Sprinkler Irrigation Affects Weather/environment

Travis Drake

Mrs. Tillquist

English 12B

07 April, 2008

Sprinkler Irrigation Affects Weather/Environment

Irrigated lands contributed to most of the world’s food supply and output. It was estimated that around half of the increased agricultural production was in the 35 years before 1986. One third of the crops grown around the world were on irrigated land. The irrigated land was twice as productive as rain-fed land. The United Nation’s predicted that in the year 2025 the food production will have to increase about 40 to 45 percent to support the world’s population. When this happens they will have to increase of develop new irrigation systems. There are a wide variety of ways to irrigated but some of them are harmful to the weather and the environment. There are irrigation system that we use today that are from the early 1990s and then the new, updated ones.

97 percent of the world’s water lies with in the ocean and the sea. Two percent of all the water is in the glaciers. We can only use one percent of the world’s water. Even though it rains a lot 60 percent of the rain gets evaporated back into the atmosphere. Also, there is an uneven distribution of water around the world. Most of the water scarcity is in large parts of Africa and the Middle East. With the population growing the food production has to increase. Before the food production can increase the water that we can use needs to increase. Claudio O. Stockle is a professor at the Washington state university that believes “The world population is expanding rapidly, with corresponding increased pressures on the food supply and the environment Competition for water is becoming critical, and environmental degradation related to water usage is serious. The number of people living in water-stressed countries is projected to climb from 500 million to three billion by 2025.” This means that for the world to grow any more town folks and farmers need to come up with different, more reliable, and environmentally friendly ways to water there lawn or crops.(stockle)

There are many different irrigation systems that people can use today all over the world. Some effect the environment and weather more than others and the other