Many areas of the world that are important for food production are over-using their aquifers, according to research recently released in Nature, as explained in this article from Scientific American. Although irrigation is vital to producing food for the world's growing population, the aquifers aren't being refilled at the rate they are being drained. The underground aquifers can, in some cases, take decades or centuries to refill, so the complications of draining these underground water sources are extreme.
