As the human population has climbed past seven billion, and the
consumption per person of everything from burgers to blue jeans has
risen inexorably, the finiteness of Earth’s freshwater is becoming ever
more apparent.
It takes water to make everything, and the explosion of demand for all manner of products is draining rivers, shrinking lakes and depleting aquifers.
Consider this—on average it takes 2,700 liters (713 gallons) to make a cotton shirt and
9,800 liters (2600 gallons) to make a pair of blue jeans. The cotton
crops growing in farmers’ fields consume most of that water. A smaller
share is used in the factories that churn out the clothes.
