In the 1950s, many Americans feared that the Soviet Union would surpass the United States as the world's leading power. The Soviet Union had the world's largest territory, the third largest population, and the second largest economy, and it produced more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia.

A major weeklong international water conference opened in the Swedish capital Monday with an ominous warning: time is running out faster than fresh water. If the "massive and complex challenges" facing one of the world's most finite natural resources are not resolved soon, the future looks grimly devastating: scarcities, pollution, droughts, floods, desertification and diseases.