Friday, 22 May 2009
Kirchentag Day 4
Today I went to hear a group of environmentalists talking about the future scarcity of water. Fred Pearce from London, who has written a book called "When the rivers run dry" spoke of our overuse of underground water for food production. Two thirds of the world water is used up in growing food for the world, using super crops. But these super crops use too much water and the irrigation methods are wasteful. In one generation we have doubled our output of crops and trebled our use of underground water. India today largely feeds itself but in the near future it will not be able to do so. Currently India uses four times the water of Germany per year. China already cant feed itself and is using up its water channeling large amounts of water from the south to the north for agriculture. Europe imports virtual water in the form of crops and the Middle East even more so. Jordan has very little water from its river because this is used by Israel. Is water to become our future gold? Then I looked around the exhibition area focussing on the Future with an eco theme. There was a large market of stalls including cafes and many bookstalls. After lunch I traveled into the city to the St Pietrs Dom where I attended an excellent session of modern church music. Later I went around the exhibition of voluntary organisations in Bremen where one of my friends was helping to run a stall. There are music, services, talks theatre and exhibitions all over the city-but it helps to understand a little German!