Chu, a 60-year-old Nobel prize winning physicist from Stanford University, came to Washington with a mandate from the president to increase the nation's production of clean, renewable power, make the electric grid more intelligent and improve overall energy efficiency.

FORBES: Green Policy

Most of the capital spending is on equipment that will improve production efficiency.

WSJ: U.S. Companies Beef Up at Home

Best estimates of future global agricultural water consumption (including both rainfed and irrigated agriculture), are of an increase of about 19% by 2050, but this could be much higher if crop yields and the efficiency of agricultural production do not improve dramatically.

UNESCO: CULTURE