Fake Eden
2024
Humanity is consuming fresh water excessively. We Finns tend to take the adequacy of water for granted because it seems to be abundant almost endlessly. This attitude is fueled by the relatively small population size compared to Finland's surface area and the abundant number of lakes. From Finland, it's difficult to see that excessive water consumption could have consequences here in the Nordics, which is why I have ventured to places where water is no longer sufficient. The biggest water consumers are agriculture and industry, but the biggest problem lies in the attitudes of the privileged. As long as the significance of excessive water consumption is not questioned on an individual level, it will continue as it is.
Water is consumed for ideological reasons, as well as for the needs of agriculture and tourism, and for maintaining traditions. In Spain, approximately 70-80% of fresh water is used for agriculture. A state of emergency was declared in Catalonia due to drought in early February 2024, and now attention is turning to tourism and how tourism consumes more water than locals. It is estimated that a tourist uses 2-5 times more water than a local, and tourists are encouraged to be moderate.
It is difficult for a tourist to understand their own consumption because the majority of the water goes towards landscaping and enhancing the tourist's comfort, such as watering the environment to make it more than naturally green and building swimming pools in hotels to attract tourists and generate tax revenue.
Fresh water is largely consumed for non-essential purposes, and Fake Eden asks whether humanity is ready only for savings that do not undermine the ideal of abundance. During my visit to Europe's largest desalination plant in Barcelona, the communication manager of the facility, Laia Hernandez Lloret, stated that there is already too little water for people's basic needs. Years of ongoing drought have pushed Spaniards into a corner, and internal water migration is already being witnessed. At the current pace, the consumption of fresh water will, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), lead to approximately 700 million people having to leave their homes by 2030 due to the inadequacy of fresh water. Its effects will also be seen here, where water is still currently sufficient