finite resources and we're kind of using them up really fast.

But what if we didn’t conserve?

What would happen if the Earth ran out of food and water?

So, the good news is Earth isn’t going to run out of water anytime soon.

The water we have doesn’t exactly do a disappearing act, it just changes state, evaporating into

the atmosphere then raining or snowing back down.

The problem is, most of that water -- about 77 percent -- is salt water.

And the fresh water we need is mostly frozen at the poles.

But some exists in rivers and streams, which is good for us!

And those sources get replenished from rainfall, which is even better.

But as populations grow and more people rely on these sources, we have to start literally

digging into other resources, namely underground aquifers.

These subterranean wells carry us through droughts so we don’t have to curb our habits,

but new climate data is showing that we’re draining the largest water reserves in Africa,

Eurasia, and the Americas faster than they’re replenished by rain.

So much of the groundwater we use is lost to evaporation or ends up in the oceans meaning

it doesn’t get reused, and that’s leaving billions of people without clean water.

Not only is there less water, but these dwindling resources don’t exactly abide by geographic boundaries.

So nations are fighting for control over limited resources, and it’s sparking wars.

The conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan began as a local dispute over access to clean

water between African farmers and Arab pastoralist communities.

Then it escalated into an all-out war that has caused hundreds of thousands of lives and displaced

an millions since 2003.

Yemen is also seeing increased riots over access to water.

In both cases water will solve the conflict but that magical peace-bringing water doesn’t

exactly exist.

So who is the biggest user of water and the people feeling these shortages the most?

That would be farmers, the people who also bring us food.

As water becomes more scarce the price will go up, which will in turn drive up food prices.

And then we’re in the same position with groups fighting for access to a vital but limited commodity.

We’re going to see food wars the same way we’re seeing water wars.

And war has a nasty habit of destroying land, meaning we could destroy all our crops in

the process, leaving us with nothing at all to share once there is peace.

But don't worry too much, scientists are already thinking about protecting us from ourselves with seed vaults.

There are vaults all over the world that stores seeds to preserve genetic diversity of food,

and the global backup is the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.

This will not only give us diverse food, but it will give us a way to preserve our ecosystem

so we can grow the crops that sustain us.

Because without some forethought into preserving our ecosystem, well, we could go the way of

the dinosaurs.

The Earth will be fine; our planet is pretty resilient.

Us and the environment that sustains us?

Not so much.

So unless we want a future of wars over the snacks on your desk right now, we should probably

start taking conservation initiatives very seriously.

This video was written by space historian Amy Shira Teitel.

On the topic of water, she just made a video about releasing water into space!

Check it out.