Here's the latest in the global climate crisis: Spain is suffering its worst drought since record-keeping began. Some communities have run out of drinking water completely (so water is trucked in for the villagers) and Barcelona may be out of drinking water by October if things continue the way they are.
Farmers are competing heavily for precious water as they struggle to maintain fields. Unfortunately, the crop outlook for this year may not be good due to the drought. Because of this, Spain may have even more problems than lack of water come harvest time.
Citizens have been encouraged to conserve water, not using it to water lawns and such. Public water fountains have also been turned off. The country is scrambling to complete several desalination plants (very expensive devices to take ocean water and make it drinkable).
Spain is not alone... various other locations around the globe, as well as areas in America, have also suffered terrible droughts this past year. At least one town in America ran completely out of water this year, making national news. That town wasn't even located in the Southwest, which is notorious for being a high-drought-risk area. With the way things are going and how thin the rivers are getting, how long will it be before the whole American Southwest is out of water?
I urge you. Now is the time to begin looking at our lives and seeing how we can reduce our consumption of valuable resources such as water. The more we conserve now, the more likely we'll continue to have fresh water to use in the future.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
It's not that places like Spain or the Southwest are running out of water, it's that the changing climate is shifting rainfall and water distribution patterns. Take Georgia, for example: that state is experiencing the worst drought on record, but my region in southeast Pennsylvania is experiencing record rainfall and flooding.
Of course, over population takes a toll as well. The amount of water on this planet never changes (it's always recycled and reused through the water cycle), but there are more and more people now competing for that same water.
When I let the faucet run and waste water, I simply cannot see any urgency in it, because that water will be reused and put back into the water cycle. I do see urgency in the way human activities are affecting weather patterns and ecosystems. Hopefully, people can address the double problem of climate change and water scarcity by regulating global warming and pollution. There are those who say it's already too late... I just hope they're wrong.
I agree with most of the comments above about the water cycle. It is hard to get excited about a long shower when there is plenty of water flowing by. I live right at the base of the Big Horn Mountains and the water I get is pretty much virgin snow melt. I never worry about how often I flush the toilet because I know that between me and New Orleans the people will have plenty of opportunity to re-use that waste water. And then it will be evaporated and re-precipitated in the mountains again.
But there are things that do make sense to consider because they require long-term commitments of water. Landscaping is really important. In a drought year it is easy for everybody to adjust and slightly inconvenience themselves with shorter showers. But if you have thousands of dollars invested in landscaping you don't want to see your expensive trees, shrubs, and sod die. Once this stuff gets planted people need to water it. When hundreds of thousands or millions of people are trying to keep their landscaping alive then there is a problem.
This issue is really all about population. We would not be having these problems if we did not insist on perpetual population growth. We have 300 million people now and if we continue our current rates of mass immigration which is the source of nearly 100% of our population growth we are on track for almost 450 million by 2050 which is about 50% growth in only slightly over 40 years away. If we have problems now, what are we going to have then?