltbevölkerung Grundwasserstress und seinen Auswirkungen auf die Nahrungsmittelproduktion ausgesetzt.

Abstract:

>Over the past 50 years, humans have extracted the Earth’s groundwater stocks at a steep rate, largely to fuel global agro-economic development. Given society’s growing reliance on groundwater, we explore ‘peak water limits’ to investigate whether, when and where humanity might reach peak groundwater extraction. Using an integrated global model of the coupled human–Earth system, we simulate groundwater withdrawals across 235 water basins under 900 future scenarios of global change over the twenty-first century. Here we find that global non-renewable groundwater withdrawals exhibit a distinct peak-and-decline signature, comparable to historical observations of other depletable resources (for example, minerals), in nearly all (98%) scenarios, peaking on average at 625 km^(3) yr^(−1) around mid-century, followed by a decline through 2100. The peak and decline occur in about one-third (82) of basins, including 21 that may have already peaked, exposing about half (44%) of the global population to groundwater stress. Most of these basins are in countries with the highest current extraction rates, including the United States, Mexico, Pakistan, India, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. These groundwater-dependent basins will probably face increasing costs of groundwater and food production, suggesting important implications for global agricultural trade and a diminished role for groundwater in meeting global water demands during the twenty-first century.

Key point from the article to explain about what causes the ‘peak groundwater’, which is not well defined in the abstract.

Heavy groundwater extraction causes water tables to fall, making shallower wells run dry and pumping from deeper reserves increasingly energy intensive and costly. This is where groundwater extraction peaks and begins to decline in response to higher prices. Therefore, accordingly to the article, humans may not physically run out of groundwater, but they run out of the economically accessible groundwater.

I blame corporations.