At least 3.5 billion people, more than half of the world’s current population, are expected to experience water shortages by 2025, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute. Freshwater systems around the world are being degraded by agricultural runoff, wetland loss, dams, diversions, and overuse, threatening their ability to support human, animal, and plant life. Twenty percent of the world’s estimated 10,000 freshwater fish species have become threatened or endangered or gone extinct in recent decades, according to the report. “We’re just using way more water than the earth can afford to give us,” said WRI President Jonathan Lash.
